More teenage bookcase embarrassments

[mmcirvin]

Crooked Timber has a thread up on the ever-popular subject of books you're embarrassed to have loved, as discussed here over a year ago.

What's striking is that the same names keep coming up over and over: Erich von Däniken, Richard Bach, Ayn Rand, Piers Anthony, Robert Heinlein (though several people point out that the shame with Heinlein is not to enjoy his work but to take him as your personal guru). And Jake even mentioned Colin Wilson in a very different context.

Somebody quoted Ursula Le Guin as saying that kids might like junk but no kid is dumb enough to like Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Wrong.

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...And today, I keep on reading Rudy Rucker's novels despite being perfectly aware of their enormous flaws. But obviously I'm getting something out of them.

[lots42.livejournal.com]

Some books are fun to read because of their flaws. I read Tinker mostly to discover which shockingly insane thing the heroine would do next.

The worst was not summoning anyone from either two loyal-to-her armies when a powerful man threatened her.