Books People Tend to Love or Hate

There are books remarkable for the love and hate they engender. They are to books what dogs and cats are to animals in that the way we respond to them reflects our nature as much as theirs. Let us give each book the space and time it deserves: a separate forum. I will seed the first two forums and create another general matters forum where ideas for other books to take up may be broached. Please think twice before starting new forums/books. It has been my observation that when we have a strong opinion about anything, we tend to think the rest of the world holds the opposite one, perhaps because everyone wants to think of his or herself as the underdog, which is to say, heroic, and no one wants to admit they flog a dead horse (though it might be crueler to flog a live one). In other words, one bad review does not prove a book is hated and one good review does not prove it is loved. I want books which turn many, I repeat, many people ON or OFF. For example, I was terribly unexcited over Naomi Wolf’s Beauty Myth, for I thought it added almost nothing to a field which already had many good books which she did not give much credit to – and I always hate books I feel I could do much better, myself – but aside from Paglia pouncing on her (in a way both too general and too personal), I do not at this point feel enough people dislike her book (Don’t get me wrong, I liked her next book which gave her personal testimony of growing up, because it did add something and her lack of ideas I do not hold against her, for some people have them and some don’t) for it to deserve a forum. I realize her book is my problem because it dealt with a subject I happen to know a lot about, and any further discussion about it does not belong here. It would probably fit better in the ongoing forum, “Books that everyone loves and you hate,” found within Book talk. I imagine there may well be a “Books that everyone hates and I love” out there somewhere or there will be. Again, that will not do here. Let’s discuss and debate books everyone – meaning most who read them – love and hate. Note: Readers are welcome to quote reviews to support their opinions, but advised to write down their thoughts before reading many reviews, so they will not be influenced. When books are classics, it would be wonderful to have old (uncopyrighted) criticism on both sides quoted at length. Good readers find it more interesting when we do not obey the mistaken advice commonly heard in countries where “being yourself” – as if you can be anyone else – is pushed on people: namely, to “put it into your own words.” Further discussion in the general matters forum. (When and if LT gains a third tier, this group will become a sub-group of Book Talk, or, if the quality of the forum warrants it, I may see about transferring the best to one forum within Writing Books Right Here & Now, a group I just started.)