Unpopular book-related opinions

[katie_girl09]

Well, now that we have one for music (Thanks Chris Wallace!) I figured we should have one for books too.

I'll start:
*Though she isn't uber-talented by any means, I don't think Stephanie Meyer is as bad a writer as people make her out to be
*I don't think the Harry Potter series is well-written or original enough to be considered classic literature
*Alice Walker's The Color Purple is crap

 

[Manic]

A Handmaid's Tale was one of the worst pieces of crap I'd read in high school. I know teachers and educators think it's an important piece of literature for exploring the possibility of a totalitarian state in a world where people give up their freedom for security, but it was a poorly conceived mess.

Because the chapters aren't in order, we have no idea where the many stages of the main character's life take place. It prevents us from knowing if she gets broken in the end, or if she becomes stronger. It makes the reader's journey feel worthless because the only thing we're expected to do is pity her constantly without any glimmer of hope or shadow of hopelessness to keep us interested.

It's a book that's supposed to make us think by creating a social allegory and giving us the perspective of a woman caught in these terrible times, but it totally fails on the latter part. The writer's ambition was greater than their skill, and the book was a jumbled mess. Thank god my teacher made up for it by showing the class the Logan's Run movie afterward, or that would've been the most negative English paper I'd ever written.

 

[redhawk23]

I really hate Steinbeck

 

[ChickenScratch]

As a person with a degree in English Literature I can say that most of what's considered "classic" or "important" works of literature are just long winded trash. Most of it lacks the fun, intrigue or humor I've come to want from a book. Now I read techno-thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy, spy novels and humor (in the Terry Pratchet, Douglas Adams mold)

 

[SuperFerret]

I liked to read in high school.

 

[Manic]

I am sick and tired of Romeo & Juliet being used as an example of a great romance. They were quite possibly the worst romance in the whole of literature. They were two 15 year olds who knew one another for like a week before eloping and killing themselves after screwing up an incredibly stupid plan to fake their deaths. They were clearly written by Shakespeare as an example of what a young couple shouldn't be.

Oddly enough, my favorite Shakespearean couple was Benedick and Beatrice from Much Ado About Nothing. They were one of those couples that argued and tried to out-wit one another so much that you wanted to tell them "Get a room." And then literally every character in the story actually told them.

 

[Max J Power]

As a person with a degree in English Literature I can say that most of what's considered "classic" or "important" works of literature are just long winded trash. Most of it lacks the fun, intrigue or humor I've come to want from a book. Now I read techno-thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy, spy novels and humor (in the Terry Pratchet, Douglas Adams mold)

In a similar vein, I think too much of the general perception of what makes "literary" works good is based on how difficult they are to read.

 

[SuperFerret]

As a person with a degree in English Literature I can say that most of what's considered "classic" or "important" works of literature are just long winded trash. Most of it lacks the fun, intrigue or humor I've come to want from a book. Now I read techno-thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy, spy novels and humor (in the Terry Pratchet, Douglas Adams mold)

I liked to read in high school.

Oddly enough, these go hand in hand. It's long been a theory of mine that most children dislike reading because they're not as exposed to it at home and the stuff they're made to read at school is boring. I can appreciate the subject matter of To Kill a Mockingbird now, but 12 year old SuperFerret didn't give two craps about it, especially since I was engrossed in the Hobbit and the Icewind Dale trilogy at the time.

 

[Manic]

Oddly enough, these go hand in hand. It's long been a theory of mine that most children dislike reading because they're not as exposed to it at home and the stuff they're made to read at school is boring. I can appreciate the subject matter of To Kill a Mockingbird now, but 12 year old SuperFerret didn't give two craps about it, especially since I was engrossed in the Hobbit and the Icewind Dale trilogy at the time.

I agree. There wasn't anything fun about The Good Earth. Hell, it wasn't even that good a story in hindsight. It's books like that that turn kids off to reading. You start off as a kid reading James and the Giant Peach or Sideways Stories from Wayside School, then suddenly you're a preteen reading The Face on the Milk Carton.

In high school, we had short days on Wednesdays. Budget cuts and stuff. Anyway, all of the English teachers agreed that Wednesdays would be "silent reading" days. Every student had to pick out a book to read on their own, and read it during class that day. Occasionally you'd get someone reading Harry Potter (there was only one movie at the time), but for the most part everyone goofed off and turned in a summary they got off of SparkNotes at the end of the semester.

I used that time to read some Lillian Jackson Braun murder mysteries I got from the school library and a couple of short story collections, but I pretty much reused the same books every year. I didn't really get into reading until after I left high school. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was the first book I'd read as an adult. That is the type of stuff you give 13 year olds to read. The book industry would probably be doing a little better if the works of Douglas Adams, Stephen King, or (because kids seem to love it) JK Rowling were required reading in Jr. High and High School.

 

[ChickenScratch]

Oddly enough, these go hand in hand. It's long been a theory of mine that most children dislike reading because they're not as exposed to it at home and the stuff they're made to read at school is boring. I can appreciate the subject matter of To Kill a Mockingbird now, but 12 year old SuperFerret didn't give two craps about it, especially since I was engrossed in the Hobbit and the Icewind Dale trilogy at the time.

I hear you man. I always loved reading and made it apart of my career, but it's not because of school, it's because of home. My parents are highly educated people (dad is a scientist, mom is an economist) and they read to me every night. When we went out they would buy me comics and novels to read in the car. Hell, one of my favorite childhood memories was my dad buying me Batman and Hulk comics or when my mother after much begging from me got me a copy of Dracula when I was 7 (I thought the cover was cool). I proceeded to read the entire book in one night because I was too scared to sleep.

