Need to bitch for a second

[tummies]

Okay. Has anyone read (or tried to read) a book called Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl? If not, this won't be relevant, and I'll have nobody to talk to...but...

THIS BOOK IS INFURIATING ME. It is the literary equivalent of a show pony: overwrought, overwritten, psuedo-intellectual, pretentious. The similes are amazingly bad ("his

Comments

[faux_teak]

Sorry, m'dear, but that was one of my very absolute favorite books of the year last year. I devoured that thing, and now I wish I hadn't read it, so I could read it again.

However, I have indeed been in your boat. Let's see... what did I hate that everyone else loved? Um... does Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man count? Because I hated that book with a fury I have rarely felt towards a work of literature.

[tummies]

Ohhh no! I was just about to post: "Uhhh, if anyone DID like it...I'm sorry...(whew, set myself up for THAT one)." Well, here's to disagreement! *clink* ;)

Hahaha...regarding James Joyce. Rajeev has wanted me to read Ulysses for a long time. I can read it for paragraph-sized chunks, and then I just get frustrated and/or distracted. It seems I value concreteness in books.

Anybody else? What book did you HATE that everyone else LOVED? What book makes you unaccountably angry?

[aaaaaames]

I didn't HATE it, but I disliked Kavalier and Clay. EVERYONE likes that book, so I think that would have to be mine.

[aaaaaames]

ooo, now I TOTALLY need to read this thing. I like a controversy. faux_teak, can I borrow it? Do you have it?

[tummies]

The James Joyce, or the Marisha Pesssssssl?

[aaaaaames]

Marisha Pessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssl. I've read plenty of James Joyce. I'm done with ole Joycey. You can ask Molly.

[faux_teak]

I do indeed have it. And it's not packed up in plastic or sent away from my apartment or anything. You're more than welcome to borrow. I'll try and remember to bring it next time I see you.