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I won't go as far as saying that it was the worst book, but for the life of me, I could not get into Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses". I tried three times to read that book and failed. Maybe I missed something given all the praise the book received, but from what little I did read, I was pretty underwhelmed.
I won't go as far as saying that it was the worst book, but for the life of me, I could not get into Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses". I tried three times to read that book and failed. Maybe I missed something given all the praise the book received, but from what little I did read, I was pretty underwhelmed.
Oh, that's one of my favorite books but I admit the whole style of prose is unusual (at least to me) and it helps to know some Muslim history (I had read "The Crusades through Arab Eyes"). If you ever decide to try it again your library may have it as a book on tape, which makes it easier to understand. I did that the second time I went through it and got out alot I had missed when I read it.
Any book that I HAD to read for a HS English class? Never helped me in my life, never brought home a paycheck, never lead to any conversation that made me seem witty, engaging or knowledgeable.
I think schools make a mistake in assigning "literature" to us to read. Fitzgerald's "Great Gatsby" was assigned...and was a dreadful bore. I think it's better for students to develop a love of reading, no matter WHO the author is!
Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, David Baldacci, James Lee Burke, Michael Connolly, Stephen Hunter, Warren Sapir, Fred Saberhagen, Orson Scott Card, Edgar Rice Burroughs...no matter WHO you like reading, let you read it.
Even if the girls only want to read Barbara Cartland...what does it matter? Even if the guys only want to read Ian Fleming, or his successor...or John Saul.
It is funny that the previous poster mentioned Barbara Cartland, because that was the author that came to mind when I read the thread title. We used to joke at work that she must have a computer program that she just filled in the names of the main characters and did a print out. The little old ladies loved her though.
I don't usually remember the names of authors and books I did not like. I once read a really boring romance and did not realize until the last page that I had read it twice. It was so boring that nothing in it had been remembered until I got to the last page. That was really bad.
As a retired library assistant, I agree with the idea of letting the reader pick out the book. I cringe when I hear a mother telling a child that they have to read a particular book or that the book they have picked out is too hard or too easy. I had lots of discussions with fellow workers who sometimes would do the same thing. We had a saying in the children's section of our library. "There is no child who does not like to read; that child has just not found the right book." During my 28 years in the library, I saw lots of parents and teachers turn off the child's desire to read by pushing what they liked rather than what the child was interested in reading. I also saw some good logic taking place when a parent would limit the number of books a child could check out, thus making the child want to check out more books. It took me a while to catch on to this one!
I was not talking about the parent checking the content of the book. I attended a reading workshop taught by a college professor who told us that children will automatically go on to the next level of reading when they are ready, if they are allowed to make their own choices.
It is funny that the previous poster mentioned Barbara Cartland, because that was the author that came to mind when I read the thread title. We used to joke at work that she must have a computer program that she just filled in the names of the main characters and did a print out. The little old ladies loved her though.
I don't usually remember the names of authors and books I did not like. I once read a really boring romance and did not realize until the last page that I had read it twice. It was so boring that nothing in it had been remembered until I got to the last page. That was really bad.
As a retired library assistant, I agree with the idea of letting the reader pick out the book. I cringe when I hear a mother telling a child that they have to read a particular book or that the book they have picked out is too hard or too easy. I had lots of discussions with fellow workers who sometimes would do the same thing. We had a saying in the children's section of our library. "There is no child who does not like to read; that child has just not found the right book." During my 28 years in the library, I saw lots of parents and teachers turn off the child's desire to read by pushing what they liked rather than what the child was interested in reading. I also saw some good logic taking place when a parent would limit the number of books a child could check out, thus making the child want to check out more books. It took me a while to catch on to this one!
I was not talking about the parent checking the content of the book. I attended a reading workshop taught by a college professor who told us that children will automatically go on to the next level of reading when they are ready, if they are allowed to make their own choices.
The first books I can remember reading were C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien.
I also liked Piers Antony's Xanth series, and there was another one about Death, Fate, and some others anthromopized (spelling?) that I found interesting, but I didn't start on those until high school.
This may not be the worst book I've read but more the biggest disappointment. I had been an early fan of Stephen King's fantasy series, The Dark Tower. While the later ones started deteriorating in quality, I was still looking forward to the final book since I had been reading these books for 20 years. When the final book The Dark Tower, came out, I was extremely disappointed. I wanted it to be so much better than it was. The final scene was like some idea stolen from a twilight zone episode, not original or imaginative at all. I felt cheated by the author after investing all those years in that series. Still the early volumes were good. Too bad about the end.
Some people miss the meaning of the end of the Dark Tower Cycle.
The whole thing is going to repeat-Roland is going back to chasing the Man in Black, perhaps through a whole different series of realities.
Someday, Roland may set things to rights, settle down with Susan Delgado and find peace.
But not this time.
Read Eddison's "The Worm Oroborous", and you see the same device, after an epic war, the situation starts again, an eternal conflict.
It's the story, not the ending that counts.
So I have to read through 7 books written over a 25 year period to discover in the last book it's really the literary equivalent of Groundhog Day? At least in the movie you discovered that in first 1/2 hour of the movie and you deal with it on that basis. I feel King led his readers to believe the tower itself was a truly fascinating place where interesting adventures would take place in the last book. That didn't happen IMO.The actual dark tower had about 2 or 3 chapters devoted to it and it was rather hum drum considering all the build up over 7 books. I see what you are saying but I think King used that "eternal conflict" device because he had run out of imaginative material by that point in the series and to me, that was a shame.
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