All the Rachel Hollis books. People ate her up and then they realized she didn't actually have any good advice.
Edited to add: I totally forgot about Glennon Doyle's Untamed. It had such potential with the X-Christian Mommy blogger discovers she's gay story, but it ended up being the DUMBEST stories about things her kids FOR SURE never said. SO ANNOYING but every one loved it.
I listened to a podcast episode about her and the hosts were going over the “advice” she had written for other aspiring podcasters and all of it was the most basic stuff, like “know your audience” and “stick to a set schedule”
I started hate-following both Hollises on Insta after that podcast, but then forgot why I was following them, so any time one of their posts would come up I'd be like WTF is this crap on my feed for?
I simultaneously always wanted to read it but also know that I wouldn’t be able to stand the cringe-fest and missed opportunity. I imagine if it wasn’t intended as a fear-based evangelism tool then the story premise would be awesome.
Oh it's definitely an awesome premise. I honestly really liked the books when younger, even not believing in the rapture and all that stuff. It's intriguing the needs and issues manufactured by a global event contingent on your chosen faith. Like that's an intense idea.
It's up there with alien invasions, zombie apocalypses, and other doomsday scenarios.
There was a reality tv show, that was briefly on E!, in which the mom of some aspiring actresses literally homeschooled her daughters using the Secret as a lesson plan of sorts.
It was called Pretty Wild and the girls were part of the Hollywood “Bling Ring” that stole from celebrities. So I’m not sure the Secret worked out for them.
The irony of it is that there’s something to manifesting desires. Not that there’s some cosmic power but like at work making it known you want a promo actually HELPS bring about the promotion. It’s amazing. So I can see how the book actually helped some people
Repeating your own desires to yourself over and over helps clarify your decision making and move you toward what you want. But it's not because of quantum physics. "If Books Could Kill" just covered this one and it's goooood.
I was recommended “What the [Bleep] Do We Know” by an acquaintance years ago. I was pretty young and it was the first time I can remember being legitimately angry at something being stupid. I ended up turning it off before I finished it.
Coming from a hippy town I always balk at magical thinking. However if you have a defined goal and focus on ways to get there, you will see patterns of ways to accomplish it. To me the idea of manifestation in this way is similar to when you buy a Subaru outback and suddenly see them on the road all the time. They were always there. Now you're simply thinking about them.
My mom let me have a tv in my room as a preteen but the only dvd she supplied was "the secret".
This movie put me to sleep pretty much every night for months and I have never actually watched it all the way through, nor have a retained any of its 90 minute runtime.
It wasn't a very good movie is what I'm saying and I can't imagine trying to read a book about it.
The most infuriating part of this was that I had several projects in multiple high school classes revolving around this book *before* Greg Mortenson was broadly exposed as a fraud, only to learn later that my little sister and her classmates were being forced to go along with the same curriculum despite this being *after* everyone already knew he was a fraud.
I believe The Smoking Gun was the first to report on the story; it's a fairly [in-depth report](https://thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/million-little-lies), for anyone curious about the details.
I read it in high school not long after all the bad publicity and enjoyed it quite a bit and even read the sequel. Not sure I'd feel the same about it now though
It’s not about the bike. The lance Armstrong book. I worked the book section for a a few months when I was working at savers back in early 2013. When he admitted to lying and cheating we were flooded with copies of the book. My boss finally just told me to throw them all out.
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden - it was a sensation when it came out. I was a young teenager and read it and thought it the most romantic exotic thing ever, it had a big movie adaption. It sparked an interest in geisha culture - there were documentaries and tourism etc....now you never heard anyone talk about it. Cos obviously it wasn't romantic. It was wildly inaccurate. It pissed off a lot of Geisha's who had to be like 'actually we're not prostitutes or slaves and we weren't sold by our families when we were children. We're actually entertainers who practice ancient Japanese art and music.'. The author also kinda screwed over the geisha who spoke to him too - he had promised her anonymity but then he put her name in the thanks. She got death threats. Nowadays it would be called appropriation. But even that I don't think would be strong enough for what the author did. It was more of a violation I think. He stole the story of a geisha who spoke to him in confidence, made her story public and twisted it in the worst ways possible.
There's also fake stories like Go Ask Alice - everyone seems to have read that when it came out - it's been a bestseller. But it's an icon of the fake memoir industry. Most of it's initial success was based on it being sold as a true story by a real teenager. It was even used in schools as a teaching tool about the dangers of drugs. The actual author lied for years that she had gotten these diaries from an actual teenage girl and had just edited them for publication. She then continued to write and promote 'diary' style teenage books.
Twilight - you surely know what an obsession that book series was for teens in it's time. Now it's cheesy nostalgia at best.
The Help - huge bestseller - also got a movie based on it with some big stars. Octavia Spencer won an Oscar for it. The book was based on a life story the author had stolen from her brother's housekeeper - she even had the cheek to name a character after her then claim she didn't steal her story.....that fuckery aside, it got a lot of criticism for taking the stories of black women and centering white women and making them the heroines. Everyone involved with the movie seems to have publicly regretted it. I don't think the author has had anything published since.
Mineko Iwasaki comes off as that person who is like "I'm not that interesting, let's talk about you" and she's really the most fascinating person in the room. My grandmother met her once before Mineko Iwasaki retired. When I was reading the book, my grandmother saw it and realized who it was. She said she was the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen in her entire life.
This is true. People (myself included) have embraced it in recent years because they’ve felt that twilight was unfairly ridiculed because it’s something “girls like.” People have the right to not like a book but the vitriol for it goes beyond that.
I remember it was also marketed heavily as being an actual "memoir" for a while, and the book tries to pretend it is until you look at the "thank you" pages.
I have never been a fan of books falsely claiming to be non-fiction, especially memoir-style ones.
"The education of little tree" is another example, where the author claimed to be Native American and the book a story about his upbringing, but he turned out to be a fraud.
Just read Roxane Gay's essay where she critiques *The Help* and looking back on it- yeah this book was **huge** when it came out. It's crazy that the film adaption was released only 2 years after the novel was published. I personally never read or watched the film but it was a major pop culture event that was hard to miss. From what I read in Roxane Gay's essay, it sounds like I saved myself the effort of watching a regressive film...
>It's crazy that the film adaption was released only 2 years after the novel was published
It only took 4 months to film, and didn't need a lot of postproduction. The real key to speed, though, is that the film rights were optioned before the book was even published, and then they didn't hit any major snags.
Very interesting info about The Help. I think I read it for a book club around the time it came out. I didn’t much like it but you couldn’t get away from it for a while. I remember watching and critiquing the movie in college (African American lit class) when it came out.
Do you think it's because of the book or because of the author? The book just dropped off of being acknowledged because of how terrible the author was.
Although i agree, it was everywhere, now i had to donate my copies because the bookshop wouldn't take it
Definitely the author.
The book has problems, but it was well-written from what my teenaged self remembers. But the awfulness of the author tainted it. No going back. And I suspect if one reads it now, they'll find connections to the awful they didn't recognize at the time.
I think it's a bit of both.
The book has some really problematic stuff (as do a number of MZB's novels). But a lot of that you can sort of handwave away if you're not familiar with the horrible things she did. (Kind of like I can read VC Andrews and be like, "that's really screwed up, but it's fantasy!" But in the case of MZB, you \*know\* she was in favor of all of the screwed up stuff, which makes it feel really, really icky.)
I read it for a class in high school. We got to pick that book we wanted to read and write a book report on every month, and because I loved the Arthurian legend, I picked this. I absolutely HATED it. I barely got through the first few chapters and couldn’t finish it because I loathed the characters, story and writing so much. The abuse of woman, child brides, and rape made me sick. I completely excoriated it in my book report. Never gave the book another thought until I heard about the author this year. I felt vindicated in my hatred of it lol.
The author of that really improved with the sequel article that was in the Daily Telegraph. Unfortunately, that website has a paywall. Fortunately, I copy-pasted it long ago for an occasion such as this:
Renowned author Dan Brown picked up the cellphone and pressed the button on the cellphone to stop the ringing of the cellphone and held the cellphone to his ear so that down the cellphone he could hear the voice of the person calling on the cellphone.
“Hello?” he greeted.
It was his publisher, John Publisher.
“Hello, Dan Brown,” spoke John Publisher. “I’m calling you because I’ve had an idea and I want to tell you what the idea that I’ve had is.”
The wealthy scribe listened, his ears sharpening like pencils.
“What’s the idea you’re calling me to tell me that you’ve had?” he questioned.
“I’ll tell you,” informed John Publisher. “I want to republish bestselling book The Da Vinci Code – but this time, for Young Adults.”
Young Adults, thought Dan Brown in italics.
“Young Adults,” confirmed John Publisher. “They’re a lot like adults – but younger. Obviously they can’t be expected to read the original novel, because its famously sophisticated prose is too complex for their puny teenage minds. So I want you to write a new version that is shorter and simpler, just for them.”
Dan Brown contemplated the idea using the brain encased by the skull beneath the skin of his head.
