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I read a lot. It's always been one of my favorite things to do.
In the course of reading, I pick up anything from an interesting-looking library selection to stuff off the best-seller list to highly recommended favorite childhood books of my friends'.
I have noticed that many people who don't read much seem to think some really bad (or humdrum) books are really spectacular. I maintain that if they read a lot, they would know better. Usually these books are publicized by Oprah or the NYT...
Which books do you hear people raving about that you thought were just awful or just run-of-the-mill blah?
I think book choices are very subjective. there is something about the mass appeal of the ever-predictable john grisham or james patterson, also, some laugh-out-loud reads like the latest janet evanovich book. political thrillers, science fiction, whatever. I think it just depends on what touches you at the moment as the reader.
Which books do you hear people raving about that you thought were just awful or just run-of-the-mill blah?
Forrest Gump. Decent movie. Terrible book.
JAWS. One of the greatest movies ever made. Ho-hum book. The movie had some of the most memorable cinema characters ever. Those same characters in the book were not only unsympathetic, they were downright unlikeable. Hard to enjoy this kind of book when the only cool character is the shark.
The Godfather. May be the greatest movie ever made. Decidedly mediocre book.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Very well-respected SF story. I thought it ranged from weird to borderline incoherent. And not in a good way. In a bad way.
The Historian. Not a bad book, but over praised. Very overwritten to the point of pretentiousness. Pacing was slow as January molasses.
Possession by A.S. Byatt. Boring, boring, boring. Beautiful prose, yes. But that just made it beautifully boring, boring, boring.
I've tried reading James Patterson. Really tried. I couldn't. The writing was just so, so bad. I couldn't finish. Too painful.
Anything by Paul Coelho, and at the other end of the pole, Ayn Rand - pretentious fairytales for expounding her philosophy of personal fascism....zzzzz zzzzz zzzzzzzzz
The first book that came to mind was Zen and the Art of Motercycle Maintenance. I just could never see what people liked about it. I did like the Twilight series though. It wasn't the best I have ever read certainly but I found myself thinking about it later which to me is a sign of a good book.
I have noticed that many people who don't read much seem to think some really bad (or humdrum) books are really spectacular. I maintain that if they read a lot, they would know better.
I was agreeing with you there, until you said "Kite Runner"!
And Jess, Anna Karenina?? One of the Best.Books.Ever!
I like "thinking" books, and I notice many of my friends prefer escapism entertainment. Of course, I believe MY taste to be better, lol!
In the last 5 years or so, I've gotten good at checking reader websites looking for reviews, and better know how to find books I might like. When I hear lots of people talking about a book, I tend to avoid it.
Lol, lola...I think what really bothered me about Kite Runner was that it came out at the time during which all you had to do to write a best-seller was do a story about how some poor person was abused and f'd up in their childhood...the whole genre was getting tired. Still is.
Grisham, Patterson, and Evanovich bore the living crud out of me...I think these guys are writing for the money now...there's no art left in their books.
I didn't think Kite Runner was a great book. Defective, and he wasn't a good enough writer without a hook. But not bad enough to be a bad book. I thought Zen/Motorcycle was a wonderful book, there are few books that I've read that nailed modern human nature that way.
Life of Pi, I did not like much in the first half, and actually skipped quite a few pages to jump ahead and see if it was going anywhere. The second half was pretty good, stylish and well-crafted, and I loved the ending.
A great book is a book in which I say, often, after reading a passage or a paragraph, "I wish I could write like that". Or, more importantly, "I wish more people could". A bad book is one that I just quit after a few chapters, and I can't remember what any of them are, but the last one I did that was McEwan's "Atonement". I ought to pay more attention, so I don't accidentally try to read them again sometime. One of the worst highly-regarded books that I plodded all the way thorugh and didn't care for was Secret Life of Bees.
Two books come to mind that were spectacular at first, through about the first quarter of the book, and then just collapsed into a trite series of declarative sentences, and I wish I had quit while I was ahead. "Lonesome Dove" and "The Tin Drum".
Last edited by jtur88; 09-15-2009 at 12:15 PM..
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