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the Best and Worst Books You've Read Thread

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote ForumAdmin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Oct 2009 at 7:51pm
Originally posted by Jimbo Jimbo wrote:

Originally posted by NathanAlexander NathanAlexander wrote:

I am currently reading The Pillars of the Earth and it is by far one of the worst books I have ever read. It's like a young adult novel.

You are the only person I've ever heard who didn't rave about how great that book is.
But as they say, there's no accounting for taste, I suppose.
Ken Follet is a great writer.

I was going let this go, but I just now finished the book and it was soooo crappy.

To put this in perspective, I read Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose right before Pillars of the Earth.
Name of the Rose takes place in a 13th century monastery and it is spectacular. The language is like poetry, sophisticated and clever.
Pillars of the Earth is some of the most simplistic juvenile prose I've read in a long time.
The book has sentences in it that are 3 words long.
Sentences like "He liked that." and "That was better."
In The Name of the Rose, characters discuss 13th-century ideas and use 13th-century language.
Within 20 pages of Pillars of the Earth someone says "She's gonna puke."
This is in the year 1135. It's retarded.
If Ken Follett is a great writer, that's great for him.
This book however, is not a well-written book.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote msmadz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Oct 2009 at 8:21pm
2 great books I've read were both by the author Caleb Carr:
 
The Alienist
 
Angel of Darkness
 
I didn't like his futuristic book (name escapes me).
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote PaWolf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Oct 2009 at 10:22pm
Originally posted by NathanAlexander NathanAlexander wrote:

...I read Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose...
 Big%20smileYES!!!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Big Momma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Oct 2009 at 10:38pm
BEST,
Little Women
A tree grows in Brooklyn
Raintree County
The Awakening Land trilogy
The Alexandria Quartet, by Lawrence Durrel
Angela's Ashes
King Lear
The Winters Tale
Julius Cesar
Henry V
Flowers For Algernon
The Shell Seekers
Anything by Fannie Flagg!!!
Anything by Miss Read (Dora Saint)
The Luncheon Of The Boating Party
To Kill A Mocking Bird
A Separate Peace
All Creatures Great And Small (whole series)
Sooooooooooo many more!!
 
WORST
The Christmas Box ( and the rest)
Nights in Rodantha.........crap!!
Bridges Of Madison County.........AWFUL
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote HollyRock Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Oct 2009 at 1:27am
Originally posted by NathanAlexander NathanAlexander wrote:

I am currently reading The Pillars of the Earth and it is by far one of the worst books I have ever read. It's like a young adult novel.


Except it's about nine million pages long.
Originally posted by NathanAlexander NathanAlexander wrote:


I read Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose right before Pillars of the Earth.

Also crazy long, and how the hell did you stay awake?

Best books (in spit of them being crazy long):
The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
Mary, Called Magdalene by Margaret George
Katherine by Anya Seton

Also good:
Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory (who copied her style from Anya Seton)
The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

Books that suck:
Anything else by Philippa Gregory
Anything by Dan Brown

Let's try not to be boring, mkay?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jimbo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Oct 2009 at 4:19am
Originally posted by NathanAlexander NathanAlexander wrote:

I was going let this go, but I just now finished the book and it was soooo crappy.

To put this in perspective, I read Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose right before Pillars of the Earth.
Name of the Rose takes place in a 13th century monastery and it is spectacular. The language is like poetry, sophisticated and clever.
Pillars of the Earth is some of the most simplistic juvenile prose I've read in a long time.
The book has sentences in it that are 3 words long.
Sentences like "He liked that." and "That was better."
In The Name of the Rose, characters discuss 13th-century ideas and use 13th-century language.
Within 20 pages of Pillars of the Earth someone says "She's gonna puke."
This is in the year 1135. It's retarded.
If Ken Follett is a great writer, that's great for him.
This book however, is not a well-written book


Well after I posted my reply to your initial commentary, it occurred to me that I should've asked you...
 
"If it's so awful, why are you reading it?"
 
But after reading your most recent post, now I have to ask...
 
"If it was so awful, why did you read the entire book?"  LOL
 
I mean, the thing is over a thousand pages. Unless one is into some kind of masochism trip, I can't understand why someone would subject themselves to a thousand pages of a book they supposedly couldn't stand. But hey.... that's all your own private conflict.
 