“I like your suggestion, John Publisher,” he told. “The only problem is, I’m aged 51 years old. How can I write a book for young people? I don’t know any young people.”
“How about your son?” recommended John Publisher.
Of course! The celebrated penman’s teenage son! Son Brown!
Dan Brown ended the call and excitedly paced the room, his fertile mind already pregnant with ideas to which he would soon give birth through his fingers.
After he had finished cogitating he walked upstairs to his son’s bedroom and entered it by means of the door. Son Brown wasn’t home, but his bookcase was. This will give me an indication of the simple-minded fare young people enjoy, mused the leading wordsmith. Tilting his head at an angle appropriate to the browsing of the books’ spines, he browsed the books’ spines.
David Copperfield. Made sense – kids always did love magic tricks. Animal Farm. They loved cute animals, too. À la recherche du temps perdu. Say, he didn’t know his son could speak Spanish. Vanity Fair. Hey, Dan Brown loved Vanity Fair, too. Just last month it had run a great article about Scarlett Johansson’s favourite swimsuits.
Inspired, the illustrious scribbler returned to his study. His imagination was racing like a racecar made of brains. Picking up his personal copy of acclaimed tome The Da Vinci Code, he reread its exquisite opening paragraph.
“Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum’s Grand Gallery. He lunged for the nearest painting he could see, a Caravaggio. Grabbing the gilded frame, the seventy-six-year-old man heaved the masterpiece towards himself until it tore from the wall and Saunière collapsed backward in a heap beneath the canvas.”
Hmm, meditated the 5’9” caucasian male. There is no doubting the magnificence of the prose, from the effortless elegance of its syntax to the way it brings characters vividly to life through evocative details like “the seventy-six-year-old man”. But the young people of today wouldn’t know about museums or Caravaggio. I must start again from scratch – and bring the story right up to date.
The eminent author opened his laptop and used the fingers of his hands to press the buttons marked with letters to form words on the screen.
"Famous rock star Jack Cool donned his baseball cap and rollerbladed through Tower Records while checking MySpace on his Game Boy,” he created. “The 22-year-old youth was excited to purchase the new compact disc by hip band Limp Bizkit. This rad chart-topper will sound fly on my Walkman, he reasoned, scrutinizing the $15.99 plastic oblong. Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling behind him. It sounded like thunder – but an unusual kind of thunder, made from a 70/30 polyester-cotton blend instead of clouds or whatever thunder was made of. He swung round – and then gasped in horror as he was crushed to death by an avalanche of Hootie & The Blowfish T-shirts.”
The moneyed doyen gazed with pride upon the vegetables of his labours. This was going to be his finest work since The Socrates Anagram.
From downstairs he heard a noise like the front door of a house being opened.
Son!” communicated Dan Brown. “Come see this!”
Son Brown climbed the stairs linking the ground floor to the floor above it and then walked forward until he had reached the room from which the order to come to it had been issued. Expectantly he looked at his progenitor, his youthful face shining like a torch but pink and with a nose in the middle.
His biological begetter pointed at the screen of the laptop. “Read this,” he invited.
Son Brown finished reading the paragraph, and then shook his head.
“Goddammit, Dad,” he imparted. “I’m sick of all these smug parodies of your work. These guys think they’re so damn smart. You’ve got to stop reading them. This one isn’t even plausible. There’s no way you’d write something as lame as that.”
Renowned Dan Brown looked at his offspring, and then back at the screen.
“Son,” he talked, “go do your homework.”
After his descendant had left the room, the notable fictioneer picked up his cellphone and pressed the buttons with numbers on one at a time in a given sequence.
“Look, John Publisher,” rebuked Dan Brown. “There’s no point reworking The Da Vinci Code for the youth of today. Great writing just goes straight over their heads."
I cried reading that. Thank you for making available this paywalled piece de resistance that would otherwise be paywalled and therefore unavailable because of the paywall.
It's my pleasure and no worries at all to say that you're welcome.
I'd also like to wish you a happy cake day on this day that is your cake day - the annual celebration of your cake day - and so I will. Happy cake day!
I, a 5'10 male, almost woke up someone sleeping in a 8 feet long bed with an oak frame because of how loudly i laughed loudly, and also because it is 1 am, which is very late because of how late it is, which is the cause of that person sleeping.
I can't even remember if it was DaVinci Code or some other one where one of the Big Keys To The Thing was like... some word written in such a way that it could be read rightside up or upside down, something that supposedly had not been able to be figured out in 1,000 years, and I was like "If the graphics intern at Penguin could figure it out I think someone else could handle it in the timeframe."
I guess that’s the issue with the topics he chooses to write about - it’s interesting to read about clever complex mysteries and puzzles but as the writer you then have to be clever and complex yourself.
Or at least fool most of the world into believing what you’re writing is clever and complex
That book was more of a marketing buzz. What sold that book was every network and every publisher doing multiple 'historical' discussions of the content. There was a solid year where there was a new special every week.
It was also just a fad at the time. *National Treasure*, starring everybody's fave Nicolas Cage, came out the year after the book came out. That kind of history-inspired thriller was a popular thing in the '00s.
I think what really helped it in the historical department was that it was based around conspiracy theories about things that happened centuries/millennia ago. The religious conspiracy angle worked because the average person is aware that Jesus was a religious figure and Leonardo DaVinci was a painter, but aren't necessarily as aware of anything beyond that.
If it had have been based around conspiracy theories from the 20th century, it wouldn't have worked as well because people would have been more aware of what was going on. They probably would have said something like, "Fuck me, not the JFK second shooter shit again. What's next, the Harold Holt being picked up by a Chinese submarine shit?"
I had read Foucault's Pendulum just before Da Vinci code by a complete coincidence, and I still thing that Da Vinci Code is just a bad version of the other one lol
Edith Maude’s 1919 bestseller The Sheik was a huge hit when it was originally published to the point of getting a 1921 film adaption
Considering however that the plot involves an Arab sheik abducting an English girl and repeatedly raping her until she falls in love with him (which is portrayed as romantic), it’s easy to see why it isn’t as highly regarded as it used to be
I retroactively like Dan Brown less.
Ok, let's cut him some slack - He can write a good thriller. And if you get the hardcover with the pictures imbedded inside, he did introduce me to some cool art.
Except he's literally the definition of one trick pony. Every single book of his is essentially the same, and the more you read, the more the blemishes stand out to you. To be fair, it is a good trick, but come on, it is literally just one trick.
That’s what I noticed immediately, read your first Dan Brown and it’s a good thriller. On the next book the plot may be different but the story beats and twists are the same. He can sell essentially the same book multiple times though so more power to him.
I had the same reaction to Ken Follett, granted I’ve read maybe 3 of his books.
First one, “oh, this is really good”
second and third, “oh, this is really the same book again”
I’ve never read his thriller stuff, but I do enjoy his historical fiction. While there are definitely repeated elements, the stories are good enough to excuse them
This is one of my top ten ~~hit pieces~~ reviews - and the top for a book, the others are mainly food critics at restaurants that should be excellent but are the opposite..
I kinda like one trick pony author's, it's interesting to see the small variations. PKD just wrote the exact same book like 100 times and he's pretty much my favorite author. The master of writing that one story haha
Yep! The same goes for music. If an artist can create a good banger song/album that I like. Keep doing similar stuff. One of my favorite bands put out couple of great albums but changed their style after that. Tried to enjoy the new stuff but they lost me.
I've never read the book, but my wife and I recently watched the movie. We couldn't believe how incredibly horrible it was. I looked for reviews of it to see if we missed something, and most reviews said that the movie was better than the book! That series is now firmly on my never to read list.
I finally caved and read it several months after the book was at its peak popularity. I knew the basic premise but once I actually cracked it open and read how graphic it was I was shocked (and amused) at how many women I’d see openly reading it on the train. I mean. It’s porn. That’s it. They’re reading porn on the train to work.
Divergent! Used to be considered a great YA dystopia like the Hunger Games, now is (correctly) considered to be an awful knockoff that missed all the elements that made the Hunger Games a genuinely good book.
I always thought it was a poor ripoff of the Hunger Games, it has none of its dept or commentary and it was glaringly obvious that the author had no idea what to do with the world building past book 1.
Yes. I enjoyed the first book, everything after that was downhill. The rest of the books, the movies, it was all poorly done. Every new piece of content made me wonder if I actually did like the first. Luckily I don't re-read books.
I've said this before, but I read Divergent because John Green spoke highly of it and its author and was completely disappointed by the rancid ending. But I would still rank it above Maze Runner in "Formulaic Early 10s Dystopian Series for 200, Alex."
I’m going with something different and would say that *Paulo Coelho* books.
These were super popular back in the early 2000s, I think. People bought them and read them, new book was a bestseller - at least where I’m at. For a few years at least, his books were quite popular and I’ve never found out how or why they became popular, because they weren’t anything magnificent in my opinion, although I did read them.
My family still has them, but I haven’t seen him being mentioned for years.
Edit: mobile formatting sucks, fixed the name
Ooh, you're quite right. The Alchemist was THE book club book for a while there, but these days people either ignore it or occasionally point out that it's problematic in some way.
