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.

    • qkestral@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      the midnight library… i’m with you on that one. hours of my life thrown away with only a questionable moral resolution that was barely developed by the also questionable writing. not…… bad…… but if you give it a 5/5 we have VERY different priorities when we read books lol

      • cashmakessmiles@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        No, it’s bad. It’s a pathetic self help book without anything real to say designed to trick non readers into thinking they’ve been inspired. The real message of the book is that you should never make any decisions, ever, because no matter what good thing you try to do for yourself your friend might die in a completely random car crash and that is somehow your fault.

        • Scream-Queen-Regent@alien.topB
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          1 year ago

          For someone being so snobby about the book, it’s quite funny that you’ve misinterpreted the quite simple messages of it.

          • cashmakessmiles@alien.topB
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            1 year ago

            I struggle to misinterpret what is rammed down your throat via actual author monologues in the middle of the text. Not much subtext hidden in high school reflective essay style prose either. And yes, to be fair, I did REALLY hate this book - maybe I am too harsh, but I don’t think it’s snobby to just really hate a book.

        • smjsmok@alien.topB
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          1 year ago

          reddit hates popular

          Perhaps, but this sub has a special kind of hate against RPO and The Alchemist. Every time there’s a discussion about books that people don’t like, one of these two (or both) immediately pop up with sometimes pretty wild takes. Last I saw, someone said that they considered Mein Kampf less insulting than The Alchemist…really, I’m not making that up.

      • fader-mainer@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        It’s for people who like pop culture and are delighted by the endless references in the book, as a media-loving manchild myself if someone said that Ready Player One was a 5/5 then I’d think they were a boring person lol.

        Also the Midnight Library sucks lol. How to Stop Time is a infinitely more interesting book.

      • ByuntaeKid@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        Off the top of my head:

        The treatment of female characters is questionable - primarily the love interest.

        The prose is just not that good.

        The constant nostalgia bait and over explanation of references.

    • rataviola@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      My Bonus Dad has been reading The Secret for the past, what, fifteen years? He keeps reading the first few pages and then he falls asleep lmao

    • TitaniumDreads@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      I hated the midnight library and it’s so popular. This thread has made me feel validated. thank you to everyone else who thought the writing was terrible and the message was stupid

    • DezXerneas@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Ready player one was my favorite book for like a year. I’m a 2000s kid so I have no nostalgia/understanding of 80s nerd culture, so it was a fun window into that stuff. It was also the first techno dystopian(ish) book i had read.

      Then I read stuff like Neuromancer and actually got into gaming. Also, his other book(Armada ig) is a blatant enders game ripoff without any of the stuff that makes EG awesome.

      • AndHeWas@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        It’s also a ripoff of The Last Starfighter, which I think is even mentioned at the beginning of Armada, but it’s still a ripoff. Ender’s Game kind of came first (the story came out, then The Last Starfighter, then the full Ender’s Game novel). Armada manages to rip both off, though, and isn’t a quarter as good as either.

    • Cyberhaggis@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      I’ve read a lot of books, and only given up on less than 5, Ready Player One being one of them. Barely got into double figures of pages read, it’s just poorly written crap.

    • Atom_Bomb_Bullets@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      What’s wrong with Ready Player One? My brother never reads but he recently started with this book and I was so proud of him (for reading). Should I be worried now, lol? I’ve never read it myself, so I’m genuinely curious.

      • MileHighWriter@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it, but I get the sentiment. There were people who went ga-ga for it even though it’s just mediocre writing. I thought it was a fun read.

      • Canvaverbalist@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        As someone who doesn’t like Ready Player One, I’ve got to say this answer is a bit out of place in this thread.

        Mein Kampf or Atlas Shrugged are straight up fascist red flags, Dianetics is from a cult, The Secret or Hope They Serve Beer in Hell or American Psycho are their own brand of toxcity, etc.

        Ready Player One is just gaudy and tacky, it’s in the same ballpark as The Da Vinci Code, at worst it only tells you that the person doesn’t read much not that they’re straight up evil lol sure it would probably lower my desire to date them as it communicate a difference in taste and interests but I could certainly be friends with them.

        • ghotier@alien.topB
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          1 year ago

          Right. I think Ready Player One could be a deal breaker if you’re only interested in dating another reader, because the person probably doesn’t read that much, or maybe they have unsophisticated taste. But it’s not on the level of “this person has something wrong with them” like the other examples. So it’s not completely out of the question in this thread but it’s definitely more of a personal preference thing.

      • TheRedAuror@alien.topB
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        1 year ago

        I read it and enjoyed it because I love VR and it’s basically nerd wish-fulfillment.