I couldn't remember a line in "Pillars" about someone puking, so I took out my old copy & skimmed over the first 20 pages where you said it was & found nothing remotely related to anyone puking, although Tom Builder & his son did take a break from working on the house they were building to have some warm beer out of wooden cups & the little girl took a drink. He warned her about drinking too much & getting dizzy, but there was no reference to puking. Also, I think I can safely say that there is no way in hell Follet used "gonna" anywhere in that book, especially the dialogue. He's an Englishman... they just don't talk that way.
 
Just out of curiosity, I checked on the etymology of the word puke & found that it dates back to about 1600, so if he did use it, he wasn't too far off. I'd give him a pass on that because, personally, I'm just not that anal retentive about such trivial matters, preferring instead to enjoy the story rather than nit-pick over how accurate the language they used was in terms of a particular time period.
 
Also, on the same subject, I read "Timeline" by Michael Crichton, which is another book set in medeival Europe. In that book, they used some real "authentic" language from the same approximate time period, & all I can say, is if someone were to write an entire book with dialogue consisting of authentic medeival language, you wouldn't be able to understand it. It would be like reading "A Clockwork Orange". They'd have to include a glossary in the back of the book so you could stop in the middle of every sentence & look up WTF they were talking about.
 
Re: "Name of the Rose".... well, they made a movie out of it, so I guess it just HAS to be good. Wasn't Tom Cruise in it? LOL
 
And being written by an author with a name like Umberto Eco, you're sure to sound über cool & sophisticated when dropping it in conversation, so yeah, I suppose can see the appeal. For some people.
 
And as for discussing "13th century ideas", if I want to read deep, philosophical discussions of  "13 century ideas", I'll think I'll read something a bit more serious than a who-dunnit  mystery novel that happens to be set in that time period.
 
Anyway, I figured since we're talking about a book I haven't read, I ought to at least see if I could find some passages out of it if nothing else. Here is some of what I found....

Quote For what I saw at the abbey then (and will now recount) caused me to think that often inquisitors create heretics. And not only in the sense that they imagine heretics where these do not exist, but also that inquisitors repress the heretical putrefaction so vehemently that many are driven to share in it, in their hatred for the judges. Truly, a circle conceived by the Devil. God preserve us.
-- The Name of the Rose, First Day, Sext
 
"Then we are living in a place abandoned by God," I said, disheartened. "Have you found any places where God would have felt at home?" William asked me, looking down from his great height.
-- The Name of the Rose, Second Day, Nones
 
"But why doesn't the Gospel ever say that Christ laughed?" I asked, for no good reason. "Is Jorge right?" "Legions of scholars have wondered whether Christ laughed. The question doesn't interest me much. I believe he never laughed, because, omniscient as the son of God had to be, he knew how we Christians would behave. . . ."
-- The Name of the Rose, Second Day, Compline
 
"What terrifies you most in purity," I asked?
 "Haste," William answered.
-- The Name of the Rose, Fifth Day, Nones
 
"I have never doubted the truth of signs, Adso; they are the only things man has with which to orient himself in the world. What I did not understand is the relation among signs. . . I behaved stubbornly, pursuing a semblance of order, when I should have known well that there is no order in the universe."
 
"But in imagining an erroneous order you still found something. . . ."
 
"What you say is very fine, Adso, and I thank you. The order that our mind imagines is like a net, or like a ladder, built to attain something. But afterward you must throw the ladder away, because you discover that, even if it was useful, it was meaningless . . . The only truths that are useful are instruments to be thrown away."
-- The Name of the Rose, Seventh Day, Night
 
"Perhaps the mission of those who love mankind is to make people laugh at the truth, to make truth laugh, because the only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth."
-- The Name of the Rose, Seventh Day, Night

Aside from being dry, teadious & rambling, it sounds to me like a lot of pseudo intellectual prattle.
 
But then again, as I said before, there's no accounting for taste.
 
 
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C'mon, man!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jeroboam Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Oct 2009 at 8:17am
Why are you so butt hurt that Nathan doesn't like your book Jim?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jimbo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Oct 2009 at 10:28pm
Originally posted by jeroboam jeroboam wrote:

Why are you so butt hurt that Nathan doesn't like your book Jim?
 
"Butt hurt"???? ShockedShocked LOLLOL
 
I've never been butt hurt, as you so snarkily described it, in my life. Especially not over something said on an internet forum by someone I've never met nor ever will.
 
I just replied in kind (but with more style) to his own snide comments that were obviously not really about critiquing a book, but about indirectly taking a jab at me via something I said that I liked. Old trick, done to death.
 