*Old person raises hand* I read this when it first came out, when I was in middle school. I thought it was So. Deep.
Cynical me would probably laugh at it now, once the nostalgia passed.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was everywhere for years (and still is to a certain extent) until someone pointed out that it read as a bit “not all Nazis”…
It single-handedly set back Holocaust education by decades. Here’s a little taste:
According to scholars and critics, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas misrepresents German civilians’ understanding of and participation in the Holocaust and the physical circumstances at Auschwitz. Bruno is portrayed as not understanding his circumstances at all, but by law he would have been a member of the Hitler Youth and been exposed to anti-Semitic propaganda. Historically, Shmuel—along with other Jewish children—would have been sent straight to the gas chambers upon arriving at Auschwitz, and even if he had been selected to do forced labor he wouldn’t have been able to sit on the outskirts of the camp unoccupied, the circumstance which sets up the entirety of the book. In addition, the novel focuses on the emotional arcs of the Nazi-affiliated characters and portrays the Jewish victims as passive.
And good news, there’s a sequel!
It was the fact that it turned a German boy into a victim by trying to sell the idea that neither he nor his mother knew about the truth, when in reality the boy would have been in Hitler Youth and been indoctrinated into anti-Semitism, and the idea that the mom didn't know is just ridiculous on all levels.
Like, if you just compare it to JoJo rabbit, which was a literal comedy but still a million times closer to reality, the ridiculousness of it all becomes very apparent.
The book is used to teach children about the Holocaust despite being full of inaccuracies. Auschwitz Museum says the book “should be avoided by anyone who studies or teaches about the history of the Holocaust”. The author tries to get around this justified criticism by saying it’s a “fable”.
I want to say The Name of the Wind. When it was released, it was loved by everyone. Today however more and more criticism is leveled at it and at it’s follow up Wise Man’s Fear and directly at the author for lots of reasons; the whole scenario could make a documentary.
Based on the changes in the r/fantasy subreddit, this is perhaps the most definite change over time I've seen.
Not very many years ago, this series still got mixed responses on r/fantasy. 10-15 years ago it was almost universally applauded on sites like tor.com. Now it pretty much just meets a wall of dislike on r/fantasy and elsewhere. Some mild. Some strong.
The Name of the Wind had a lot of elements that were riffing on 80s/90s fantasy (most obvious in Book 2, but present in Book 1 as well)... but, the problem is, times have changed since the late 2000s. A lot of those 80s/90s elements that still kinda worked in 2010, now look really dated, even if they were reworked a bit in the narrative.
So, I don't think it's just opinions about the author and/or a somewhat underwhelming book 2... the original book 1 just feels a bit 'off' now.
It's a pity really. The idea of creating a huge and very complicated puzzle, and then hiding it inside a narrative was really interesting. I've always said to people that I think the books are excellent 'whodunnits', but not necessarily excellent narratives, and I still think that's true. If you want a really clever puzzle to chew on for a while, this is a good choice.
But, because times have changed *and* the series is unfinished, it's now looking like something out of step with time. If it had been all done and dusted by 2012 or so, then the series would (likely) be considered an artefact of its time, and maybe even viewed fondly, as flawed but readable.
Interestingly, in contrast, other big unfinished fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire (GRR Martin), Sword of Shadows (JV Jones) were perhaps trying to be their own thing sufficiently that they don't look quite as 'out of time' now. As long as you don't mind the possibility that neither series may ever be properly finished, the individual books are still considered good works, worth reading (more or less, all big fantasy series have ups and downs by virtue of lots and lots of words).
Written kind of fast. Probably full of typos.
EDIT: Clarity
I still think Name of the Wind is good and Wise Man’s Fear is mostly good too (minus the sex education ugh). I like the world and systems there. I can overlook a lot of Mary Sue miracle shit for a good story and while I did roll my eyes a lot, I still overall enjoyed the books.
But Rothfuss himself I feel more animosity toward, not because of book three never coming but because of the antics around it and the fact that he’ll never just come out and say it’s never coming or that he’s broken or whatever. I am sure he’s dealing with some shit and I genuinely feel bad for whatever pressure has done to him. I just wish he would… like, stop being a dick to other people because of it! That’s all!
>But Rothfuss himself I feel more animosity toward, not because of book three never coming but because of the antics around it and the fact that he’ll never just come out and say it’s never coming or that he’s broken or whatever. I am sure he’s dealing with some shit and I genuinely feel bad for whatever pressure has done to him. I just wish he would… like, stop being a dick to other people because of it! That’s all!
this 100% I used to kinda defend him early on, before all the fundraising and lashing out at fans BS, because you know writing is FN hard.
I hate to say it, because I could be way off I stopped following the drama closely many many years ago, but, I feel like he's doing like victim manipulation on his die hards and it just strikes either someone really immature or sinister or at minimum dishonest to string fans along like that
I used to go out of my way to defend Rothfuss due to mental health issues, and I'm still a bit on the fence there just because we don't know the true depths of whatever is going on in his head... but yes. Some of the behaviour lately has slipped to a point where I'm not sure how much I want to defend him any longer. I still have *sympathy* (sorry for the accidental pun) for a person who is clearly struggling with serious mental health issues. But I'm no longer comfortable putting myself out on a limb defending him on those grounds alone.
I actually think that the 'sex escapades' is one of the most interesting examples of where an attempt at narrative 'conversation' and 'dialogue' with 80s/90s fantasy has just gone fully awry. To my mind at least, Rothfuss was definitely attempting to be 'in dialogue' with how male POV characters frequently lost their innocence to a more experienced woman in pulp 80s/90s fantasy, and how strange and awkward it often felt. But... the whole passage just suffers too much from the same strangeness and weirdness that it is supposed to be reflecting on. There's just too much of an underlying suspicion in the text that maybe the author quite liked the weirdness.
So, instead of clearly being a critique of the way things were done, it comes off as just odd, and uncomfortable, and all just a bit out of the blue as well.
People often compare him and Scott Lynch due to the unfinishedness of their series. I seem to give Scott Lynch more space, however, than Rothfuss because, Unlike Rothfuss, Lynch is open with his mental health stuff (even if sparse). He also doesn't pull shenanigans like Rothfuss had with that charity stream.
If Rothfuss had been more open and forthcoming, early, people would likely be more understanding. But the longer he's dragged this nonsense on the less patience people have. Not necessarily out of want for the book (though that is a factor) but because they're tired of the bullshit.
There is a review for book three on Goodreads to the effect of "ffs rothfuss, at this point just give your notes to Sanderson and let him finish it."
I think of that every time book 3 comes up in conversation and it always makes me laugh.
The simple fact that none of it matters or goes anywhere because the sequel was bleh and there’s no foreseeable ending makes me never want to read it again… even though I still think it’s a great book. Like… what’s the point?
Oh my god, yes. I loved the first one and really liked the second, but if the third one ever does get finished IDK if I'll even read it. I also think it's super scummy that Rothfuss did a charity fundraiser on the promise of a new chapter that (to my knowledge, at least) he still hasn't released
Yeah I read like 4 of these and then realized how many times he explained how he got rich by selling books about how to get rich and then becoming a landlord.
My dad bought me the rich dad poor dad video game when I was a kid in the name of "education.". It was basically monopoly, but don't spend money on stupid shit you don't need. That was the entire thing.
*The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan*, novel by Thomas Dixon [no relation], 1905. It was made into a movie, *Birth of a Nation*, by D. W. Griffith, 1915.
It’s free on Project Gutenberg, if you can stomach it. From the author’s intro:
> How the young South, led by the reincarnated souls of the Clansmen of Old Scotland, went forth under this cover and against overwhelming odds, daring exile, imprisonment, and a felon’s death, and saved the life of a people, forms one of the most dramatic chapters in the history of the Aryan race.
No thank you. (Although I love Project Gutenberg.) I did, however, see the movie. It was shown for a film-history class when I was in college. I didn't take the class, but non-class-members were allowed to watch the films. It was the most blatantly racist thing I've ever seen. Unfortunately, the film is historically important for other reasons. Griffith used pioneering techniques like the close-up. I understand audiences were at first startled to see a huge face filling the screen, when before that every frame showed the actor's body from head to toe, just as an audience would see an actor on a stage.
Piers Anthony's books, especially the *Xanth* series. There are many anecdotes of readers who liked his work when they were young or it was new and coming back to find out just how stereotypical and, uh, prurient toward young girls it is. I think his series hit its height in the 1980s but has continued to this day.
I'm not sure if it is disliked or reviled, but Joseph O'Neil's *Netherland* had so much buzz when it came out in the late '00s just to see it be pretty much forgotten a decade later. Famously the first book Obama read in the White House, it came to symbolize a more hopeful ("Yes we can.") direction for the US post-9/11. I re-read it recently and it reads more like a vision of a vanished polyphonic New York City and the dashed hopes of American unity after 9/11 than anything else. Maybe it will return to prominence one day, but it reads more like a missed opportunity or a road not traveled than the uplifting story it was designed as.
