just finished reading alchemist. it took me all of two nights. not too bad on the put-down-able factor. but considering how much i had heard about it, it was a bit of a dissapointment. doesnt mean that i didnt like it, just that i thought it would be more ... profound? mature? original?
what do you expect from a book? that it will tell me something i didnt know? and something that i will be glad to know? AND / OR that it will do its telling in a manner that i enjoy?
my personal top five literary dissapointments:
1 - hitchhikers guide to the galaxy
2 - great gatsby
3 - catcher in the rye
4 - love in the times of cholera
5 - alchemist
(ZEN and the art of ... ? Immortality? Not sure for sure ... but they got close)
Disclaimer: Not putting these books down at all. Or even saying I didnt like them. Just that FOR ME they were 'different' from MY expectations.
Whats your top 5?
1. catcher in the rye 2. pride and prejudice 3. autograph man (zadie smith) 4. name of the rose (umberto eco) 5. emma
ReplyDeletePele- two Jane Austin books? C'mon. that's just ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteOK. May be. I was just following the directions laid out by Ricercar - books that "disappointed" me...
ReplyDeleteAnd btw, who art thou? :)
i think that was mimi. emma - i cant remember - but if its the one i think it is it i didnt like it either. but i didnt really expect to. but pride and prejudice and sense and sensibility ... i love those two! :)
ReplyDeletei didnt like Rushdie's 'ground beneath her feet' much..n couldnt go thru Vikram Seth's 'an equal music'..n the wierd part is both these books talked bout my fav topic music....wierd..i tell u...
ReplyDeletejo
hmmmm....i am trying to be positive...so i shall talk abt books that were better than expected:(1)behind the scenes at the musuem-kate atkinson(2) summer-edith wharton (3)catcher in the rye *grin* (4)a fringe of leaves-patrick white (5)hotel du lac-anita brookner.and urs?
ReplyDeletePaulo Coelho is a sorry excuse for a writer. So is Jane Austen. How I regretted my childhood being forced to read the so-called classics. Douglas Adams never disappointed me. I completely cracked up reading the The Meaning of Liff. Salinger must have written The Catcher in the Rye at a time when wordprocessors were either a) nonexistent b) he couldn't use one to save his life. Pirsig's Lila was worse compared to Zen. He missed the plot a hundred pages into the book.
ReplyDelete1. Ground Beneath Her Feet
ReplyDelete2. Midnight's Children
3. Fury
And then I decided not to touch Salman Rushdie again!
i excepted Alchemist to be much more too....cannot say i found what i was looking for. besides found it a little bit Preachy. hoow are you Ricer?
ReplyDeleteim good. who was that?
ReplyDeleteAM very disappointed...
ReplyDeleteExcept for the Coelho book, I'd take the rest off the list. Esp. GGM! Sacrilege, FGM mine... that is his finest narrative. Perhaps we read for different pleasures. :)
My top 5 would be A Roy--GofST, Shobha De--All of her crap!, Paul Coelho: most of his narrative preaches!, and most of the victorian/elizebethan dramas, esp. Vanity Fair and Pride & Prejudice.
-FGS
FGS - like i said - didnt mean he was bad. he was good. im glad i read it. i read it twice. and perhaps will read again someday ... but it wasnt what i expected in someway. that was the point of the list - there r hajaar bad writers otherwise ... :)
ReplyDeleteHOW CAN ANYONE NOT LIKE PRIDE AND PREJUDICE? :O:O:O Paulo Coelho I can understand! And totally agree with Heretic on the Shobha De, A Roy bit too..
ReplyDeleteBtw I wposted that Sulman Rushdie waala comment too.
--Apple