Ugh, what a stupid list (no offense). Friends are always asking me to do these memes, and even though I'm a voracious reader and an English literature teacher to boot, I always decline. I just cannot take seriously any grouping of books that contains pseudo-historical hack pulp schlockster Dan Brown, crypto-racist and proponent of le vice Anglais Enid Blyton, chick lit phoner-in Helen Fielding, derivative thief of far better children's fantasy J.K. Rowling, and gooey tripemonger Mitch Albom. What would it say about me if I had read all of those? That I had no taste? That I was wasting my time when I could be experiencing the manifold joys of vastly better books?
I know, de gustibus non est disputandum and all that, but honestly. Leaving aside the weird duplications of (yay) Shakespeare and (ick) C.S. Lewis, what does utility or significance does a list that nestles the Brontes alongside "nigger"[sic]-hater Margaret Mitchell and the author of Swallows and Amazons even possess?
There are books on that list that I love, books I despise, books I consider over- or underrated, but as a whole it seems vastly without meaning. Harry Freakin' Potter: yeesh.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-07-09 03:20 am (UTC)I know, de gustibus non est disputandum and all that, but honestly. Leaving aside the weird duplications of (yay) Shakespeare and (ick) C.S. Lewis, what does utility or significance does a list that nestles the Brontes alongside "nigger"[sic]-hater Margaret Mitchell and the author of Swallows and Amazons even possess?
There are books on that list that I love, books I despise, books I consider over- or underrated, but as a whole it seems vastly without meaning. Harry Freakin' Potter: yeesh.