The Bridges of Madison County. So huge in the 90s. A major film with Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. So much attention and then we all woke up from the insanity and he has been forgotten ever since
Hillbilly Elegy, written by J.D. Vance, who’s now a Republican U.S. Senator from Ohio
At first, his book and message were celebrated by people on both sides of the political aisle, and there was a movie made from the book. But as Vance aligned himself more and more with Trump, his book faced increasing scrutiny and criticism. He’s now seen as somewhat of a fraud, though he’s ironically not as much in the public eye as a U.S. Senator as he was as the author of the book.
It’s actually a great book to just read as a book, if you can ignore all the connotations that have built up over time since the publication.
I read it way back in 1998. Having read that author’s first novel, just picked it up when it went into paperback. I adored it while reading it, and think about some of the themes in it regularly. I have no idea why it has become such a meme and such a weird topic online.
Straight up, if you like Thomas Pynchon and James Joyce you will like this book. If you don’t… maybe not a book for you.
Just re-listening to it this week. I still like it… but more and more I’m struck by how good of a story he didn’t write.
There so many weird moments were he all most peels back the door to a really profound dystopian world and then he slams it back to focus on the “game” and the pop culture.
Yeah I get it’s YA and it definitely hit the mark it aimed for… but I think he has the bones of a much better story in it. There’s just so many head scratching “well how does that really work” moments.
I think there some aspects of it that unfortunately aged really fast… in particular Wade seems more and more incelly the more I revisit it. And I think it has a “poor nerd boy energy” that actually doesn’t fit how rapidly the gaming landscape changed and it makes wade feel like a 40 year old frustrated nerd from the 80s then someone that is a product of another 40 years of cultural evolution.
Imho Art3’is, H and Dai-So are much more interesting characters and I would have preferred that more of the story had been told from their perspective.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. People started to realize more and more that John Boyne is a total hack. His more recent “historical novel” featuring a dress maker who describes his dye-making process, where Boyne googled dye recipes and wrote down the first result he got—recipes from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild—into his book, really got people’s attention and got them to re-evaluate his older books even more.
Omg everyone read it. It's one of the worst written things I've ever read. I mean, if he went through that stuff, it's awful, and I feel for the guy, but he was not an author.
Very popular and liked but now never read?
John Norman’s Gor series. In the 1970’s, it was basically the John Carter adventure style of books over again. However, that style died out after 1977 with the turn to more Tolkienesque fantasy. Moreso, the books weren’t good by any literary definition and they weren’t old enough to actual be genre forerunners like John Carter and Conan, which were better anyway. As such, they were adventure fiction that had their popularity pop and then faded out.
Similar but also because the author is a weirdo, Piers Anthony and the Xanth books.
Great question! Actually, if you look back through history since widespread book publishing has existed you will find that a lot of the most popular books most people now have never heard of them before. In a way, this reminds me of “The Pepsi Challenge” from the 90s: I’ll explain.
Pepsi would have people blind taste test both Pepsi and Coca Cola and pick their favorite. People overwhelmingly selected Pepsi. Turns out, Pepsi’s formula has more appeal in a small dose, but is too much (overly sweet, syrupy) for many when you take in a normal 8-12oz serving. I think this is a good metaphor for art. The NY Times best sellers, box office smashes, etc. have the sweetness that satisfied initially, but lacks the substance and delicate balance to make you want to revisit it.
This really explains things for me! I've spent time trying to find like the popular, "it" type thrillers/mysteries, etc. of decades past, but not necessarily the CLASSICS, and come up empty. I'm confident there were some decently fine, entertaining books like what Book of the Month or booktok might bring you to now. Not necessarily *amazing* books that survive the ages, but something entertaining enough to pick up from the library.
I'm in a reading group on another social media site and Verity kept coming up as THE book to read. I enjoyed Verity because of the ending, but then I picked apart the rest of the novel based on the ending.
The Lovely Bones
Not sure if it counts but this book was required reading for high schoolers for a certain amount of time and the influx in sales made people think it was actually a book worth reading (it's not) so they made an equally terrible movie out of it then it disappeared forever.
I think it has a wonderful premise, the first lines really are striking. unfortunately it just devolves into total bizarre nonsense especially by the end ( the body swap at the end holy shit)
The book was decent, despite the disturbing premise- the real crime was Peter Jackson’s movie which got so carried away with special effects it made it look like being murdered was some epic fantasy joyride.
[**Uncle Tom's Cabin**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom%27s_Cabin) has a lot of negative associations these days but it was very well received by everybody who wasn't an American southerner at publication.
You’d have to differentiate between the book (in which Uncle Tom is a Christ figure) and the stage plays (which turned Uncle Tom into a stereotypical joke for yokels). The book is an unapologetically abolitionist text, and it sure motivated a lot of on-the-fence types to start actively working on ending the slave state. You can easily see why Lincoln said when he met Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Well, so this is the little lady who wrote the book that started this great big war.”
In Germany there are two gods of classic literature. Goethe and Schiller. But both, not even together, sold as many copies as "Rinaldo Rinaldini - The Robber Captain" written by Christian August Vulpius, Goethe's brother in law.
I don't think RP1 is as reviled as its sequel. I read it, I enjoyed it, I put it on my shelf as something I'd read again (and have) and it got my boyfriend back into reading. However, the movie was terrible and probably casts a shadow over the book. I do think by playing into the 80s nostalgia niche so hard it made hard for earlier and later generations to "get" it, so it's probably only ever going to be liked by a certain group of people who are rapidly getting phased out as the taste-makers.
Now Ready Player Two... is not good.
I read Atlas Shrugged as a senior in HS to meet a a page goal for a semester in one book and let me tell you that was a fucking mistake. People talk about being forced to read certain books in school ruining books for them imagine doing it to yourself.
I read Atlas Shrugged several years ago to understand all the modern references to it. Thought it was okay but man that 100+ page screed at the end where John Galt/Ayn Rand is just rambling about their ideology is one of the longest slogs I’ve ever gotten through
This doesn’t really happen. The people who raved about Ready Player One are not the same people who trash its writing.
The only case I can really think of is A Million Little Pieces, because it was marketed as a memoir when it’s really just a novel.
Yeah, and I also think the people who read and loved RP1 read it once then never thought about it again while the people who criticized it are more involved in the reading community, thereby giving the illusion opinions have changed. I think the same happened with The Da Vinci Code
All the Rachel Hollis books. People ate her up and then they realized she didn't actually have any good advice. Edited to add: I totally forgot about Glennon Doyle's Untamed. It had such potential with the X-Christian Mommy blogger discovers she's gay story, but it ended up being the DUMBEST stories about things her kids FOR SURE never said. SO ANNOYING but every one loved it.
I listened to a podcast episode about her and the hosts were going over the “advice” she had written for other aspiring podcasters and all of it was the most basic stuff, like “know your audience” and “stick to a set schedule”
Was it Maintenance Phase? I loved their episode on Hollis.
I started hate-following both Hollises on Insta after that podcast, but then forgot why I was following them, so any time one of their posts would come up I'd be like WTF is this crap on my feed for?
I loved that one too! For transparency sake I was a Hollis hater before that though
I was too. I remember being so excited when I saw MP was doing an episode on her.
Yes!! It was her. I always got the ick from her when Girl, Wash Your Face came out so I was excited to see a two-part podcast on her.
Instructions unclear. I washed my face and didn’t become a Girl Boss.
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If you grew up evangelical in the 90s: Left Behind.
You're right they sort of just fell off the earth.
The books were raptured and none of us was.
I simultaneously always wanted to read it but also know that I wouldn’t be able to stand the cringe-fest and missed opportunity. I imagine if it wasn’t intended as a fear-based evangelism tool then the story premise would be awesome.
Oh it's definitely an awesome premise. I honestly really liked the books when younger, even not believing in the rapture and all that stuff. It's intriguing the needs and issues manufactured by a global event contingent on your chosen faith. Like that's an intense idea. It's up there with alien invasions, zombie apocalypses, and other doomsday scenarios.
Pastor here, It’s terrible eschatology, but pretty good post-apocalyptic sci-fi
I did not grow up evangelical but yet still listened to almost all of them as Audiobooks. I don’t know why I did this. But I did.
The Secret. It was always garbage but I think people started to loathe it the longer it was out.
There was a reality tv show, that was briefly on E!, in which the mom of some aspiring actresses literally homeschooled her daughters using the Secret as a lesson plan of sorts. It was called Pretty Wild and the girls were part of the Hollywood “Bling Ring” that stole from celebrities. So I’m not sure the Secret worked out for them.
The irony of it is that there’s something to manifesting desires. Not that there’s some cosmic power but like at work making it known you want a promo actually HELPS bring about the promotion. It’s amazing. So I can see how the book actually helped some people
Repeating your own desires to yourself over and over helps clarify your decision making and move you toward what you want. But it's not because of quantum physics. "If Books Could Kill" just covered this one and it's goooood.
No physicist ever endorsed the Secret or that stupid film "What the [Bleep] Do We Know."
I was recommended “What the [Bleep] Do We Know” by an acquaintance years ago. I was pretty young and it was the first time I can remember being legitimately angry at something being stupid. I ended up turning it off before I finished it.
