post your unpopular literature opinions?

[MrShannon385]

Curly was the best character in mice an men

Miss Piggy was born (sewn?) to play Lady Macbeth.

Muppet Macbeth. Bloody genius! 😂

That would be so popular, every primary school in the country studies Macbeth.

The last King I read was Under The Dome. I can persevere with most books but I made an exception for this one. Utter steaming pile of refuse.

Cannot bring myself to read any of his later work. He so needs to get back on the coke.

You cannot judge a book by its film adaptation!

@MyBoysHaveDogsNames

Yes of course

Skis against the Atom Knut Haukelid
Underwater Saboteur Max Manus
We die alone David Howarth (not an first hand account but well worth
reading. Tells the incredible story of Jan Baalsrud OR
Defiant Courage Astrid Karlsen Scott (also about Jan Baalsrud but written
more recently)
Report from #24 Gunnar Sonsteby
Another Man's Shoes Sven Svomme

🤞

Ian McEwan wants his hard drive checking.

Georgette Heyer, Marian Keyes and Maeve Binchy are all geniuses.

A Little Life was absolute shite and I'm still shocked I managed to get through it.

Agree Stephen King's earlier stuff was his best. His output is massive and the individual volumes very hit and miss: some brilliant and insightful narratives which tap into very American-specific anxieties, balanced off with some horrible, clunky writing and dubious social attitudes.

You've got to love The Simpsons and their total mockery of the 'Indian' (ugh!) burial ground as a tired old trope. They did a great number on Edgar Allan Poe - King's favourite source of inspiration - with Bart as the raven, too.

Talking of authors who should have their hard drives checked - step forward that other American horror writer, John Saul! He's like a King equivalent for a YA audience (the age at which I read him), with an unsophisticated writing style to match. But he's fixated on teenagers, and his plotlines are some of most twisted, disturbing shit I've ever read. That goes beyond the likes of Pet Sematary - which even King himself thought might have gone too far - into some really gratuitously dubious stuff. Some of his books made me want to scrub myself.

I haven't read much Dean Koonz. I quite enjoyed The Eyes of Darkness, but it was very obviously modelled on King's Firestarter.

Anyone read any Shirley Jackson? She's one US psychological/horror/Gothic writer whose work seems to be making a big comeback lately. We have always lived in the Castle is quite an entertaining read, but Merricat is a psychopathic protagonist to rival anyone in Saul. She's horrendous!

I enjoyed the first few of Jodie Picoult's books with the interesting dilemmas. But at some point, I think when she had become a hit, perhaps there was a lot of pressure from the publishing house to churn out books and somehow they seemed to take a downturn and I got sick of them.
The one about the bloody elephants finished me off. It was so preachy. I can't remember what it was called.

Shakespeare is pointless and repetitious.

😂

So good to say that.

Now to read back and see what travesty has been uttered about stuff I enjoy.

Harry Potter series of books were really enjoyable.

JKR's bank manager doesn't care that you think they are shit. 😁

Chaucer is illegible nonsense.

And I never got the raving about that book The Labyrinth and was pissed off as I wanted to love it.

Alexander McCall Smith is always reliable for a comfort read, but he is getting rather preachy and formulaic.

The Hobbit was OK but The Lord of the Rings was long and boring.

Having read a lot of YA books during lockdown. A lot of it verges on soft porn and is all much of a muchness.

I agree with so many of these comments. I cannot understand why Lord of the Rings is so popular - teenage boys seem to be the main readers of it. Little elves do nothing for me. Most Booker prize winners are unreadable, pretentious drivel. Catcher in the Rye was one of my O level set texts and I enjoyed it as a fifteen year old as I was a similar age to the protagonist and could relate to all the teenage angst. I think I would find myself cringing if I read it now. I have enjoyed some of the classics but mostly in film versions. Henry James is the most overrated of all nineteenth century authors in my opinion. Portrait of a Lady still sends me into paroxysms of rage forty years after having the misfortune of studying it for A level. I enjoy poetry but I like traditional poetry that rhymes. John Betjeman is one of my favourite poets. Reading should be for pleasure and I have always been a bookworm but I would rather read a good thriller than anything worthy.

Yes - I never particularly enjoyed reading dickens, though I liked lots of others from similar era, but I really really like listening to dickens in audiobook format. It just comes across better - designed to be listened to rather than read I guess. I was really quite surprised.

@Whiskyinajar, I really like Chaucer but in the much-derided Penguin modern translation. The Prologue is so clever and resonates as much today as it ever did. The Franklin’s Prologue and Tale was set for A level when l took it and it was one of my favourite works we studied. I can’t be bothered with Middle English nowadays, though, hence my preference for the translation.

Oooh, yes, I agree about Kate Mosse's Labyrinth. It's the book I always call the "Look" I speak French! Look at me, speaking French! I speak French, you know!" book.

Agree with this.

You can read a page of George Eliot over and over again and think 'nope, still no idea WTF you are on about or trying to get at there, George.'

I love GE, but will admit this is true of Romola.

(And that every time Mordecai starts proselytising in Daniel Deronda, I skip to the next bit where Gwendolyn Harley hits the roulette tables.😁)

I was defeated by the introduction to Daniel Deronda in the Penguin Classics. It languished on my shelves for years until the clearout where I told myself 'You're not going to read it. Own that. Give it the chance to find someone who will.' 😄

Silas Marner, however, is perfect, and not just because she managed to restrain herself in that respect.

Why so with Ian McEwen?

A Little Life was just misery porn.