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Read any good books lately?


When I read a good book or hear a magnificent piece of music, or see a great work of art or a movie, or contemplate something like Westminister Abbey or any of the Frank Lloyd wright houses such as Falling Waters, I often think - These people are geniuses, and feel an aching to be able to do something like they do. But, I spent my life on other things, and when I try to be creative, the result is just middlin. I just marvel at the ability some humans have to create things meaningful and lasting.
 
Middle-aged_Ball_Coach said:
Now you lost me. I was beginning to take your views very seriously, and then you had to say something positive about Jane Eyre. There are very few classic novels that I will disparage--in fact, can't think of another one--but that one is awful. From a pre-pubescent friend with the worldview of a Stoic philosopher crossed with Buddha, to a cowardly man who uses deception so as to avoid risking anything when trying to win Jane over, to the complete dismissal of the crazy wife in the attic, to Jane being sentenced in the end of the novel to spending her life taking care of a spineless man who was trying to woo her with deception while keeping his crazy wife locked up in the upstairs. Yeah, that's drivel.

I'll try to not hold that against you because everything else you said seems reasonable, but the fact that you like that book and recommend it to others makes me question everything else. :Unsure:
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The Catcher In The Rye is the worst book ever written. I agree with you on Jane Eyre though.
 



Mack The Shark said:
The Catcher In The Rye is the worst book ever written. I agree with you on Jane Eyre though.
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Solid point there, but I wouldn't call it the worst. It's incredibly overrated. My wife has a friend who named her son "Holden" because of that mediocre book. I've wondered what he'll think of that when he's an adult after having read the book? I don't see it being read much in 20 years.
 
Middle-aged_Ball_Coach said:
Solid point there, but I wouldn't call it the worst. It's incredibly overrated. My wife has a friend who named her son "Holden" because of that mediocre book. I've wondered what he'll think of that when he's an adult after having read the book? I don't see it being read much in 20 years.
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It's a tough read. Caulfield is an unlikable protagonist and plot is mundane. Being forced to read it as part of an AP English class may color opinion a bit, but I don't know that I've ever had a less enjoyable reading experience.
 
Mack The Shark said:
I'm currently reading Bernard Cornwell's The Last Kingdom. The Netflix series was incredible so I decided to read the books.
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I also like the Netflix series. I've read a couple of his other books (Hundred Years' War setting), and I've enjoyed them all. To me, good historical fiction needs to start by getting the history right, and then I'll consider the fiction part of it. Cornwell passes the first with flying colors, but the fiction part is good but not great. I'd say the same about Michener, except his books were each the equivalent of an entire series in one long-@$$ book.
 




Middle-aged_Ball_Coach said:
I also like the Netflix series. I've read a couple of his other books (Hundred Years' War setting), and I've enjoyed them all. To me, good historical fiction needs to start by getting the history right, and then I'll consider the fiction part of it. Cornwell passes the first with flying colors, but the fiction part is good but not great. I'd say the same about Michener, except his books were each the equivalent of an entire series in one long-@$$ book.
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Thanks for the quick critique of Cornwell's books. I'll definitely keep that in mind. So far I'd have to say that I agree with "good but not great" moniker. This may be the rare occasion when the film version is better than the book. I needed something to satiate the fix until season four comes out next year. The book appears to be working.
 
Mack The Shark said:
It's a tough read. Caulfield is an unlikable protagonist and plot is mundane. Being forced to read it as part of an AP English class may color opinion a bit, but I don't know that I've ever had a less enjoyable reading experience.
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So I'm guessing that you've never been forced to read any Deconstructionist writers of literary criticism?
 
Mack The Shark said:
Thanks for the quick critique of Cornwell's books. I'll definitely keep that in mind. So far I'd have to say that I agree with "good but not great" moniker. This may be the rare occasion when the film version is better than the book. I needed something to satiate the fix until season four comes out next year. The book appears to be working.
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Have you read any of Ken Follett's books? He's a better storyteller, but Cornwell covers more history.
 
Middle-aged_Ball_Coach said:
So I'm guessing that you've never been forced to read any Deconstructionist writers of literary criticism?
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That angsty question everything stuff from the post WWII era? ;) If you consider Salinger as a deconstructionist then yes. I was forced to read a lot of books in AP English. The Catcher in the Rye, Great Expectations, Of Mice and Men, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and 1984 are about the only ones that stand out to me.
 



Mack The Shark said:
That angsty question everything stuff from the post WWII era? ;) If you consider Salinger as a deconstructionist then yes. I was forced to read a lot of books in AP English. The Catcher in the Rye, Great Expectations, Of Mice and Men, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and 1984 are about the only ones that stand out to me.
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Yes, I like your definition, but Salinger would be too early for the label. To properly loathe the Deconstructionists, you have to read someone French, snobbish, and with an unnecessarily complicated syntax and vocabulary that is designed to obscure the fact that their ideas are basically the same as the pot-smoking ravings of spoiled anti-establishment teens who are coming up with reasons for why they're not more popular with the ladies. Like a shipment of broken cuckoo clocks, they're occasionally correct, usually by accident, but always obnoxious and a shining example of the impractical. Derridas is the most famous, but pick a random page with Amazon previews of him or Roland Barthe and see what you think. If you read someone else quoting them, you'll be skipping the cacophony of the cuckoos to see examples of those times when they were accidentally right, but it's more interesting to jump into the middle of their babblings to see how unnecessarily difficult they make it.
 

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