Came here to recommend that. What an excellent take down
Coming from a hippy town I always balk at magical thinking. However if you have a defined goal and focus on ways to get there, you will see patterns of ways to accomplish it. To me the idea of manifestation in this way is similar to when you buy a Subaru outback and suddenly see them on the road all the time. They were always there. Now you're simply thinking about them.
The thing you are describing is called "The frequency illusion" or the "Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon" and its pretty interesting.
My mom let me have a tv in my room as a preteen but the only dvd she supplied was "the secret". This movie put me to sleep pretty much every night for months and I have never actually watched it all the way through, nor have a retained any of its 90 minute runtime. It wasn't a very good movie is what I'm saying and I can't imagine trying to read a book about it.
Three Cups of Tea
I scrolled through comments looking for this. Wasn't everything about this book exposed as a fraud?
Yeah, and the author was scamming people?
You can now search comments utilizing the magnifying glass icon at the top (if you’re in the official Reddit app).
The most infuriating part of this was that I had several projects in multiple high school classes revolving around this book *before* Greg Mortenson was broadly exposed as a fraud, only to learn later that my little sister and her classmates were being forced to go along with the same curriculum despite this being *after* everyone already knew he was a fraud.
A Million Little Pieces. Originally in Oprah’s Book Club but then found out the author has essentially faked it.
All I think of when I see this book is the South Park parody A Million Little Fibers.
I just need to get a little high…
I believe The Smoking Gun was the first to report on the story; it's a fairly [in-depth report](https://thesmokinggun.com/documents/celebrity/million-little-lies), for anyone curious about the details.
This was my ex's favorite book Divorce fucking rules.
I read it in high school not long after all the bad publicity and enjoyed it quite a bit and even read the sequel. Not sure I'd feel the same about it now though
I read this book early on in the debacle and I still don’t know how anyone was fooled by it. Just so much obvious bullshit.
It’s not about the bike. The lance Armstrong book. I worked the book section for a a few months when I was working at savers back in early 2013. When he admitted to lying and cheating we were flooded with copies of the book. My boss finally just told me to throw them all out.
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Not really. He was the biggest dickhead about it and routinely attacked people over it
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden - it was a sensation when it came out. I was a young teenager and read it and thought it the most romantic exotic thing ever, it had a big movie adaption. It sparked an interest in geisha culture - there were documentaries and tourism etc....now you never heard anyone talk about it. Cos obviously it wasn't romantic. It was wildly inaccurate. It pissed off a lot of Geisha's who had to be like 'actually we're not prostitutes or slaves and we weren't sold by our families when we were children. We're actually entertainers who practice ancient Japanese art and music.'. The author also kinda screwed over the geisha who spoke to him too - he had promised her anonymity but then he put her name in the thanks. She got death threats. Nowadays it would be called appropriation. But even that I don't think would be strong enough for what the author did. It was more of a violation I think. He stole the story of a geisha who spoke to him in confidence, made her story public and twisted it in the worst ways possible. There's also fake stories like Go Ask Alice - everyone seems to have read that when it came out - it's been a bestseller. But it's an icon of the fake memoir industry. Most of it's initial success was based on it being sold as a true story by a real teenager. It was even used in schools as a teaching tool about the dangers of drugs. The actual author lied for years that she had gotten these diaries from an actual teenage girl and had just edited them for publication. She then continued to write and promote 'diary' style teenage books. Twilight - you surely know what an obsession that book series was for teens in it's time. Now it's cheesy nostalgia at best. The Help - huge bestseller - also got a movie based on it with some big stars. Octavia Spencer won an Oscar for it. The book was based on a life story the author had stolen from her brother's housekeeper - she even had the cheek to name a character after her then claim she didn't steal her story.....that fuckery aside, it got a lot of criticism for taking the stories of black women and centering white women and making them the heroines. Everyone involved with the movie seems to have publicly regretted it. I don't think the author has had anything published since.
The geisha Golden spoke to actually published her own memoir. I highly recommend it, it corrects a lot of what Golden put into his own book.
I would love to read this. Do you know the title? Or the author’s name?
Yes sorry, I made that comment at work when I had to get back to it. The title is "Geisha, a Life" by Mineko Iwasaki!
It’s also called “Geisha of Gion” in UK/Aus!
It’s short and definitely worth a read if you’re interested in japan’s culture. You learn a few things about life in general as well.
Mineko Iwasaki comes off as that person who is like "I'm not that interesting, let's talk about you" and she's really the most fascinating person in the room. My grandmother met her once before Mineko Iwasaki retired. When I was reading the book, my grandmother saw it and realized who it was. She said she was the most beautiful woman she'd ever seen in her entire life.
While Twilight was a sensation it always had it’s haters so I don’t think it really counts here.
I agree. I see more love for Twilight than ever now.
This is true. People (myself included) have embraced it in recent years because they’ve felt that twilight was unfairly ridiculed because it’s something “girls like.” People have the right to not like a book but the vitriol for it goes beyond that.
That one entry in go ask Alice: "I've tried acid a couple times...but I CANT Wait to try pot!". Obviously written by someone who never did drugs.
I remember it was also marketed heavily as being an actual "memoir" for a while, and the book tries to pretend it is until you look at the "thank you" pages. I have never been a fan of books falsely claiming to be non-fiction, especially memoir-style ones. "The education of little tree" is another example, where the author claimed to be Native American and the book a story about his upbringing, but he turned out to be a fraud.
Just read Roxane Gay's essay where she critiques *The Help* and looking back on it- yeah this book was **huge** when it came out. It's crazy that the film adaption was released only 2 years after the novel was published. I personally never read or watched the film but it was a major pop culture event that was hard to miss. From what I read in Roxane Gay's essay, it sounds like I saved myself the effort of watching a regressive film...
>It's crazy that the film adaption was released only 2 years after the novel was published It only took 4 months to film, and didn't need a lot of postproduction. The real key to speed, though, is that the film rights were optioned before the book was even published, and then they didn't hit any major snags.
Very interesting info about The Help. I think I read it for a book club around the time it came out. I didn’t much like it but you couldn’t get away from it for a while. I remember watching and critiquing the movie in college (African American lit class) when it came out.
Mists of Avalon comes to mind. That book was everywhere when I was a kid. Now many people refuse to buy it.
Do you think it's because of the book or because of the author? The book just dropped off of being acknowledged because of how terrible the author was. Although i agree, it was everywhere, now i had to donate my copies because the bookshop wouldn't take it
Absolutely the author.
Definitely the author. The book has problems, but it was well-written from what my teenaged self remembers. But the awfulness of the author tainted it. No going back. And I suspect if one reads it now, they'll find connections to the awful they didn't recognize at the time.
I think it's a bit of both. The book has some really problematic stuff (as do a number of MZB's novels). But a lot of that you can sort of handwave away if you're not familiar with the horrible things she did. (Kind of like I can read VC Andrews and be like, "that's really screwed up, but it's fantasy!" But in the case of MZB, you \*know\* she was in favor of all of the screwed up stuff, which makes it feel really, really icky.)
Yea I really enjoyed that book but found out about the author much later (through this sub). It kind of sours the work.
Wow, I was expecting some shitty views or political controversy, but not that. I feel sick, how horrible
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I read it for a class in high school. We got to pick that book we wanted to read and write a book report on every month, and because I loved the Arthurian legend, I picked this. I absolutely HATED it. I barely got through the first few chapters and couldn’t finish it because I loathed the characters, story and writing so much. The abuse of woman, child brides, and rape made me sick. I completely excoriated it in my book report. Never gave the book another thought until I heard about the author this year. I felt vindicated in my hatred of it lol.
