Opinions about books are like blogs – everyone literate seems to have one. If you, like me, read blogs about books, peruse newspapers, and look forward each week to the book review section of the newspaper, you probably encounter many tips on what to read. Even if you read less than me you probably are constantly being bombarded with recommendations on what books and movies you should be checking out.
They can't all be feel-good page-turners of the decade, of course, nor can they be deep-thought book-stops. A discriminating reader needs an outlet, somehere to vent - and with that in mind, I hereby declare that The Book Stops Here.
What are some books that people — be they friends, colleagues, book reviewers, celebrities, your pastor, your pimp or your drug-dealing book-reviewing poet friend, etc — said you would love but you actually hated? What, for example, are some books you had to read for a class or a book discussion that you just absolutely detested?
Five books come to mind as I write this:
- The Life of Pi: Critics raved about it. Book clubs - including at least one I'm in - read it. But it annoyed the hell out of me. The writing style was awful. It was more new-agey than Deepak Chopka on a bad hair day. It. Just. Sucked.
- The Collectors: Okay, maybe "love" is too strong a word but this book immediately jumped onto the best-seller list and that means someone out there really likes the author and the books. But the writing was crap, the plot predictable and there was even a conspiracy nut character named, of course, Oliver Stone. If I hadn't previously arranged to interview the author I would have stopped at page 100, per my 100-page rule. (If, after 100 pages you have no further interest in the plot or the characters, than it's time to move on - too many books, not enough time, to read every good book out there.)
The only good thing about reading the book was that I was able to ask the author questions per the interview that included veiled insults and that provided some form of satisfaction.
Article comments
1 - Mat Brewster
Good column. Fountainhead felt like a good story trapped by some really bad philosophy. If she had trimmed it down a few hundred pages and stuck to the characters instead of trying to tell me what to beleive every other paragraph I would have liked it a lot more.
2 - Scott Butki
Thanks, Mat. I agree with your assessment.
Today I received an advance copy of the new Michael Connelly book (who I get to interview again - hooray) and a book by Kate White (who I don't know but will try) and also the next one by David Baldacci. That last one amused me since he's on my list above as one of the books I hated the most. Needless to say I politely declined the chance to read the book or interview the author.
3 - Jack
Ha Ha Scott,
I guess you don't realize that Ayn Rand entitled one of her nonfiction books "The Virtue of Selfishness."
There is no doubt that she justified selfishness, but you don't really know what it is till you have read the book.
4 - Taylor
The role of man in society is indeed a key theme in both The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. There's plenty of value we can receive from each other by participating in society as her characters in fact do, however, they do so as traders exchanging for mutual benefit. Keeping in mind participation is voluntary and intended to benefit us is important.
5 - Scott Butki
No other nominations?
6 - Lou
Memoirs of A Geisha for me. And The Secret Life of Bees. Not secret enough.
7 - Scott Butki
" And The Secret Life of Bees. Not secret enough."
Ha. Well, I thought that book was so - so. It had good parts but slow parts too.
For what it's worth I don't think it was aimed at people named "Lou" or guys for that matter.
8 - Jaime
Everyone I know told me to read The Historian, which I thought was unbearably long and not nearly interesting enough. It felt in dire need of editing and even then felt like something you'd buy at the grocery store paperback rack.
Also, The Da Vinci Code. The "historical" parts of the book were alright, but those characters....Ugh. The dialogue was just absurd.
9 - Katie
Tuesdays With Morrie. It was a hallmark card that went on forever.
10 - Hi
Any book where at the end I think to myself, 'so what', like 'The Thorn Birds'
11 - Ruth Seeley
We have very similar distaste in literature, although I confess I haven't tried to read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance yet (although I do recall selling 1000 or so copies of it when it first came out in the 70s - the new cover is a big improvement). We had to stock it on the fiction wall because no one would walk to the back of the store to the philosophy and psychology sections.
The Horse Whisperer, The Da Vinci Code, and Bridges of Madison County obviously belong on this list as well. Although hopefully no one would ever try to make a case for any of that trio being literature.
12 - Scott Butki
Joe Queenan has a funny piece today in the New York Times
What's Wrong With Enjoying The Worst Books?
An excerpt: "I am certainly not suggesting that all bad books are as boundlessly entertaining as these. Despite being one of the worst books ever written, "Atlas Shrugged" is no fun at all, and the uninterrupted stream of lifeless prose that flows from Jimmy Carter's pen is even less entertaining than his presidency. This is because famous people tend to write bad books in a predictable, tastefully bad style, or to have run-of-the-mill bad books written for them by bad ghostwriters, whereas amateurs go for the brass ring. Jimmy Carter couldn't write a book as bad as O. J. Simpson's if he tried."
Another excerpt: "Bad books have an important place in our lives, because they keep the brain active. We spend so much time wondering what incredibly dumb thing the author will say a few pages down the road. One caveat: As with bad movies, a book that is merely bad but not exquisitely bad is a waste of time, while a genuinely terrible book is a sheer delight. This is what made the late, great Mickey Spillane so memorable: he never tried to write poor man's Raymond Chandler books like Robert Parker; he wrote pure trash."