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[fajrdrako]

From March 19, 2009: What’s the worst 'best' book you’ve ever read — the one everyone says is so great, but you can’t figure out why?

Easy: Moby Dick. I'd heard great quotes from it on X-Files and Star Trek and it sounded brilliant. So only a few years ago I sat down and read it cover to cover, and haven't been so bored (or frustrated) by a novel since Ivanhoe. But I understand why some people might like Ivanhoe, or, rather, might have done so in the 19th century. Moby Dick? I just didn't get it.

It quotes well, though. Ignorance is the parent of fear.

It was a sharp, cold Christmas.

Comments

[xinef.livejournal.com]

Getting away from "classics", one that comes to mind immediately is "Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula Le Guin. Something about her writing style just leaves me cold. I rarely start a book and don't finish it, but have done so with at least a couple of hers. I just can't get into them.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Interesting - since I love LeGuin's writing style. But there are many popular writers I just can't read. My brain glosses over Andre Norton as if she were writing in another language, and I can't even figure out what's going on. I have no idea why. I gave up trying.

I don't read many of the 'classic' SF authors, though - I find them dull. There are exceptions.