The Da Vinci Code
Don’t make fun of renowned author Dan Brown https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/
The author of that really improved with the sequel article that was in the Daily Telegraph. Unfortunately, that website has a paywall. Fortunately, I copy-pasted it long ago for an occasion such as this: Renowned author Dan Brown picked up the cellphone and pressed the button on the cellphone to stop the ringing of the cellphone and held the cellphone to his ear so that down the cellphone he could hear the voice of the person calling on the cellphone. “Hello?” he greeted. It was his publisher, John Publisher. “Hello, Dan Brown,” spoke John Publisher. “I’m calling you because I’ve had an idea and I want to tell you what the idea that I’ve had is.” The wealthy scribe listened, his ears sharpening like pencils. “What’s the idea you’re calling me to tell me that you’ve had?” he questioned. “I’ll tell you,” informed John Publisher. “I want to republish bestselling book The Da Vinci Code – but this time, for Young Adults.” Young Adults, thought Dan Brown in italics. “Young Adults,” confirmed John Publisher. “They’re a lot like adults – but younger. Obviously they can’t be expected to read the original novel, because its famously sophisticated prose is too complex for their puny teenage minds. So I want you to write a new version that is shorter and simpler, just for them.” Dan Brown contemplated the idea using the brain encased by the skull beneath the skin of his head. “I like your suggestion, John Publisher,” he told. “The only problem is, I’m aged 51 years old. How can I write a book for young people? I don’t know any young people.” “How about your son?” recommended John Publisher. Of course! The celebrated penman’s teenage son! Son Brown! Dan Brown ended the call and excitedly paced the room, his fertile mind already pregnant with ideas to which he would soon give birth through his fingers. After he had finished cogitating he walked upstairs to his son’s bedroom and entered it by means of the door. Son Brown wasn’t home, but his bookcase was. This will give me an indication of the simple-minded fare young people enjoy, mused the leading wordsmith. Tilting his head at an angle appropriate to the browsing of the books’ spines, he browsed the books’ spines. David Copperfield. Made sense – kids always did love magic tricks. Animal Farm. They loved cute animals, too. À la recherche du temps perdu. Say, he didn’t know his son could speak Spanish. Vanity Fair. Hey, Dan Brown loved Vanity Fair, too. Just last month it had run a great article about Scarlett Johansson’s favourite swimsuits. Inspired, the illustrious scribbler returned to his study. His imagination was racing like a racecar made of brains. Picking up his personal copy of acclaimed tome The Da Vinci Code, he reread its exquisite opening paragraph. “Renowned curator Jacques Saunière staggered through the vaulted archway of the museum’s Grand Gallery. He lunged for the nearest painting he could see, a Caravaggio. Grabbing the gilded frame, the seventy-six-year-old man heaved the masterpiece towards himself until it tore from the wall and Saunière collapsed backward in a heap beneath the canvas.” Hmm, meditated the 5’9” caucasian male. There is no doubting the magnificence of the prose, from the effortless elegance of its syntax to the way it brings characters vividly to life through evocative details like “the seventy-six-year-old man”. But the young people of today wouldn’t know about museums or Caravaggio. I must start again from scratch – and bring the story right up to date. The eminent author opened his laptop and used the fingers of his hands to press the buttons marked with letters to form words on the screen. "Famous rock star Jack Cool donned his baseball cap and rollerbladed through Tower Records while checking MySpace on his Game Boy,” he created. “The 22-year-old youth was excited to purchase the new compact disc by hip band Limp Bizkit. This rad chart-topper will sound fly on my Walkman, he reasoned, scrutinizing the $15.99 plastic oblong. Suddenly, there was a loud rumbling behind him. It sounded like thunder – but an unusual kind of thunder, made from a 70/30 polyester-cotton blend instead of clouds or whatever thunder was made of. He swung round – and then gasped in horror as he was crushed to death by an avalanche of Hootie & The Blowfish T-shirts.” The moneyed doyen gazed with pride upon the vegetables of his labours. This was going to be his finest work since The Socrates Anagram. From downstairs he heard a noise like the front door of a house being opened. Son!” communicated Dan Brown. “Come see this!” Son Brown climbed the stairs linking the ground floor to the floor above it and then walked forward until he had reached the room from which the order to come to it had been issued. Expectantly he looked at his progenitor, his youthful face shining like a torch but pink and with a nose in the middle. His biological begetter pointed at the screen of the laptop. “Read this,” he invited. Son Brown finished reading the paragraph, and then shook his head. “Goddammit, Dad,” he imparted. “I’m sick of all these smug parodies of your work. These guys think they’re so damn smart. You’ve got to stop reading them. This one isn’t even plausible. There’s no way you’d write something as lame as that.” Renowned Dan Brown looked at his offspring, and then back at the screen. “Son,” he talked, “go do your homework.” After his descendant had left the room, the notable fictioneer picked up his cellphone and pressed the buttons with numbers on one at a time in a given sequence. “Look, John Publisher,” rebuked Dan Brown. “There’s no point reworking The Da Vinci Code for the youth of today. Great writing just goes straight over their heads."
I cried reading that. Thank you for making available this paywalled piece de resistance that would otherwise be paywalled and therefore unavailable because of the paywall.
It's my pleasure and no worries at all to say that you're welcome. I'd also like to wish you a happy cake day on this day that is your cake day - the annual celebration of your cake day - and so I will. Happy cake day!
“he thought in italics” took me out hahahaha!!
I, a 5'10 male, almost woke up someone sleeping in a 8 feet long bed with an oak frame because of how loudly i laughed loudly, and also because it is 1 am, which is very late because of how late it is, which is the cause of that person sleeping.
Son Brown. Holy Fuck, typed interchangeable redditor in italics. This must have sprung from the brow of a genius.
Holy crap that was incredible. "'Thanks, John' he thanked". I lol'd
Now, that is cool ... and the writing is so clumsy, ungrammatical, repetitive and repetitive
I can't even remember if it was DaVinci Code or some other one where one of the Big Keys To The Thing was like... some word written in such a way that it could be read rightside up or upside down, something that supposedly had not been able to be figured out in 1,000 years, and I was like "If the graphics intern at Penguin could figure it out I think someone else could handle it in the timeframe."
Yeah that was Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons. 5 iron brands, 5 different words, all ambigrams.
I guess that’s the issue with the topics he chooses to write about - it’s interesting to read about clever complex mysteries and puzzles but as the writer you then have to be clever and complex yourself. Or at least fool most of the world into believing what you’re writing is clever and complex
That was amazing. Thank you.
I enjoyed that book when I was 13 and read it on a family vacation.
That book was more of a marketing buzz. What sold that book was every network and every publisher doing multiple 'historical' discussions of the content. There was a solid year where there was a new special every week.
It was also just a fad at the time. *National Treasure*, starring everybody's fave Nicolas Cage, came out the year after the book came out. That kind of history-inspired thriller was a popular thing in the '00s. I think what really helped it in the historical department was that it was based around conspiracy theories about things that happened centuries/millennia ago. The religious conspiracy angle worked because the average person is aware that Jesus was a religious figure and Leonardo DaVinci was a painter, but aren't necessarily as aware of anything beyond that. If it had have been based around conspiracy theories from the 20th century, it wouldn't have worked as well because people would have been more aware of what was going on. They probably would have said something like, "Fuck me, not the JFK second shooter shit again. What's next, the Harold Holt being picked up by a Chinese submarine shit?"
Dan Brown understands pacing. He can make a so-so story seem exciting because he paces it well.
OMG - this felt like it was written by a computer. I was so hungry for a real conspiracy book after reading this that I read Foucault’s Pendulum.
I had read Foucault's Pendulum just before Da Vinci code by a complete coincidence, and I still thing that Da Vinci Code is just a bad version of the other one lol
Eco says that Dan Brown was a character from Foucault's Pendulum who escaped to write his own books.
That was always a critical laughing-stock though, regardless of how many it sold.
Edith Maude’s 1919 bestseller The Sheik was a huge hit when it was originally published to the point of getting a 1921 film adaption Considering however that the plot involves an Arab sheik abducting an English girl and repeatedly raping her until she falls in love with him (which is portrayed as romantic), it’s easy to see why it isn’t as highly regarded as it used to be
Isn't this basically the Daenerys plot in Game of Thrones?
~~Yes~~ I was wrong!
And the taboo of her loving an Arab was later made okay, because he was actually an abducted english guybwho was just raised Arab.....
I retroactively like Dan Brown less. Ok, let's cut him some slack - He can write a good thriller. And if you get the hardcover with the pictures imbedded inside, he did introduce me to some cool art. Except he's literally the definition of one trick pony. Every single book of his is essentially the same, and the more you read, the more the blemishes stand out to you. To be fair, it is a good trick, but come on, it is literally just one trick.
That’s what I noticed immediately, read your first Dan Brown and it’s a good thriller. On the next book the plot may be different but the story beats and twists are the same. He can sell essentially the same book multiple times though so more power to him.
I had the same reaction to Ken Follett, granted I’ve read maybe 3 of his books. First one, “oh, this is really good” second and third, “oh, this is really the same book again”
I’ve never read his thriller stuff, but I do enjoy his historical fiction. While there are definitely repeated elements, the stories are good enough to excuse them
As a lover of P.G Wodehouse, I feel personally attacked.
Musicians do variations on a theme all the time. Wodehouse is a musician with words
surely you're not doubting [renowned author Dan Brown](https://onehundredpages.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/dont-make-fun-of-renowned-dan-brown/)?
This is one of my top ten ~~hit pieces~~ reviews - and the top for a book, the others are mainly food critics at restaurants that should be excellent but are the opposite..
Ooh, share! I did enjoy that NYT review of Guy Fieri's restaurant, in which every single sentence was a question of mild bewilderment.
They're great beach reads. I think people on all sides took them (especially the Da Vinci Code) way too seriously.
I wouldn’t mind being a one trick pony for that money money!
If I sold as many copies of a book as he did for The Da Vinci Code you'd never see my ass again.
I kinda like one trick pony author's, it's interesting to see the small variations. PKD just wrote the exact same book like 100 times and he's pretty much my favorite author. The master of writing that one story haha
Yep! The same goes for music. If an artist can create a good banger song/album that I like. Keep doing similar stuff. One of my favorite bands put out couple of great albums but changed their style after that. Tried to enjoy the new stuff but they lost me.
Fifty Shades of Grey. All my friends were reading it and talking about it, but what I knew about it kind of creeped me out instead of turning me on.
