Daedalus Posted August 27, 2010 Report Share Posted August 27, 2010 (edited) Was curious about what people thought about this. Just organized in a poll-like form I guess... and not comprehensive, just some examples. i.e. for me Best: Ian McEwan's novelsWorst: Twilight series; Eragon seriesWhat do you think? Dissidents welcome... thumbs up if you agree, down if you don't! Edited August 27, 2010 by Daedalus 2 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
AGBellamy Posted August 27, 2010 Report Share Posted August 27, 2010 Best: World War z and The DeclarationWorst: Twilight series Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bishup Posted August 27, 2010 Report Share Posted August 27, 2010 Best : Anything by SteinbeckWorst : Marcel Pagnol Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evelina Posted August 27, 2010 Report Share Posted August 27, 2010 Best: The Kite Runner - Khaled HosseiniWorst: Njáls Saga - UnknownHad to read both of these for Swedish A1... somehow I even did my world lit on Njáls Saga Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeciliaL Posted August 27, 2010 Report Share Posted August 27, 2010 I second McEwan's novels as being the best especially Atonement. Also, The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy is really good.Thankfully haven't read the Twilight series to be able to deem it as the worst. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeG Posted August 28, 2010 Report Share Posted August 28, 2010 Best: Chuck Palahniuk's early works (i.e. Fight Club, and Cormac McCarthy's The RoadWorst: 90% of novels that qualify as "Teen Fiction." While some of the works in this genre are great, make use of literary devices, and expose the world for what it truly is, most of the works are just garbage. I don't know if "Teen/Young Adult" fiction is as popular in countries outside of the U.S., but if you look in any library/bookstore in the United States you're bound to find a section devoted to these works. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daedalus Posted August 28, 2010 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2010 (edited) Best: Chuck Palahniuk's early works (i.e. Fight Club, and Cormac McCarthy's The RoadWorst: 90% of novels that qualify as "Teen Fiction." While some of the works in this genre are great, make use of literary devices, and expose the world for what it truly is, most of the works are just garbage. I don't know if "Teen/Young Adult" fiction is as popular in countries outside of the U.S., but if you look in any library/bookstore in the United States you're bound to find a section devoted to these works.I don't understand the obsession with McCarthy. I saw the Road and it was okay but not amazing, and then I read No Country for Old Men, which critics loved, and I thought it was terrible. Feel bad he even used a quote from such a venerable poem in such a nonsensical piece of work... maybe I have to read his other books though.Also I didn't know Fight Club was a book... the movie was amazing though. Should read that too I guess.Teen/Young Adult fiction, sadly, is popular everywhere: it just sells well. But I think fiction has always been 90% pulp... we got a break with HP (good popular writing) but now we're back with Twilight and the rest of it. Edited August 29, 2010 by Daedalus Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted August 29, 2010 Report Share Posted August 29, 2010 Hrm Ian McEwan is really good, but I don't think he's the best. Atonement was epic, I'll admit, but I think part of that is having already seen the film aaaand I also don't think the rest of what he's done quite matches up.However I'm in absolute agreement with you that the Eragon books are basically the worst (serious) books I've ever read And by serious books I mean books that were actually intended to be of a decent quality. The writing is awful, the ideas are blatantly robbed, the storyline and execution are both poor and against all possible odds, they somehow made an even WORSE film out of the whole thing. Most of the time I spent watching that film was trying to suppress hysterics at how truly awful it was xP It was pretty funny. Especially the set.Compared with Eragon at least Twilight is mildly original, readable and doesn't claim to be more high brow than it is. It's a literary pile of piddle, but if you disregard that it's actually a pretty enjoyable read I would also dispute Chuck Palahniuk. I have enjoyed the books I've read by him, but I'm not sure if his literary punch comes more from writing about things in a very shocking way than it does from his writing style, which actually is quite straight forward. It works really well because he goes all in and doesn't withhold any punches -- he goes out of his way to push horrible things in your face and his blunt way of writing complements that superbly. I just wonder whether, were he to write about anything tamer, his books would seem as good. I dunno I'm going to agree with Bishup on Steinbeck. He writes prose like it's poetry (also Michael Ondaatje should be mentioned here as somebody else capable of making sentences seem like poems ). I'd also throw in John Fowles as a slightly contrast to Steinbeck. In my opinion, Steinbeck has AMAZING style and good content, Fowles has AMAZING content and good style Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Globe Posted August 29, 2010 Report Share Posted August 29, 2010 .However I'm in absolute agreement with you that the Eragon books are basically the worst (serious) books I've ever read And by serious books I mean books that were actually intended to be of a decent quality. The writing is awful, the ideas are blatantly robbed, the storyline and execution are both poor and against all possible odds, they somehow made an even WORSE film out of the whole thing. Most of the time I spent watching that film was trying to suppress hysterics at how truly awful it was xP It was pretty funny. Especially the set.Thank you! Everyone I know that read Eragon loved it. I didn't like it. It was extremely generic and a lot of the ideas were ripped out of Earth Sea, which was actually a good series. