The Mysterious Divergence of Opinions Revisited

12 years ago

I ran across this thread on my hard drive and thought of reposting it here. Hope you guys enjoy it as much as I did the second time around.

Also, hope this does not violate any of the rules on reposting a thread.

Posted by FriedaG (My Page) on Sat, Apr 23, 05 at 9:54

I owe the impetus of this thread to a conversation between captainbackfire and laa_laa (Lina) in The Birth of Venus thread (cross reference). I didn't want to hijack that discussion, but I would like to consider in more general terms how we as readers can sometimes be polar opposites in our opinions of certain books.

A lot of it boils down to personal taste, that I know. But have you ever noticed that occasionally a reader whose taste you've pegged as very similar to your own, can completely astound you by either disliking something you like or loving something that does absolutely nothing for you (or even worse, you loathe). How can we reconcile this?

Do any of you find it as frustratingly hard to recommend books to friends and family as I do? Some folk -- and I could name some RPers, but won't :-) -- seem to have an uncanny knack for finding books with very wide reader appeal (they can predict best-sellers or future prize winners, for example); while others, like me (in my mind, at least), seem to like books of limited appeal.

I want to stick to books themselves and maybe a few authors that have completely baffled some of us. I want to hear (read) about those books that have mystified you as to why they are so widely loved (or hated) and maybe some of your theories why they appeal strongly to some folk and not to others.

Here are some fingernails-on-the-chalkboard books (in my mind) that have flabbergasted me the most, lately (besides The Da Vinci Code):

Bee Season
A Confederacy of Dunces
The Lovely Bones

Note: I don't mean this debate as a reflection on any specific reader who loves or hates, or is indifferent about, the above books or any others. :-)

I know you all have lots of ideas!

Follow-Up Postings:

o RE: The Mysterious Divergence of Opinions-Correction

Posted by: FriedaG (My Page) on Sat, Apr 23, 05 at 10:05

Instead of Bee Season above, substitute The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. I confuse those two books a lot, but I actually liked Goldberg's Bee Season slightly better than Kidd's bestseller. However faint the praise... ;-)

o RE: The Mysterious Divergence of Opinions

Posted by: Carolyn_KY (My Page) on Sat, Apr 23, 05 at 11:33

I disliked We Were the Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates and The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon and don't care at all for the Stephanie Plum mysteries that many RPers really like.

o RE: The Mysterious Divergence of Opinions

Posted by: FriedaG (My Page) on Sat, Apr 23, 05 at 11:55

Hmm. Carolyn, I haven't read any of those. What about them turned you off?

I only know the first two by reputation: Isn't We Were the Mulvaneys a...

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Comments (5)

iamokathy
Original Author
12 years ago
Just for the record, I loved Life of Pi. That too was one that people either loved or hated. I have a first edition of it and hope someday it'll have some value.

Or I could site Anna Karinana, which I read in my early twenties and loved and then did a reread for a thread we had on it a few years ago and was bored to tears. So the passing of time must also be important in the formula.

Took me three tries to get into Cloud Atlas. While I'd like to read it again as I know a missed alot of the details, I don't want it to go the way of AK so I just may let it lie. BTW, I was thoroughly enthralled with it once I got into it.
sheriz6
12 years ago
How nice to revisit this thread!

I was struck by the phrase "novels and entertainment" -- I've been in a bit of a reading slump for months now, and truly all I've read has been in the entertainment category. With summer coming on I know I will continue to enjoy lighter books, but every once in a while I think I'd love to have something weighty to read that also grabs me from page one and makes me read it. No small order, right?

Some nine years later I still don't like dysfunctional families or Oprah recommendations, and I still have not changed my opinion of Faulkner ;)

I do have to say being in another book group has forced me to read things I would never have otherwise picked up, and it's good to stretch those reading muscles on occasion. As I've gotten older I've come to be able to separate subject matter from writing ability, though there are several books I still wish I'd never read. ROOM by Emma Donoghue comes immediately to mind. Brilliantly imagined and written, but IMO devastating and depressing subject matter.
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leel
12 years ago
I'm more caught up by non-fiction, but on occasion I will dip into fiction if a NYTines review is good & the topic interests me.

In the past couple months I have read 3 pieces of fiction, one of them a Pulitzer prize winner. After reading that one, The Goldfinch, my only reaction was to question the award. Another, The Invention of Wings, was so-so. The most recent, All the Light Our Eyes Cannot See, had a somewhat unusual presentation of parallel protagonists. I thought I detected how it would all end, but the author had planted several red herrings which threw me off, I'm happy to say. On the whole, I enjoyed it, although I thought the ending was a bit weak.

But now I'm back to my non-fiction, and I'm a happy camper.
iamokathy
Original Author
12 years ago
Thought of another one. I finally got to Sylvia Plath's The Bell Jar. It's been on my list for 15 years. The content and the writing ability on this one was great. Yes, the subject matter was depressing ;), but I still cannot get it out of my head. I wish I'd read it sooner. She reminds me a bit of Virginia Woolf. I understand why people who don't like this topic don't like it, but oh so many people may relate at some level, which I think is good.

Thank you Sylvia Plath. Read on.
woodnymph2_gw
12 years ago
I also liked Sylvia Plath's brilliant short stories.

I could not get into "Cloud Atlas." Years ago I forced myself to read Faulkner (in my teens). I don't think I could get through even one chapter today of his works.

I would agree that the passage of time has made a difference in my opinions of certain books.

The Mysterious Divergence of Opinions Revisited

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The Mysterious Divergence of Opinions Revisited

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iamokathyOriginal Author

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iamokathy
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