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One star books

Loulit01 said:

Heinlein Gets the Last Word​

Date: December 9, 1990, Sunday, Late Edition - Final
Byline: By Kurt Vonnegut; Kurt Vonnegut's most recent book is his novel "Hocus Pocus."
Lead:
STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND By Robert A. Heinlein. 525 pp. New York: Ace/G.P. Putnam's Sons. $24.95.
Text:

I'm so sorry some of you lack the literary acumen to appreciate a groundbreaking work of science fiction that, in catapulting into the NY Times Bestseller List, sparked the consideration of modern science fiction as serious literature. It led the way for the great sci-fi revival that continues to this day.

Stranger in a Strange Land won the 1962 Hugo Award for Best Novel and became the first science fiction novel to enter The New York Times Book Review's best-seller list. In 2012, the Library of Congress named it one of 88 "Books that Shaped America"

Why do I have to deal with cretins all day? Why? Why?
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I'm sure there's plenty of crud, sorry, books that have not aged very well, that have won the Hugo Award.

Interesting Library of Congress list:

beinecke.library.yale.edu

88 Books that Shaped America

The Library of Congress has recently identified a list of important American books: 88 Books that Shaped America.
beinecke.library.yale.edu beinecke.library.yale.edu

AI overview says it's not intended as a 'best of' list' but a starting point for discussion. I don't think anyone's going to die on the hill of 'Tarzan of the Apes' being a literary classic.
 
One star books?

If a book won’t hook me in the first two-three chapters, I bail. Once I reject a book, it takes an awful lot to get me to try it again.
 
Juin said:
1984. I found it tedious and tiresome. Much preferred Animal Farm
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One of the great books of the 20th century.
 
Juin said:
I know exactly what portions of the Bible I ever read. Only the action packed ones. It helped that I was/am Roman Catholic; it is not expected that you go through every inch of it like Protestants.

I read Genesis. Bits of Exodus; After the plagues and desert chase I gave Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy a wide berth. Joshua was good, action packed. Judges as well. Never touched Ruth. Samuels, Kings, Chronicles I read. The Prophets I never read, except for like Esther, Daniel. I read the Gospels. Read Acts. Paul's Letters only heard them in readings at mass. I read Revelations.

The cool thing is that in the Catholic Church no one really cares whether you read them or not. Actually you may draw suspicions if you start quoting verses like a Protestant :)
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Ecclesiastes is the best of them in my opinion.
 
Sven Karma said:
Interesting Library of Congress list:
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Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak (1963)


I approve of this list even though The Catcher in the Rye is on it.
 
Bok Tuklo said:
Ecclesiastes is the best of them in my opinion.
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Agree totally. I have to say it probably is the one book I can relate to directly in a personal way. Its a unique philosophy on its own. Its more an earthly philosophy than a philosophy of heavenly realms
 
The entire LOTR corpus, by each book, and in toto.
 
reinaert said:
The very best English renderings:

View attachment 67588188
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I read Job like the first page, then skipped to the last page. Basically the gist of what happened, skipped the lengthy Lamentations between, then the happy ending at the last page.

Dont think I ever read a line of Proverbs.

Read and like Ecclesiastes
 
Juin said:
I read Job like the first page, then skipped to the last page. Basically the gist of what happened, skipped the lengthy Lamentations between, then the happy ending at the last page.

Dont think I ever read a line of Proverbs.

Read and like Ecclesiastes
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Alter's Job is readable.
 
Safiel said:
The movie screenplay was much better written than the novel it was based on, though it follows the same basic episodic storyline.
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Probably the best example of a movie being better than the book it was based on. All credit to Ring Lardner Jr.

And the cast and Altman himself, to an extent - like most Altman films, lots of improv. Altman said in an interview that he thought the book was "pretty terrible," and "somewhat racist."

Top ten movie for me.
 
TheDoctorWasIn said:
Which is the incest one?

Time Enough for Love? Or was it To Sail Beyond the Sunset?
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TSBtS

Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world
Push off, and sitting well in order
Smite the sounding furrows
For my purpose holds,
To sail beyond the sunset
and the baths of all the Western stars
Until I die.

Tennyson
 
When it comes to Heinlein, I think when I was a teenager, I read every book he wrote, except for a few of the kids books, and Job: a Comedy of Justice.

I tried to read Job, and I made it through a lot of Heinlein books that I look back on now and cringe, like the aforementioned TSBtS - but I couldn't get more than 20 pages into Job.
 
TheDoctorWasIn said:
Probably the best example of a movie being better than the book it was based on. All credit to Ring Lardner Jr.

And the cast and Altman himself, to an extent - like most Altman films, lots of improv. Altman said in an interview that he thought the book was "pretty terrible," and "somewhat racist."

Top ten movie for me.
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In early episodes of M*A*S*H the TV show, there was a black doctor they called Spearchucker.

Don't believe me?

Dr. Oliver 'Spearchucker' Jones played by Fred Williamson.
 
TheDoctorWasIn said:
When it comes to Heinlein, I think when I was a teenager, I read every book he wrote, except for a few of the kids books, and Job: a Comedy of Justice.

I tried to read Job, and I made it through a lot of Heinlein books that I look back on now and cringe, like the aforementioned TSBtS - but I couldn't get more than 20 pages into Job.
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My favorite is the faux-tendentious anvil drop in the middle of Friday.
 
Loulit01 said:
In early episodes of M*A*S*H the TV show, there was a black doctor they called Spearchucker.

Don't believe me?

Dr. Oliver 'Spearchucker' Jones played by Fred Williamson.
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He was a character in the original novel and 1970 movie. In the final episode of the novel/movie, he is brought in as a "ringer" in a high stakes football game between the 4077th and another unit.

Interesting that the tv series initially used Spearchucker as the "third" swampman, rather than Duke Forrest. Duke was a main character in the novel and movie, while Spearchucker was a minor tertiary character.
 
reinaert said:
My favorite is the faux-tendentious anvil drop in the middle of Friday.
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I read Friday when I was really young - maybe 10 or 11. My uncle had lent me Harsh Mistress, and I had become obsessed, and Friday was the first other Heinlein book I found at the library.

I recently went back to it, a few years ago, and I was blown away by how kinda bad it was.
 
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