Catcher in the Rye.
Agreed. I read it, but as I recall, it was just a really weird book with no useful nuggets of wisdom whatsoever.Originally Posted by Scheherazade
Catcher in the Rye.
Agreed. I read it, but as I recall, it was just a really weird book with no useful nuggets of wisdom whatsoever.
Do we measure the merits of a work of literature based upon the number of useful nuggets of wisdom conveyed?
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.- Mark Twain
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According to the Stephen King thread we do.
Personally, I do not.
P.S.
I enjoy Stephen King's writing.
I'd rather have questions that I can't answer than answers that I can't question.
Not always, maybe not even most of the time, but most great works of literature have something useful/wise to say about the human condition, is that not so?
A book can also be meaningless, as Stranger was, but it could make you feel deeply, and thus, be redemptive on that level alone. Stranger was just confusing to me, left me dry and that was just a big waste of time, IMO, except for the merit in being able to say honestly that I read it (big deal).
For example, there is another active thread here asking about books that make you laugh. Terry Pratchett's Discworld books INVARIABLY make me laugh out ****ing loud,, but have a I learned anything from them? In one sense, no, but I treasure each of them greatly for his ability to write things that make me smile and laugh.
Ulysses, James Joyce
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Mrs. Dalloway, Virginia Woolf
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Naked Lunch, William Burroughs
On the Road, Jack Kerouac
The Atrocity Exhibition, J.G. Ballard
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Hm, funny, only after composing this list did I notice I only included Anglo-American authors. Let me assure you, I'm not that prejudiced against the English-speaking world
Here's my list:
1. Twilight(I really wish time machines existed so I could undo the few hours it took me to read that.)
2. Kite Runner(I believe I would have liked this book better if my AP english teacher hadn't shoved it down our throats for over four months. Truth, I swear. She spent more time on that novel than Hamlet.)
3. All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy
4. Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare
5. To Kill A Mockingbird
Pick any 10 modern books. Because I'm dyslexic, e-books are the only comfortable way for me to read. The only way I can afford that is if the books are free. So the Public Domain is the only choice.
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1. I agree with all of you in the opinion of "Anything by Ayn Rand."
2. For Whom the Bell Tolls (It's a beautiful title but I loathed the novel, there are so many other fantastic books about the Spanish Civil War, in my opinion, that Hemingway's came off rather uninformed and weak).
3. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
4. Scarlett by Alexandra Ripley (The Sequel to Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind)
5. Twilight
Hmm..now I'll descend into non-fiction
5. Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health
6. The Bell Curve
7. Anything by Alex Jones
8. Dangerous Nation by Robert Kagan
Oops, got to eat, I'll have to add more later!
Updating my list (in no particular order):
1. The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
2. Mrs Dalloway by Woolf
3. The Alchemist by Coelho
4. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein
5. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
6. The Tin Drum by Gunter Grass
7. American Pastoral by Philip Roth
~
"It is not that I am mad; it is only that my head is different from yours.”
~
Women in Love DH Lawrence
The Alchemist Coelho
wow cant remember the rest!
Oh yes Tale of two cities Dickens.
Shirley and Villette by Charlotte Bronte.
All seven of the Harry Potter books
Finegans Wake
On the Road
Anything by Faulkner
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
I do not understand why there is so much negative opinion towards the Catcher in the Rye and Dan Brown. I have not read The Da Vinci Code, but Angels and Demons seemed fine to me.
Well you wouldn't catch me reading J.D.Salinger, in the rye or anywhere else for that matter, but it has been frequently referred to as an important American novel on this forum. As for dear old Dan Brown, he has been castigated (I believe that's the right expression) for being such a bad writer for the simple reason that he is, but it's possible that one would need to be somewhat older than 15 to arrive at that conclusion.
"L'art de la statistique est de tirer des conclusions erronèes a partir de chiffres exacts." Napoléon Bonaparte.
"Je crois que beaucoup de gens sont dans cet état d’esprit: au fond, ils ne sentent pas concernés par l’Histoire. Mais pourtant, de temps à autre, l’Histoire pose sa main sur eux." Michel Houellebecq.
Dan Brown must rank as one of the worst writers I have had the misfortune to read (had to read it for a uni topic on popular literature). I rank him alongside the likes of Richard Laymon and Clive ****ing Cussler - what a bag of crap! Even in my late teens (I was late to the reading game) I knew this to be the pile of ****e it really was. I then put down that crap and picked up Wilde.
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