In high school I realized how little other people read because when I would drop a reference from a book I would get a blank look. For me a new book coming out was like a movie coming out, a big deal. When Shadows Of The Empire came out I was in ultimate freak out mode for like a week, weirdly enough, the only other people who felt the same way was my English teacher, Art teacher and 2 of my buds.

 

[The Chairman]

The Joy Luck Club is pretentious, manipulative crap.

 

[Manic]

William Shakespeare was more than a little pretentious. Nobody spoke like his characters at the time he wrote his plays. People in Elizabethan England spoke pre-industrial modern English, which is how we speak English today without all the slang. The man went out of his way to insert wordplay into every line of dialogue, creating what were essentially music-less plays where everyone spoke in silly song lyrics. Some of plays were great once you concentrated on the stories and got past the dialogue, but getting past the dialogue is the real challenge. That's why I never get upset when someone adapts a Shakespeare play into a movie with rewritten dialogue.

 

[katie_girl09]

*Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's weaker plays.

*Though I am a huge Shakespeare fan, I do not like his sonnets.

*Even though I know everyone will tear me a new one for this, I think Howl is a far less interesting retread of The Waste Land.

 

[Victarion]

I somewhat agree on Harry Potter not being classic literature. I love the series, but the thing I thought was truly original--Horcruxes--are simply like a lich phylactery in the Dungeons and Dragons games. So Voldy is basically a lich.

Likewise, I actually tried to make it through Twilight, so my criticisms of Meyer are justified. I do have to give her kudos for being able to make it through four books. I couldn't write such a story that to me, ultimately seems pointless.

I find that R.A. Salvatore's fantasy series--the Drizzt books, The Crimson Shadow, and his Demon Wars novels--are all much more enjoyable than the LOTR novels. Tolkein is good, but as far as re-readability goes, I find Salvatore's stuff to be a bit more re-readable.

Likewise with Paolini's Eragon books, I enjoy them. My enjoyment comes from how the underlying sinster-ness of the "good guys", since we haven't really been SHOWN that the Empire and the King are evil. I find myself thinking Eragon realizing that the rebellion isn't all that well founded would make for some interesting developments.

 

[Great Pretender]

Books would be 1000 times better and more immersive if they came with their own soundtracks.

 

[david icke]

Books would be 1000 times better and more immersive if they came with their own soundtracks.

There are options for that if you want it.
If the book has been adapted into a movie, you could buy the s/track and play it while you sit and read.
It might be a bit random at times in fitting with where you are at in the book, but people read at different speeds, so any soundtrack that came with a book would suffer from the same problem.
You can also buy audiobooks, they have music and sfx playing while someone else does all the reading for you.
I have been known to set up some s/tracks when I have got a stack of comics to get through, I'd put on the Matrix Reloaded, Fight Club, Blade Runner, things like that.

 

[VampElvis]

Catcher in the Rye. What's the big deal? Middling at best if you ask me....

 

[Kurosawa]

William Faulkner bores me to tears.
L. Frank Baum is insanely underrated.
Steven King's writing is usually great or crap, no in-between.
Chaucer or bust. Seriously.
The Prince is best read when in a foul mood.
The Stranger >>>> Catcher in the Rye

 

[VampElvis]

William Faulkner bores me to tears.
L. Frank Baum is insanely underrated.
Steven King's writing is usually great or crap, no in-between.
Chaucer or bust. Seriously.
The Prince is best read when in a foul mood.
The Stranger >>>> Catcher in the Rye

Good to hear from you again. And on your evaluation of Catcher.

 

[Sloth7d]

Edgar Allen Poe is less of a writer and more of a prententious man who tries to intimidate readers with words he himself just learned and occassionally misapplies; of course though his fans will tell you that he's testing the reader which in actuality makes him more annoying. That said I did enjoy Masque of the Red Death, The Tell Tale Heart, and The Purloined Letter.

 

[katie_girl09]

Seriously?? I thought The Purloined Letter was the worst of all the Dupin tales.

 

[SuperFerret]

I find that R.A. Salvatore's fantasy series--the Drizzt books, The Crimson Shadow, and his Demon Wars novels--are all much more enjoyable than the LOTR novels. Tolkein is good, but as far as re-readability goes, I find Salvatore's stuff to be a bit more re-readable.

To be honest, Tolkien was more of a linguist and mythologist than a writer, and the real magic (no pun intended) in the Lord of the Rings is the languages, cultures and history of Middle Earth. Salvatore is a writer first and foremost (a very good one, and one of my literary influences), and his writing is more simplistic/less long-winded than Tolkien.

Also, the Cleric Quintet is better than the Drizzt series.

 

[katie_girl09]

To be honest, Tolkien was more of a linguist and mythologist than a writer, and the real magic (no pun intended) in the Lord of the Rings is the languages, cultures and history of Middle Earth.

I agree completely.

 

[Sloth7d]

Seriously?? I thought The Purloined Letter was the worst of all the Dupin tales.

Well, the only others are The Murders in Rue Morgue; which eh... I just couldn't get behind the ending and the intro analysis was a bit long winded, and then the Mystery of Marie Rogret which is stilted story telling even for Poe.

 

[Gilpesh]

Battle Royale > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Lord of the Flies



Or at least I think that's unpopular opinion to have. I could be wrong.