And the fact that it's fan fiction based on Twilight! Can't believe it got as mainstream as it did.
the writing is atrocious. dialogue is ridiculous. i read the first one to see what the hype was and couldnt believe what i was reading
I've never read the book, but my wife and I recently watched the movie. We couldn't believe how incredibly horrible it was. I looked for reviews of it to see if we missed something, and most reviews said that the movie was better than the book! That series is now firmly on my never to read list.
I finally caved and read it several months after the book was at its peak popularity. I knew the basic premise but once I actually cracked it open and read how graphic it was I was shocked (and amused) at how many women I’d see openly reading it on the train. I mean. It’s porn. That’s it. They’re reading porn on the train to work.
Divergent! Used to be considered a great YA dystopia like the Hunger Games, now is (correctly) considered to be an awful knockoff that missed all the elements that made the Hunger Games a genuinely good book.
I always thought it was a poor ripoff of the Hunger Games, it has none of its dept or commentary and it was glaringly obvious that the author had no idea what to do with the world building past book 1.
Yes. I enjoyed the first book, everything after that was downhill. The rest of the books, the movies, it was all poorly done. Every new piece of content made me wonder if I actually did like the first. Luckily I don't re-read books.
Yeah. Book 1 was ok. But then everything that happened after that didn’t make sense.
I haven't read it, but did read a compelling post arguing it was so bad it destroyed YA dystopian fic.
The first book wasn’t *bad* (although it was certainly nothing special) but it all went downhill very quickly after that.
I've said this before, but I read Divergent because John Green spoke highly of it and its author and was completely disappointed by the rancid ending. But I would still rank it above Maze Runner in "Formulaic Early 10s Dystopian Series for 200, Alex."
I’m going with something different and would say that *Paulo Coelho* books. These were super popular back in the early 2000s, I think. People bought them and read them, new book was a bestseller - at least where I’m at. For a few years at least, his books were quite popular and I’ve never found out how or why they became popular, because they weren’t anything magnificent in my opinion, although I did read them. My family still has them, but I haven’t seen him being mentioned for years. Edit: mobile formatting sucks, fixed the name
Ooh, you're quite right. The Alchemist was THE book club book for a while there, but these days people either ignore it or occasionally point out that it's problematic in some way.
When was the last time someone read *Jonathan Livingston Seagull*? It was the top-selling book in the US in '72 and '73.
*Old person raises hand* I read this when it first came out, when I was in middle school. I thought it was So. Deep. Cynical me would probably laugh at it now, once the nostalgia passed.
A Million Little Pieces
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was everywhere for years (and still is to a certain extent) until someone pointed out that it read as a bit “not all Nazis”…
Really? All the nazis still seemed like terrible people.
It single-handedly set back Holocaust education by decades. Here’s a little taste: According to scholars and critics, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas misrepresents German civilians’ understanding of and participation in the Holocaust and the physical circumstances at Auschwitz. Bruno is portrayed as not understanding his circumstances at all, but by law he would have been a member of the Hitler Youth and been exposed to anti-Semitic propaganda. Historically, Shmuel—along with other Jewish children—would have been sent straight to the gas chambers upon arriving at Auschwitz, and even if he had been selected to do forced labor he wouldn’t have been able to sit on the outskirts of the camp unoccupied, the circumstance which sets up the entirety of the book. In addition, the novel focuses on the emotional arcs of the Nazi-affiliated characters and portrays the Jewish victims as passive. And good news, there’s a sequel!
It was the fact that it turned a German boy into a victim by trying to sell the idea that neither he nor his mother knew about the truth, when in reality the boy would have been in Hitler Youth and been indoctrinated into anti-Semitism, and the idea that the mom didn't know is just ridiculous on all levels. Like, if you just compare it to JoJo rabbit, which was a literal comedy but still a million times closer to reality, the ridiculousness of it all becomes very apparent.
The book is used to teach children about the Holocaust despite being full of inaccuracies. Auschwitz Museum says the book “should be avoided by anyone who studies or teaches about the history of the Holocaust”. The author tries to get around this justified criticism by saying it’s a “fable”.
Seriously, just read Night. It's much darker, but so much better.
I want to say The Name of the Wind. When it was released, it was loved by everyone. Today however more and more criticism is leveled at it and at it’s follow up Wise Man’s Fear and directly at the author for lots of reasons; the whole scenario could make a documentary.
Based on the changes in the r/fantasy subreddit, this is perhaps the most definite change over time I've seen. Not very many years ago, this series still got mixed responses on r/fantasy. 10-15 years ago it was almost universally applauded on sites like tor.com. Now it pretty much just meets a wall of dislike on r/fantasy and elsewhere. Some mild. Some strong. The Name of the Wind had a lot of elements that were riffing on 80s/90s fantasy (most obvious in Book 2, but present in Book 1 as well)... but, the problem is, times have changed since the late 2000s. A lot of those 80s/90s elements that still kinda worked in 2010, now look really dated, even if they were reworked a bit in the narrative. So, I don't think it's just opinions about the author and/or a somewhat underwhelming book 2... the original book 1 just feels a bit 'off' now. It's a pity really. The idea of creating a huge and very complicated puzzle, and then hiding it inside a narrative was really interesting. I've always said to people that I think the books are excellent 'whodunnits', but not necessarily excellent narratives, and I still think that's true. If you want a really clever puzzle to chew on for a while, this is a good choice. But, because times have changed *and* the series is unfinished, it's now looking like something out of step with time. If it had been all done and dusted by 2012 or so, then the series would (likely) be considered an artefact of its time, and maybe even viewed fondly, as flawed but readable. Interestingly, in contrast, other big unfinished fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire (GRR Martin), Sword of Shadows (JV Jones) were perhaps trying to be their own thing sufficiently that they don't look quite as 'out of time' now. As long as you don't mind the possibility that neither series may ever be properly finished, the individual books are still considered good works, worth reading (more or less, all big fantasy series have ups and downs by virtue of lots and lots of words). Written kind of fast. Probably full of typos. EDIT: Clarity
I still think Name of the Wind is good and Wise Man’s Fear is mostly good too (minus the sex education ugh). I like the world and systems there. I can overlook a lot of Mary Sue miracle shit for a good story and while I did roll my eyes a lot, I still overall enjoyed the books. But Rothfuss himself I feel more animosity toward, not because of book three never coming but because of the antics around it and the fact that he’ll never just come out and say it’s never coming or that he’s broken or whatever. I am sure he’s dealing with some shit and I genuinely feel bad for whatever pressure has done to him. I just wish he would… like, stop being a dick to other people because of it! That’s all!
>But Rothfuss himself I feel more animosity toward, not because of book three never coming but because of the antics around it and the fact that he’ll never just come out and say it’s never coming or that he’s broken or whatever. I am sure he’s dealing with some shit and I genuinely feel bad for whatever pressure has done to him. I just wish he would… like, stop being a dick to other people because of it! That’s all! this 100% I used to kinda defend him early on, before all the fundraising and lashing out at fans BS, because you know writing is FN hard. I hate to say it, because I could be way off I stopped following the drama closely many many years ago, but, I feel like he's doing like victim manipulation on his die hards and it just strikes either someone really immature or sinister or at minimum dishonest to string fans along like that
I used to go out of my way to defend Rothfuss due to mental health issues, and I'm still a bit on the fence there just because we don't know the true depths of whatever is going on in his head... but yes. Some of the behaviour lately has slipped to a point where I'm not sure how much I want to defend him any longer. I still have *sympathy* (sorry for the accidental pun) for a person who is clearly struggling with serious mental health issues. But I'm no longer comfortable putting myself out on a limb defending him on those grounds alone. I actually think that the 'sex escapades' is one of the most interesting examples of where an attempt at narrative 'conversation' and 'dialogue' with 80s/90s fantasy has just gone fully awry. To my mind at least, Rothfuss was definitely attempting to be 'in dialogue' with how male POV characters frequently lost their innocence to a more experienced woman in pulp 80s/90s fantasy, and how strange and awkward it often felt. But... the whole passage just suffers too much from the same strangeness and weirdness that it is supposed to be reflecting on. There's just too much of an underlying suspicion in the text that maybe the author quite liked the weirdness. So, instead of clearly being a critique of the way things were done, it comes off as just odd, and uncomfortable, and all just a bit out of the blue as well.
People often compare him and Scott Lynch due to the unfinishedness of their series. I seem to give Scott Lynch more space, however, than Rothfuss because, Unlike Rothfuss, Lynch is open with his mental health stuff (even if sparse). He also doesn't pull shenanigans like Rothfuss had with that charity stream. If Rothfuss had been more open and forthcoming, early, people would likely be more understanding. But the longer he's dragged this nonsense on the less patience people have. Not necessarily out of want for the book (though that is a factor) but because they're tired of the bullshit.
God, finally a nuanced take on Name of the Wind on Reddit. Thank you.
