Brian Ford's article, and the resulting discussion, on Movies You Should Love But Hate Anyway is excellent, as is the response one, on Movies You Should Hate But Loved.
Both made me think we need to do something similar for books.
So what ARE some books you should love but hated? Depending on interest this can spin off - or also include here - Books You Should Hate But Loved
Three books come to mind:
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 - Ok, 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 character who was a conspiracy nut 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.
At least when I read - and then wrote nasty reviews about - Tom Clancy's books (which also seems to be written by someone who is about as artful and subtle as a kick to the head) - I would increase my bicep muscles while
holding the books.
Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead - I know some who love this author, Ayn Rand, and her ideas and theories but to me it just sounds like a justification of selfishness. Yes, one should be able to rely on oneself but no
man is an island (hey, that's catchy) and to pretend otherwise just rubs me the wrong way. Her books seem like
way too thinly veiled attempts to explain her beliefs in a fictionalized setting, which - and, yes, I hold this against her - have led to way too many others to do the same from the Celestine Prophecy (hated it!) to, well, the Book of Pi.
And that brings us full circle so I'll stop there.
