Mumsnet Talk

I was listening to 'A Good Read' the other day and they were rude about The Wizard of Earthsea. It pissed me off so much that I let the potatoes burn. They compared it unfavourably to Lord of the Rings ffs.

Is it just me?

No, I was very peeved when someone stated Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia were tedious and badly written, but The DaVinci Code was a very good read.

Actually, I wasn't peeved so much as spitting feathers.

They were obviously people of NO TASTE AT ALL MoominMymbleandMy. People who hold opinions of such stupidity are very difficult to argue with, where could you begin?

Someone also told me that Alan Garner's Stone Book Quartet was 'just not really very well written'.

There are only a few books I am this dogmatic about. When you love a book so much it feels like someone is criticising you when they have a go at the book.

I should get out more.

Absolutely, Humphrey, when she added triumphantly that the Narnia films were also boring as the final clincher - did she think CS Lewis was responsible for them too? - I had to bite my tongue very firmly or things would have got unpleasant.

I also remember being quite infuriated to read someone's review of Diana Wynne Jones Chrestomanci series when they dismissed them as "jumping on the Harry Potter bandwagon" and said they "preferred the originals"! Nitwit.

I get annoyed with the constant "not very well written" which is a way of saying "look at me I'm intelligent"
Surely a good book or film is in the eye of the beholder. If a book carries you away to another world that you can immerse yourself in does it matter if the english is perfect.

but some books are appallingly written ,badly composed.thing is books i have hated others have raved about so it is highly subjective

i am bemused when books i love are slated,but grimace when i see folk raving about a dog of a book i hated

will never understand why anyone likes
lovely bones
time traveller wife
talk about kevin
any martin amis

I liked only the TTW from your list. The book I couldn't get on with was The Memory Keeper's Daughter.

I'm reading 'fraction of the whole' right now and it's excellent. Really intensely quirky characters. But the writing isn't intense, it's humorous.

at Diana Wynn Jones comment

yes,memory keeper daughter was foul read

It makes me quite cross, yes.

But I do feel the need to share my strong dislike of books too, so I can't complain

I'm with Scottishmummy on this. Some books that are lauded are dreadful, and I am going to upset a few people here, the Twilight saga is a case in point. The device of using blank chapters to suggest time passing in New Moon, brilliant, loved it, wished I'd thought of it, but then it goes terribly wrong. I am not the only person who wonders why she ever wrote number four. And then Ellis Peters who wrote Cadfael just doesn't get the exposure she should. She could say so much with a few well chosen words. Beautiful writing.

I get upset when a favourite author just loses the plot. One of mine uses the same plot again and again, just the characters and timeframe change. Annoys the hell out of me as I know she can do better.

Anyone who slags off Harper Lee's novel will be bopped on the head by it (a paperback copy for the bopping)

I was a tad odd as a book eating commuter. I kept the ones I liked and pass them on to friend, but would leave the ones I didn't click with (like India Knights one) on the train with a note on the inside saying 'feel free to take me)

I do agree that some books are bad and need slating.

Just not those I think are wonderful, natch.

Most books I enjoy I can also hear criticism of without inner rage, after all one can really like a book without thinking it is well written at all. Twilight fell into that category for me, kind of fun but I wished someone else had written it (Antonia Forest or Emily Bronte perhaps).

I think what I really hate is criticism that is so obviously wrong, like the Diana Wynne Jones comment. Or saying that Usula Le Guin was writing a poor copy of The Lord of the Rings - when ALL those two books have in common is that they are fantasy novels.

It is like someone who hears a brilliant jazz band and says that they are crap, because they aren't playing rock.

It depends how they say it - if thay hated the book and the way it was written, that is their prerogative.
If otoh they say that book is really stupid, why would anyone like it - that seems to be more of a personal slur and that irritates me.

Humph - DH and I listened to that 'a good read' in the car and were about the Wizard of Earth Sea.
I personally get quite cross when people criticise my favourite books. I have been known to make disparaging comments about books too but usually I have taste on my side

yeah I do...

and what exactly is your beef with LOTR Humphrey? eh? eh?

How dare she critisise Earthsea! I am outraged. I shall burn her up with my righteous dragon's fire

Moomin - spitting feathers would be putting it mildly for me.

i hate when people dis LOTR. i don't 'get' how people don't 'get' it.

Tricky this one...I was a huge Earthsea fan for many many years and even got 'Mastermind'-ed on it a few times as a student (deep and murky past as chairperson and editor of various SF&F societies...but lets gloss over that ).

However, having nagged dh mercilessly to read the trilogy, he finally did...and hated it . In response, I re-read it and...well, was a bit disappointed to discover it wasn't quite as good as I thought it was when I was 10-20. And I hated the final book, which I hadn't read before .

But I would still be upset if anyone else were to be disparaging about it

(FWIW, dh was also rude about the Mordants Need books which I also re-read in response...and still thought were great. But then dh has very poor taste in books )

Agree custardo. I have read it just about every other year since I was 13. Have read it to dS#1. And I am about to start again.

filly - I didn't discover Earthsea until I was in my 20s really. As a child I bought a copy of Tombs of Atuan from Smiths one Saturday but didn't really realise it was part of a trilogy. A friend introduced me to the other books much later. Maybe I haven't had time to get disillusioned as yet

Moomin!
HDM and Da Vinci Code are both good reads but in very different ways. DVC was a good beach read but easily forggettable. HDM is a masterpiece.
Whoever said it was tedious is obviously an idiot.

Scottishmummy, I liked all those books (except Martin Amis).

Yes. I do get v. narked. But only if they do it in a "how could anyone like this rubbish" way, rather than "I hated this" way.
LOTR, for example, I find immensely tedious, totally boring and just do not get it at all. I quite happily accept that others will like it though, and I can see the merit in the writing. It's just not my thing at all.