And did it change your opinion of the book afterwards?
For example, Memoirs of a Geisha. I recognize it was written by an American man who pissed off his primary source to the point where she sued him. I recognize it’s not all that historically accurate and paints a horrific picture of human nature, particularly that of Japanese men.
But I just felt totally immersed in her world and could not put the book down. I figured it might be ostracized considering the author’s demographic (very warranted to an extent), but despite all the hate, the fact that I immensely enjoyed reading the book still stands.
I think we can recognize and accept the faults of a book without needing to change our opinion on how we felt while reading it. Thoughts?
by iamherebecause
29 Comments
People are really 50/50 on Project Hail Mary. I’m in the half that liked it.
The DaVinci Code. I liked those books.
*The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue*. I adored that book, but I seem to be in the minority. I’ve seen it get a lot of hate, especially here on Reddit.
The Catcher in the Rye
If you liked Memoirs of a Geisha, try Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata. It’s still a male writing about a geisha, but Kawabata is Japanese, so culturally it’s much nearer the mark (also, Kawabata won the Nobel Prize for Literature, so there’s that…).
The Alchemist. I thought it was a fun little summer read.
Leave The World Behind – it was an easy five stars for me but I was surprised it had a low rating on Goodreads. It’s weird and surreal and spooky so I guess that makes it divisive.
Battlefield Earth. Admittedly, I read it as a kid, having never heard of either Hubbard or scientology. Any messagng went straight over my head. I thought it was a fun pulpy book, though even kid-me admitted that it dragged near the end. I think I really liked the idea of an alien species concluding that humans are mere dumb animals, as it made me root for humans to prove themselves. And I liked seeing the humans of the future finding bits and pieces of the old world and trying to draw their own conclusions based on what they saw. There were lots of little worldbuilding elements that I found interesting back then and which inspired my own tween-age writings.
To this day I don’t think the book’s as bad as many people say, but I’ve not read it in close to 20 years. It’d definitely be a different experience knowing the author and having a keener eye for subtext.
Wuthering Heights and The Scarlet Letter
With Neil Gaiman’s decline in online popularity I’ve been seeing a lot of criticism for American Gods, but I really liked it when I read it ages ago, though it took me a while to get it into it.
I’m accepting of differences in tastes but Wuthering Heights is one of my favorite books ever and I’m still baffled it’s widely hated.
I read A Little Life because I was going through a heavy grieving period and googled books that are sad. I loved it because it was like the book went down in the depths of my despair with me. When I finished I looked up some reviews and WOW people hate that book. I get why, and I could never read it again. But it served its purpose for me.
I like Twilight. 🤷🏼♀️
The Goldfinch. People complained that it needed a good editor, was too long, blah blah. It did not change my opinion. I will read anything Donna Tartt writes. Hopefully there will be something new soon, because I’m getting old.
>For example, Memoirs of a Geisha. I recognize it was written by an American man who pissed off his primary source to the point where she sued him.
I read both but unlike majority I prefer one written by geiko herself.
American one was more like fantasy and the written by his primary source was very down to earth and real. I understand why people love Memoirs of a Geisha (movie is breathtaking) as it’s like Harry Potter in a way. Magical but if you lived in UK or read about real experiences of boarding schools and british culture veil lifts. It’s like if you know how magic trick works you can’t be immersed in magic of it.
Eragon. When I was a kid that’s the book that really got me into reading and suggested to me that maybe one day I’d be able to write too! I love all the books in the inheritance cycle, but I can’t even mention the title of the series to anyone without people having to explain why they hate the books. Every time. It’s so annoying.
It seems like a lot of people hated The Girl on the Train. I enjoyed it, and was interested in the mystery. I liked that the main character was deeply flawed and did some fucked things. I was hooked all the way through.
A Little Life. As a gay man myself I’m well aware of the criticisms of Yanagihara being a straight woman writing trauma porn about gay men, and to an extent I do agree. I also don’t really like how she presented Willem’s sexuality
But it’s so damn well written and is one of the few books to have made me cry (alongside Shuggie Bain and The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida… maybe I just have a thing for traumatic gay novels lol)
It’s ofc valid to criticise ALL but I feel like some people take it too far and completely ignore its merits. I’ve also seen people rant about it who admit that they refuse to even read it
I’m in a book club so this happens a lot.
I thought the Echo Wife by Sarah Gailey was a masterpiece. They said it was badly written.
I thoroughly enjoyed All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai. It really split the group. Someone did come up to me afterwards and say it was their new favourite novel but all the people who now form our post pandemic splinter group hated it. I forget why. I think someone said it was because the protagonist reminded them of themselves.
It’s happened the other way of course. They all loved “Where the Crawdad Sings” I think its boring and has a cheaters ending. I will die on this hill. I loathe that book.
The fun of subjective discussion.
I genuinely love *Normal People.* Maybe it’s because I once had a similar relationship in my life?
The Time Traveler’s Wife.
I loved Tender is the Flesh..I am not overly squeamish and read a lot of darker fiction so was quite interested by what it was doing.
A lot of people just couldn’t deal with it.
Lolita – Nabokov
Maybe the best-written book I’ve ever read (and not even in the author’s native language), but the subject matter (pedophilia, essentially) makes it unreadable for a lot of people.
Gone With the Wind. I know it’s still quite popular and beloved but I feel like I need to shy away from saying I really enjoy reading (and rereading!) this book. I know how inaccurately it portrays the enslaved characters and there’s racist slurs throughout. I don’t condone any of that but for the overall story, I still love it.
*The Midnight Library.* I totally get why people find it trite and unimaginative and kind of dismissive for how it actually feels to have depression, but I’m also a sucker for surreal representations of a character’s psyche. Have you seen *Mulholland Drive* or read *We Were Liars*? Without too many spoilers, I can definitely say that all three stories are pretty much these immersive experiences of rearranged little bits of a character’s psyche, all to tell a story about where a character’s head is at. (Probably a weird explanation, I hope it gets across.)
Honestly Twilight.
I was already past the target age range for it when it came out but decided to give it a try anyways.
I didn’t enjoy it for the story or characters. I enjoyed it because it was simple. I had just gotten done reading a heavier book for a book club, the kind that is wordy and is suppose to make you think and reflect.
The fact Twilight was just simple was a relief. No three pages of something like how green a tree was and what meaning it had in life or anything like that.
Night Circus. It was so dark and mysterious and quirky. My mom, husband, and I all loved it. Every time someone mentions it online, it’s negative.
I really enjoy a lot of the Agatha Cristie novels that are considered mid and low teir
The Night Circus.
Apparently a lot of people on r/books got hoodwinked by the dusk jacket summary, which makes it sound like more of a fantasy thriller thing, and were disappointed when it turned out to be a slower-paced book. I bought it because I thought the cover was pretty, so that was never a problem for me.