You yourself termed it "my book" as in, I recommended it & said I enjoyed it on more than one occasion, which is the only reason he trashed it.
 
I seriously doubt that Nathan ever really even read the book in question.
 
His remarks about it were too off the wall & sounded like he just made them up as he went along. They were vague & didn't have the ring of authenticity to them.
 
That plus the fact that they aren't remotely true.
 
Anyway, on internet forums like this, I'm just about giving back better than I get & I gotta say that I thoroughly enjoyed it & appreciate having been handed the opportunity to do so in that particular instance.
 
IOW, I had fun.
 
That about explain it?
 
Any other burning questions I can answer for you?
 
Let me know. Wink 
 
WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOLLOLLOL
 
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C'mon, man!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jeroboam Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar 2010 at 11:11pm
Ha sorry, I never looked on this again.
I have never been amid your cross hairs before. Forgive me if it seems flippant but I am kind of honored. And to think after 5 months it still weighs on you.

I think I was intrigued by the length of defense.
Mind you looking back, Nathan was a bit invested in his critique thus making a simple thing more complex than need be I am sure.

Sorry I didn't get back to you.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Synesthesia Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar 2010 at 11:29pm
Heart
Harry Potter, all of them, even the second one.
I do like the Twilight series, but the Host is better.
I love the Elfquest series except for maybe the later ones which were not drawn by Wendy Pini, those I kind of like but not love.
I love Sandman, Neverwhere, American Gods, Stardust, all of the Neil Gaiman books
With the Light is the best thing I've read about autism every
I used to like OSC but, he annoys me.
I hated Ender in Exile as not only was it pure steaming dog crap, but he wants to change the original series to reflect that. It was bad enough that the Bean series was full of nagging, endless nagging about morality and having babies. Urg! Angry
I hate Gate to Woman's Country. I wonder if I should read it again. But I loathe that book and I could be reading about Saudi Arabia instead.
I did like the early LKH books as pure fluff and entertainment, but now I think she should probably retire.
Why Does He Do that is a good book about domestic abuse. The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog is essential for everyone to read.
The Tillerman series by Cynthia Voight was good.

more later.
Is this love big enough to watch over me?
Big enough to let go of me
Without hurting me,
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Jimbo Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Mar 2010 at 3:08am
Originally posted by jeroboam jeroboam wrote:

Ha sorry, I never looked on this again.
I have never been amid your cross hairs before. Forgive me if it seems flippant but I am kind of honored. And to think after 5 months it still weighs on you.

I think I was intrigued by the length of defense.
Mind you looking back, Nathan was a bit invested in his critique thus making a simple thing more complex than need be I am sure.

Sorry I didn't get back to you.
 
No problem.
 
I think "weighs on me" is a bit strong.
 
But the term "butt hurt" did stick with me.
 
I'd only ever heard it once or twice & never directed at me.
 
Anyway, I just filed it away under the "one of these days when the opportunity arises" section of my mental "Retaliation File".
 
Wink
 
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C'mon, man!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hootman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Mar 2010 at 11:49am
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest"
"The Exorcist"
"Candy"  Wink
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote msmadz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Mar 2010 at 7:32pm
"One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish"
 
"Go Dog Go"
 
"Are You My Mother?"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hootman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Mar 2010 at 8:10pm
Mad!  I love "Go Dogs Go"....
 
"Do you like my hat?..."
 
I used to read it to my kids, then lost it after they were older.
 
My son bought me another copy when he was a teen.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote msmadz Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Mar 2010 at 8:13pm
Originally posted by Hootman Hootman wrote:

Mad!  I love "Go Dogs Go"....
 
"Do you like my hat?..."
 
I used to read it to my kids, then lost it after they were older.
 
My son bought me another copy when he was a teen.
I love the "party" in the tree at the end. I would stare at that picture for hours.
 
"Green Eggs and Ham" ranks right up there, too.
 
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Would you, could you with a fox?"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hootman Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Mar 2010 at 8:17pm
"It's a dog party...a big dog party!!!"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote jeroboam Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Mar 2010 at 11:50pm
Yeah the dogs are tearing it up on top of a giant tree.
My daughter is obsessed with that book.
She can seek it out and she shoves it in our hands.
We have actually "misplaced" it and she finds it. We can't win.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Grant Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Mar 2010 at 5:30am
I'm very glad to read the last three replies. That picture always got to me, too. Thanks to Go, Do Go, I've always wished that trees "worked that way." (And yes, I make a point of still having a copy.)
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