Kevin's Watch

andy h wrote:I read Vernon God Little on the strength that it won the Booker Prize.
Utter tosh.....how can a book this bad win a major prize?

It can because it is excellent, as I wrote it.

What have you written you smug little so-and-so?

I'm kidding. I've never even heard of it until today.

Cagliostro wrote:I'm kidding. I've never even heard of it until today.

You had me fooled <grin>. You never know who you're really talking to online.

Worst book...even harder than best book.
Worst famous book: "Uncle Tom's Cabin"
Hell, the Warrant song with the same title is more worthy of fame.

Cagliostro wrote: What have you written you smug little so-and-so?

Ha ha, you had me going there for a moment!
Seriously though, I was disappointed with VGL. Considering it won a major prize, I was expecting to be entertained. I am fairly eclectic with my reading (you only have to see my top ten authors in another thread).

I do find that many books that are critically acclaimed don't do it for me.

andy h wrote:I do find that many books that are critically acclaimed don't do it for me.

Most books that are critically acclaimed tend to be acclaimed by critics, who do not think (or read, choose, analyze, prioritize, etc.) in the same manner that I do. I therefore tend to disagree with them entirely in most cases.

The worst book I ever tried to put myself through was Dan Brown's "Angel's & Demons"...I threw the book probably five or six times...and finally gave up 2/3 through...

Dan Brown is to literature what McDonald's is to culinary art.

Vader wrote:Dan Brown is to literature what McDonald's is to culinary art.

that's an insult to McDonalds.

Insults to McDonalds are what Dan Brown is to literature.

lol!

We are talking literature right? if not then i would have to say my 6th grade math book is right up at the top of this short stack. pretty much everything i have read outside school I liked..

It was pretty hard to endure Jean Auel's Clan of the Cavebear series' deterioration from its fine beginning into a turgid Neolithic soap opera.

"Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar!"

STFU AYLA!

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I'll never be able to recall the worst book I've ever read (not at the moment, anyway), but right now, Michael Crichton's Timeline comes to mind. That was a seriously lousy book. It came across like one of those and/or/if books that get written by throwing dice every other sentence.

I've read plenty (read; too much) of Crichton over the years, and noted that he's pretty uneven from one book to another, nor can he develop a three dimensional character for beans.

Demondim-spawn wrote:It was pretty hard to endure Jean Auel's Clan of the Cavebear series' deterioration from its fine beginning into a turgid Neolithic soap opera.

"Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar!"

STFU AYLA!

-----

I'll never be able to recall the worst book I've ever read (not at the moment, anyway), but right now, Michael Crichton's Timeline comes to mind. That was a seriously lousy book. It came across like one of those and/or/if books that get written by throwing dice every other sentence.

I've read plenty (read; too much) of Crichton over the years, and noted that he's pretty uneven from one book to another, nor can he develop a three dimensional character for beans.

Timeline definately wasn't his best, but I was entertained.
As far as worst famous book ever, I'd like to nominate "The Old Man and the Sea" and "As I Lay Dying." I read and understood both of them and I don't see what the big deal is.

Heh. I'd always assumed you had to be a guy to appreciate "The Old Man and the Sea". Which I ain't.

Demondim-spawn wrote:It was pretty hard to endure Jean Auel's Clan of the Cavebear series' deterioration from its fine beginning into a turgid Neolithic soap opera.

"Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar! Jondlar! Jondalar!"

STFU AYLA!

When do you think the series goes downhill? I heard from a friend I trust that the first book is pretty good: I've considered getting it ever since, but even if I like the first I'd like to know when you think I should "stop" reading it.

Orlion wrote:As far as worst famous book ever, I'd like to nominate "The Old Man and the Sea" and "As I Lay Dying." I read and understood both of them and I don't see what the big deal is.

"The Old Man and the Sea" was so awful that I refuse to read any of Hemmingway's other works (even though I hear some of them are actually not a load of crap). Even now, years after I was forced to read it in school, the mere mention of Hemmingway makes me want to fly into a rage and demolish a city, or curl up in the corner and cry, or some other such drastic action, just to avoid the flashbacks of the horrors of having to read tOMatS.
Ok, so that was a slight exaggeration, but only slight!

Holsety wrote:When do you think the series goes downhill? I heard from a friend I trust that the first book is pretty good: I've considered getting it ever since, but even if I like the first I'd like to know when you think I should "stop" reading it.

The Clan of the Cave Bear is a terrific book, so maybe that's why I'm so disappointed with what came after.

It's been a long time, but I remember the second book (The Valley of Horses) being a good read too, but by the end of the third one (The Mammoth Hunters) I'd about had it. It really had devolved into Cro-magnon soap opera. There were two more books after those three (at least) but I could only struggle through a few chapters.

But by all means give The Clan of the Cave Bear a read. It's a very detailed speculation about the nature of the Neanderthals and Cro-magnons and their interaction with one another 35,000 years ago, and it's also a ripping good yarn.

Auleliel wrote:

Orlion wrote:As far as worst famous book ever, I'd like to nominate "The Old Man and the Sea" and "As I Lay Dying." I read and understood both of them and I don't see what the big deal is.

"The Old Man and the Sea" was so awful that I refuse to read any of Hemmingway's other works (even though I hear some of them are actually not a load of crap). Even now, years after I was forced to read it in school, the mere mention of Hemmingway makes me want to fly into a rage and demolish a city, or curl up in the corner and cry, or some other such drastic action, just to avoid the flashbacks of the horrors of having to read tOMatS.
Ok, so that was a slight exaggeration, but only slight!

Auleliel, you're my new friend That's exactly how I feel, though a little understated.

As far as being a guy, I've only known one guy and a couple of females who actually enjoyed tOMatS (sick bastards), so I don't know what you have to be in order to enjoy it (high, maybe?)

Orlion wrote:As far as being a guy, I've only known one guy and a couple of females who actually enjoyed tOMatS (sick bastards), so I don't know what you have to be in order to enjoy it (high, maybe?)

Maybe.

Hemingway was a journalist -- a war correspondent, right? -- before he was a novelist. The economy of the journalistic style *really* shows in his fiction. I suppose, looking back on it, that part of the artistry (don't hurt me!) of tOMatS is the way he objectively and pretty much dispassionately describes the old man's struggle with the fish and his fight for survival afterward. Those events would be grounds for purple prose in almost any other writer's hands. And yet Hemingway describes just enough to engage the reader's emotions. Well, okay -- around here, he's done a better job of raising people's gorge than raising their emotions. But you get what I mean, I think.

Just 'cause I get what he's doing doesn't mean I liked the book, tho.