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frozy Posted August 29, 2010 Report Share Posted August 29, 2010 Was curious about what people thought about this. Just organized in a poll-like form I guess... and not comprehensive, just some examples. i.e. for me Best: Ian McEwan's novelsWorst: Twilight series; Eragon seriesWhat do you think? Dissidents welcome... thumbs up if you agree, down if you don't!i definitely agree abt the Twilight series Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted August 29, 2010 Report Share Posted August 29, 2010 .However I'm in absolute agreement with you that the Eragon books are basically the worst (serious) books I've ever read And by serious books I mean books that were actually intended to be of a decent quality. The writing is awful, the ideas are blatantly robbed, the storyline and execution are both poor and against all possible odds, they somehow made an even WORSE film out of the whole thing. Most of the time I spent watching that film was trying to suppress hysterics at how truly awful it was xP It was pretty funny. Especially the set.Thank you! Everyone I know that read Eragon loved it. I didn't like it. It was extremely generic and a lot of the ideas were ripped out of Earth Sea, which was actually a good series.Oh yeah I can kinda see the Earthsea similarities. Personally I was just dying of affront that the Dragonriders of Pern, a seriously good series of books, had had every single dragon-related idea in the book ripped and put into Eragon. It was about the only decent bit of Eragon -- both the film and the book, because the dragon was animated pretty well! I always assumed that if you bred the Dragonriders of Pern series with Lord of the Rings you'd get a little baby Eragon. Only in this instance, two rights made a wrong Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Globe Posted August 29, 2010 Report Share Posted August 29, 2010 .However I'm in absolute agreement with you that the Eragon books are basically the worst (serious) books I've ever read And by serious books I mean books that were actually intended to be of a decent quality. The writing is awful, the ideas are blatantly robbed, the storyline and execution are both poor and against all possible odds, they somehow made an even WORSE film out of the whole thing. Most of the time I spent watching that film was trying to suppress hysterics at how truly awful it was xP It was pretty funny. Especially the set.Thank you! Everyone I know that read Eragon loved it. I didn't like it. It was extremely generic and a lot of the ideas were ripped out of Earth Sea, which was actually a good series.Oh yeah I can kinda see the Earthsea similarities. Personally I was just dying of affront that the Dragonriders of Pern, a seriously good series of books, had had every single dragon-related idea in the book ripped and put into Eragon. It was about the only decent bit of Eragon -- both the film and the book, because the dragon was animated pretty well! I always assumed that if you bred the Dragonriders of Pern series with Lord of the Rings you'd get a little baby Eragon. Only in this instance, two rights made a wrong Ah! I never made the connection between it and Dragonriders of Pern, as I've only read the original trilogy (fantasy really isn't my thing) but I see it now! I never sat through more than like half an hour of the Eragon film Maybe the fourth book will redeem the series, but I probably won't read it Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Center Field Posted August 30, 2010 Report Share Posted August 30, 2010 hmm. What do you consider modern? Do you mean the actual modernist movement? Or contemporary works?These are my contemporary favoritesCormac McCarthy=awesome-although No Country for Old Men is not nearly as good at Blood Meridian or Suttree.Jonathan Franzen= Corrections is awesome.Philip Roth-American PastoralThomas Pynchon=Gravities Rainbow-forty years old, but still awesome.For the record, the Inheritance Cycle isn't so bad.Twilight takes the cake as the worse, however. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
CeciliaL Posted August 30, 2010 Report Share Posted August 30, 2010 Best: Chuck Palahniuk's early works (i.e. Fight Club, Palahniuk's Survivor is also a good read! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meraki Posted September 6, 2010 Report Share Posted September 6, 2010 Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men for best.And Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series for worst.(: Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grumps Posted September 9, 2010 Report Share Posted September 9, 2010 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson is great.I'm not going to damn any I think are bad as the only ones I can think of are the ones that everyone hates on to look cool. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tilia Posted September 15, 2010 Report Share Posted September 15, 2010 (edited) Best: Juloratoriet by TunströmWorst: hard so say, I don't like Twilight, but I'm sure there are worse books.And by the way, Evelina, I don't think Njals saga is really modern literature... Edited September 15, 2010 by Tilia Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sandwich Posted September 15, 2010 Report Share Posted September 15, 2010 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson is great.I'm not going to damn any I think are bad as the only ones I can think of are the ones that everyone hates on to look cool.You know it's alright to dislike them because they're genuinely rubbish too Some people hate on them to look cool, but that doesn't mean that people who dislike them for an actual reason (other than trying to seem cool) can't say so without looking like they're being fake or showing off. I used to be dead set against doing anything which other people might perceive that way but, eh, it's just a waste of time and also vaguely liberating to not care what people think. We all have a right to an opinion, after all, and even if the 'cool' people (who probably never even read the books or know what an actually decent book is because I doubt they're the sort of person who'd even bother to read... right?) want to 'claim' some opinions for their own as the 'cool' thing to think, that's their problem. Not mine. I'm not going to stop thinking things and saying things just because I don't want to be tarred with the same brush.So yeah. Tell us what these books are! I always figure if you actually have reasons and say them, you're already different from the sheep people... at least you have a real reason rather than a parroted one to fit in 1 Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evelina Posted September 15, 2010 Report Share Posted September 15, 2010 Best: Juloratoriet by TunströmWorst: hard so say, I don't like Twilight, but I'm sure there are worse books.And by the way, Evelina, I don't think Njals saga is really modern literature...whoops no of course Njals Saga isn't considered as "modern" literature, guess I missed that part in the title when I wrote my last comment. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hello dodger Posted September 18, 2010 Report Share Posted September 18, 2010 I haven't actually read Larsson's trilogy, but it looks really good. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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