I’ll go with the low-hanging fruit: Mein Kampf. I’ve read it, cover to cover. As a piece of propaganda, it’s good. As an example of good writing? Absolutely not (though I will admit I have only read it in translation). Oh, and the whole fascist, racist, and generally shitty worldview of the author that he infuses into the text. And the fact that the author is literally Hitler. You 5-star that book? You’re a Nazi. Period. And as a Jewish person, I don’t look too kindly on them.
‘The Book of Mormon’. Reading that took away some hours of my life that I’ll never get back. Also anything by D.H. Lawrence or Dan Brown.
How come DH Lawrence? Never read him but I hear people sing his praises occasionally.
Here’s a vigorous defense in the form of poetry by Tony Hoagland:
LAWRENCE
by Tony Hoagland
On two occasions in the past twelve months I have failed, when someone at a party spoke of him with a dismissive scorn, to stand up for D. H. Lawrence,
a man who burned like an acetylene torch from one end to the other of his life. These individuals, whose relationship to literature is approximately that of a tree shredder
to stands of old-growth forest, these people leaned back in their chairs, bellies full of dry white wine and the ovum of some foreign fish, and casually dropped his name
the way pygmies with their little poison spears strut around the carcass of a fallen elephant. “O Elephant,” they say, “you are not so big and brave today!”
It’s a bad day when people speak of their superiors with a contempt they haven’t earned, and it’s a sorry thing when certain other people
don’t defend the great dead ones who have opened up the world before them. And though, in the catalogue of my betrayals, this is a fairly minor entry,
I resolve, if the occasion should recur, to uncheck my tongue and say, “I love the spectacle of maggots condescending to a corpse,” or, “You should be so lucky in your brainy, bloodless life
as to deserve to lift just one of D. H. Lawrence’s urine samples to your arid psychobiographic theory-tainted lips.”
Or maybe I’ll just take the shortcut between the spirit and the flesh, and punch someone in the face, because human beings haven’t come that far
in their effort to subdue the body, and we still walk around like zombies in our dying, burning world, able to do little more
than fight, and fuck, and crow, something Lawrence wrote about in such a manner as to make us seem magnificent.
Yeah, that’s a general problem with “classics”.
They have been part of the literary sphere for so long that the language and style is hard to see as anything special.
Just seems weird to put Lawrence (revolutionary attitude towards relationships and sex in fiction) in the same category as Dan Brown (carbon copy thrillers which are objectively silly). I’ve never read any of his books but I have read a like some of Lawrence’s nature poetry which is very evocative and in places moving.
Whats wrong with Dan Brown? Never read him myself but I was planning to. He just seems to write popular and accesable history for laymen
His books are definitely fun, and I like how descriptive he can be. I would check out Deception Point if I were you.
I enjoyed Dan Brown when I was younger. Cheap thrills mixed with some (fictional ) culture. Deception Point was definitely his best.
Da Vinci Code is the only book I’ve read in one sitting. I still only rated it 2/5 stars but it absolutely clips along.
I also read it in one sitting, because it was so unbearably stupid that I couldn’t look away.
Bears no resemblance to history and the prose us awful. Plot rattles aloing well though, there are definitely less enjoyable books
As long as you go into the books knowing you’re reading fiction that is action/adventure, all good.
I think that’s the point for most people. His stuff is like popcorn films of books. I say that as someone who’s been reading the Alex Cross series since I was a teen. Some books are light fun and disposable reading.
Keep in mind the sub you’re on, rating something light and simple as the best thing you’ve read suggests a shallow taste range. I’m still gonna enjoy my light snacks but I don’t thnk they’re top of the list.
Aside from using the exact same twist in each of his Robert Langdon books, the major problem I have is how he presents his content.
I have zero problems with historical fiction if it’s written well. I love the genre and I think it’s a great source of literature. The problem with Dan Brown is that he advertises his fiction as being based in fact and verified research, when in reality, it’s drawn from half truths or just blatantly made up
It’s basically Twilight for grown-ups.
I think reading one Dan Brown book and giving it 5 stars could be forgiven for a younger reader; but once you’ve read the 2d Brown novel then you realize you’ve read them all because they are so formulaic.
If someone says they’re favorite book is the DaVinci Code, my first two reactions would be:
Holy fuck, is this person time traveling from the mid 2000s, and then
Oh they definitely don’t read books
I can’t recommend the musical enough, though.
DH Lawrence? Dude “Women in Love” is one of the most touchingly wild books I have ever read
Yeah, the sisters. Then the two men who love eachother. So much vividly descriptive prose. The mountains at the end. His short stories are really great too. I think people need to remember his books were written a hundred years ago, by a guy born in the 19th century and that for their time they were mind-blowingly, lush, sensual, political, cerebral blablblahlah written by a guy from a working class coal mining family. They don’t read the same as they would then. His work was banned…
I liked Sons and Lovers, partly because I know a lot of the places he’s talking about but partly just because I got on with the writing. Lady Chatterley was a flat-out chore to read.
I kinda liked Dan Brown’s books. Mostly when I was mentally tired and wanted a book that I could pretty much finish in an evening. Also because they often trigger been-there seen-that moments when culturally relevant sites are mentioned.
Yeah, they’re basically pulp on more expensive paper.
But you gotta make sure they aren’t talking about the musical first.
If she is a Mormon, and interested in me at all given what my profiles say about me, then it’s a huge green flag! Anyone with an oppressive religious background who is looking for a perv like me is gonna be a LOT of fun to play with, and rewarding to “save”. BTDT. Straight from *** Bible College, tracking to become a fundie preacher, to sex parties and dungeons, finally exploring the desires she’d had all her life and believed that religion could cure. A several year affair, twenty years ago. We’re still besties, she’s healthy, happy, sane, strong, and has a wonderful life partner.
How comes you dislike Lawrence so much? I remember reading a collection of short stories from him and quite enjoying them. Maybe it’s because I usually don’t read much after the 19th century that I overlooked some glaringly obvious shortcomings, maybe something is overdone and to me it seemed new and refreshing? I don’t know, I would consider his work well written at the very least and I was be surprised to hear someone mention him in the same vein as Dan Brown or the book of Mormon.