I tried to read Journey to the Center of the Earth, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, sorry Jules Verne, you suck H.G. Wells is so much better and more prescient of the future.
I quite enjoyed The Hobbit and made it like a book and a half into the Lord of the Rings trilogy or book or whatever I don’t remember.
I know The Hobbit was more of a children’s book, but damnit it was entertaining. I couldn’t take all the random songs when someone stubs their toe or takes a shit in the Lord of the Rings books! Too much fucking singing!!!
This is what I came in to say. I tried reading it twice and put it down out of boredom, and the third time (in my 30s) I forced myself to finish it. I can’t understand, at all, what all the fuss is about.
Yes, Wells is much more entertaining. But I read through tons of Verne as an adolescent and adored it. Make sure you get the later un-Bowlderized translations (the early English versions stayed in print forever and should all be burned).
Get hold of some of the lesser known novels…Doctor Ox’s Experiment, Robur the Conqueror, The Steam House, Hector Servadac, The Begum’s Fortune…they are a helluva lot of fun. Around the World in Eighty Days is very good, too.
I also love The Great Gatsby and Moby-Dick, but I shouldn’t second-guess other folks’s opinions here. Any more.
I had daily readings from it as a schoolboy, and I studied it as literature under literary theorist, literary critic and ordained minister Northrop Frye. I recognize the skill of the translators, and I appreciate the phrasing of some of the passages, but quite simply, I find it abhorrent because it was and is taught as truth to generations of people. Even now, the head of state of my country is the head of the church that commissioned this book, and it is still being preached as being truth. I’m for using fiction, including speculative fiction such as the Bible, to open up minds – not to be taken as universal truth to be followed in obedience to the people who commissioned it.
I had daily readings from it as a schoolboy, and I studied it as literature under literary theorist, literary critic and ordained minister Northrop Frye. I recognize the skill of the translators, and I appreciate the phrasing of some of the passages, but quite simply, I find it abhorrent because it was and is taught as truth to generations of people. Even now, the head of state of my country is the head of the church that commissioned this book, and it is still being preached as being truth. I’m for using fiction, including speculative fiction such as the Bible, to open up minds – not to be taken as universal truth to be followed in obedience to the people who commissioned it.
Ohhhhh! That reminds me, now that you bring up a 19th century classic, I absolutely hated Last of the Mohicans. The protagonist was a bore and the writing was clunky. I vaguely recall a chapter beginning with something like words very close to “Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest.” Who writes like that?
I actually liked a lot of what we read in high school, with the exception of Gatsby. I’m from Long Island originally, and I had the same reaction to Gatsby as I did to Seinfeld - I grew up around some of these people and they weren’t funny or interesting, they were assholes.
I made very good faith efforts with Moby Dick and Don Quixote, ended up putting them down. But for shear awfulness you can’t beat Last of the Mohicans. Utterly impenetrable and unreadable.
CalMeacham:. Really? What didn’t you like about The Manchurian Candidate? I thought it was better than the movie (the first movie), and I LOVE the movie.
I **loathed **Tom Jones (which I never finished) and barely made it through Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The few things I’ve read by Hemingway have not enticed me to read further.
I **loathed **Tom Jones (which I never finished) and barely made it through Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The few things I’ve read by Hemingway have not enticed me to read further.
I’ll chime in for Lord of the Rings, and I made myself read it all. Only good part was imagining Sam and Frodo in a sub/dom relationship. It better explains Sam’s jealousy of Frodo giving Gollum any attention, even when berating or beating him.
Recent one I read is Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Ichibod and Van Brunt are both detestable in their own ways, Katrina flitters to anyone who gives her attention, and the only way I could have enjoyed the story was if no one came out ahead. Thankfully it had the decency to be short.