        That said I see the issues with it, and why a certain subset of people might gravitate towards it. However in and of itself it’s not a problematic book imo - it’s a easy romp of a read. The concept of a global treasure hunt driven by nerdery and the you-can-be-anything in virtual reality gives it its popularity. I have several female co-workers I respect who also read it and enjoyed it. It’s nowhere near well-written with great prose or anything close though.

        • Bakkster@alien.topB
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          1 year ago

          Someone else mentioned Rick and Morty, and I think they both fall into a similar category. The media itself isn’t so much the problem, it’s the near obsessive fandom that tends to indicate some negative personality traits.

          • Phoxase@alien.topB
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            1 year ago

            Rick and Morty is plausibly a deconstruction or critique of the kinds of media it itself represents. It’s weird, but Rick and Morty could be simultaneously seen as both a creation and product of a certain kind of nerdy masculinity, as well as a satirical deconstruction of that same kind of cultural product.

            Unfortunately, Ready Player One doesn’t quite work on those levels. It’s basically just older male nerd fantasy and wish fulfillment. Which, to a poststructuralist like myself, means it’s even more ripe for analysis and critique than a “winking” piece of media like Rick and Morty.

            I should note that I’m not trying to credit Rick and Morty with being subversive, only self-consciously postmodern, and I’m not trying to malign Ready Player One for being shallow, only pointing out that it seems sincere, like, this is really clearly fantasy wish-fulfillment.

        • Fischerking92@alien.topB
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          1 year ago

          Not sure I would call it an easy romp, some parts of it are in clear need of an editor.

          I listened to the book after seeing the movie and there is one chapter where he just lists things from the 80s.

          He doesn’t comment on them, he doesn’t put them into some sort of context to each other, he just rattles on and on about the stuff🤦‍♂️

          • TheRedAuror@alien.topB
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            1 year ago

            Haha i don’t disagree - it’s in bad need of an editor and he loves info-dumpy segues for sure. By easy romp i meant the story was fun for me to read, not that it was a paragon of literary readability.

            I will say though that as someone who loves knowledge for its own sake and will spend hours going down Wikipedia rabbit-holes that his random forays and commentaries on movies and games did not bother me at all the way it would bother a reader who favors a more focused narrative and story-telling.

    • UrbanWerebear@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Just curious. What’s your issue with Ready Player One?

      Not that I’d give it 5 stars, but I thought it was a solid book with a decent plot.

    • Runningaround321@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      The Midnight Library is what I often use to gauge if I have similar taste as other readers. I hated everything about that book so people that like it - I can almost guarantee we don’t have the same taste. See also: the drama series This Is Us.

    • GoldwingGranny@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      What’s wrong with Ready Player One? The books was slightly better than the movie which was not great but still somewhat entertaining.

    • Remarkable-Donut-384@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      The way I see it, RPO is a 5/5 book for people who don’t typically read. It’s an easy read, the story is relatively harmless, and the excessive pop culture references make the reader feel like they’re “in”. I can understand why someone who rank it highly.

      That said, it’s awful.

    • bougiedirtbag@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Haha, Yes dude. I could not stand either of those latter two books. Ready Player One could have been the fun nostalgia romp that people who like it say it is if it weren’t for the insufferable main character. And Midnight Library was not even that redeemable and still had an awful protagonist.

    • rancidtuna@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      See… I saw the RPO movie first, and really just enjoyed the techy concept behind it as well as the other nerd shit like video games. Knowing how nostalgia-packed it intended to be, I knew that going into the book, so I was able to enjoy the same things about it.

      I would rate it 5/5, but I’m an easy grader. If a book was written by an amateur, but I had a good time, that’s good enough for me. I feel like with RPO, some people either have higher standards than I do (easy) or they weren’t managing their own expectations for what they thought the book was supposed to be.

    • MileHighWriter@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      I liked Ready Player One for all the geeky nostalgia. Not 5-star liked, but still, I wouldn’t kick someone out of bed for it. Lol

    • zyenapz@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      I slogged through The Midnight Library thinking there’s gotta be something of substance, but all I got was disappointment. The premise was alright and even interesting, but I just found the execution so uncreative.

    • ThatLineOfTriplets@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      I loved ready player one when I read it before I started actually reading lots of books. If a date rated it five stars I would simply ask if they read a lot and if they said no I would suggest a bunch of books they could read. It’s better than someone not reading at all imo.

    • panatale1@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      It’s not my favorite book in the world, but Ready Player One was an enjoyable experience to me. Maybe it’s because I did the audiobook narrated by Wil Wheaton

    • DoorInTheAir@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      The last two are interesting to me. I very much enjoyed Ready Player One because it is the ultimate in where VR could go and nerdy shit, and I love a dystopian future story. Not 5 stars, mainly because of the circle jerk energy and how often he uses the word “voluptuous”. I also read Midnight Library and it seemed like a harmless little book, though obviously predictable. I took it as a parable, rather than a story that was going to surprise me.