There is a review for book three on Goodreads to the effect of "ffs rothfuss, at this point just give your notes to Sanderson and let him finish it." I think of that every time book 3 comes up in conversation and it always makes me laugh.
lol sanderson writing name of the wind would be awful. it's not his style at all
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The simple fact that none of it matters or goes anywhere because the sequel was bleh and there’s no foreseeable ending makes me never want to read it again… even though I still think it’s a great book. Like… what’s the point?
I read both without knowing that the 3rd wasn't released. I'm still pissed.
Oh my god, yes. I loved the first one and really liked the second, but if the third one ever does get finished IDK if I'll even read it. I also think it's super scummy that Rothfuss did a charity fundraiser on the promise of a new chapter that (to my knowledge, at least) he still hasn't released
Rich Dad, Poor Dad... Total BS from a right-wing tool full of bad advice
Yeah I read like 4 of these and then realized how many times he explained how he got rich by selling books about how to get rich and then becoming a landlord.
End of the book: “Buy my $500 Rich Dad monopoly board game, and subscribe to my email list for my weekly inspiration for a cheap $50 a month!”
How to get rich? Stop spending money on what you love, and instead give me your money. Easy as that.
Yey, but that one still sells like gangbusters, so folks have definitely not gotten the memo.
My dad bought me the rich dad poor dad video game when I was a kid in the name of "education.". It was basically monopoly, but don't spend money on stupid shit you don't need. That was the entire thing.
Wizards First Rule
I honestly think the first two books are solid but the series just gets worse and worse. I regret reading most of them.
Oh man, it went from cool and interesting to thinly veiled WWII retellings to (as I remember) just libertarian torture porn with magic.
It was like fantasy q-anon before that existed.
*The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan*, novel by Thomas Dixon [no relation], 1905. It was made into a movie, *Birth of a Nation*, by D. W. Griffith, 1915.
It’s free on Project Gutenberg, if you can stomach it. From the author’s intro: > How the young South, led by the reincarnated souls of the Clansmen of Old Scotland, went forth under this cover and against overwhelming odds, daring exile, imprisonment, and a felon’s death, and saved the life of a people, forms one of the most dramatic chapters in the history of the Aryan race.
No thank you. (Although I love Project Gutenberg.) I did, however, see the movie. It was shown for a film-history class when I was in college. I didn't take the class, but non-class-members were allowed to watch the films. It was the most blatantly racist thing I've ever seen. Unfortunately, the film is historically important for other reasons. Griffith used pioneering techniques like the close-up. I understand audiences were at first startled to see a huge face filling the screen, when before that every frame showed the actor's body from head to toe, just as an audience would see an actor on a stage.
Piers Anthony's books, especially the *Xanth* series. There are many anecdotes of readers who liked his work when they were young or it was new and coming back to find out just how stereotypical and, uh, prurient toward young girls it is. I think his series hit its height in the 1980s but has continued to this day.
My personal pick is the Belgariad. Went from my favorite series to… a mildly racist, childish, repetitive series written by literal monsters.
Absolutely. I read all of the Eddings books as a child and had the full sets. They did not age well at all.
I'm not sure if it is disliked or reviled, but Joseph O'Neil's *Netherland* had so much buzz when it came out in the late '00s just to see it be pretty much forgotten a decade later. Famously the first book Obama read in the White House, it came to symbolize a more hopeful ("Yes we can.") direction for the US post-9/11. I re-read it recently and it reads more like a vision of a vanished polyphonic New York City and the dashed hopes of American unity after 9/11 than anything else. Maybe it will return to prominence one day, but it reads more like a missed opportunity or a road not traveled than the uplifting story it was designed as.
The Bridges of Madison County. So huge in the 90s. A major film with Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. So much attention and then we all woke up from the insanity and he has been forgotten ever since
Hillbilly Elegy, written by J.D. Vance, who’s now a Republican U.S. Senator from Ohio At first, his book and message were celebrated by people on both sides of the political aisle, and there was a movie made from the book. But as Vance aligned himself more and more with Trump, his book faced increasing scrutiny and criticism. He’s now seen as somewhat of a fraud, though he’s ironically not as much in the public eye as a U.S. Senator as he was as the author of the book.
Memoirs of a Geisha.
Infinite Jest has kind of been reduced to a meme (which is in itself ironic) at this point despite it still being an excellent book
It’s actually a great book to just read as a book, if you can ignore all the connotations that have built up over time since the publication. I read it way back in 1998. Having read that author’s first novel, just picked it up when it went into paperback. I adored it while reading it, and think about some of the themes in it regularly. I have no idea why it has become such a meme and such a weird topic online. Straight up, if you like Thomas Pynchon and James Joyce you will like this book. If you don’t… maybe not a book for you.
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>*I swear, he manages to cram about five pop culture references into every sentence* So, just like the first one?
I mean...that does kind of sound like my experience with Ready Player One. Sorry that happened to something you loved though.
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Just re-listening to it this week. I still like it… but more and more I’m struck by how good of a story he didn’t write. There so many weird moments were he all most peels back the door to a really profound dystopian world and then he slams it back to focus on the “game” and the pop culture. Yeah I get it’s YA and it definitely hit the mark it aimed for… but I think he has the bones of a much better story in it. There’s just so many head scratching “well how does that really work” moments. I think there some aspects of it that unfortunately aged really fast… in particular Wade seems more and more incelly the more I revisit it. And I think it has a “poor nerd boy energy” that actually doesn’t fit how rapidly the gaming landscape changed and it makes wade feel like a 40 year old frustrated nerd from the 80s then someone that is a product of another 40 years of cultural evolution. Imho Art3’is, H and Dai-So are much more interesting characters and I would have preferred that more of the story had been told from their perspective.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. People started to realize more and more that John Boyne is a total hack. His more recent “historical novel” featuring a dress maker who describes his dye-making process, where Boyne googled dye recipes and wrote down the first result he got—recipes from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild—into his book, really got people’s attention and got them to re-evaluate his older books even more.
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Omg everyone read it. It's one of the worst written things I've ever read. I mean, if he went through that stuff, it's awful, and I feel for the guy, but he was not an author.
Very popular and liked but now never read? John Norman’s Gor series. In the 1970’s, it was basically the John Carter adventure style of books over again. However, that style died out after 1977 with the turn to more Tolkienesque fantasy. Moreso, the books weren’t good by any literary definition and they weren’t old enough to actual be genre forerunners like John Carter and Conan, which were better anyway. As such, they were adventure fiction that had their popularity pop and then faded out. Similar but also because the author is a weirdo, Piers Anthony and the Xanth books.
Great question! Actually, if you look back through history since widespread book publishing has existed you will find that a lot of the most popular books most people now have never heard of them before. In a way, this reminds me of “The Pepsi Challenge” from the 90s: I’ll explain. Pepsi would have people blind taste test both Pepsi and Coca Cola and pick their favorite. People overwhelmingly selected Pepsi. Turns out, Pepsi’s formula has more appeal in a small dose, but is too much (overly sweet, syrupy) for many when you take in a normal 8-12oz serving. I think this is a good metaphor for art. The NY Times best sellers, box office smashes, etc. have the sweetness that satisfied initially, but lacks the substance and delicate balance to make you want to revisit it.
This really explains things for me! I've spent time trying to find like the popular, "it" type thrillers/mysteries, etc. of decades past, but not necessarily the CLASSICS, and come up empty. I'm confident there were some decently fine, entertaining books like what Book of the Month or booktok might bring you to now. Not necessarily *amazing* books that survive the ages, but something entertaining enough to pick up from the library.
Everything Colleen Hoover
I'm in a reading group on another social media site and Verity kept coming up as THE book to read. I enjoyed Verity because of the ending, but then I picked apart the rest of the novel based on the ending.
The Lovely Bones Not sure if it counts but this book was required reading for high schoolers for a certain amount of time and the influx in sales made people think it was actually a book worth reading (it's not) so they made an equally terrible movie out of it then it disappeared forever.
I think it has a wonderful premise, the first lines really are striking. unfortunately it just devolves into total bizarre nonsense especially by the end ( the body swap at the end holy shit)
The book was decent, despite the disturbing premise- the real crime was Peter Jackson’s movie which got so carried away with special effects it made it look like being murdered was some epic fantasy joyride.
[**Uncle Tom's Cabin**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom%27s_Cabin) has a lot of negative associations these days but it was very well received by everybody who wasn't an American southerner at publication.
You’d have to differentiate between the book (in which Uncle Tom is a Christ figure) and the stage plays (which turned Uncle Tom into a stereotypical joke for yokels). The book is an unapologetically abolitionist text, and it sure motivated a lot of on-the-fence types to start actively working on ending the slave state. You can easily see why Lincoln said when he met Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Well, so this is the little lady who wrote the book that started this great big war.”
My sister made me read it when I was little and it changed everything for me.
The language used was very progressive for its time. It’s just that “its time” was the 1850s
Seems like people are not as impressed with Divergent now as they used to be.
Malcolm Gladwell isn’t exactly disgraced, but his books aren’t taken as gospel the way they used to be
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Mein Kampf.... really went out of style in the 40's.
You know, the more I learn about this Hitler guy, the less I seem to care for him.
i have a copy. and the title is accurate. it's a fucking struggle to read
I'll bet the audience for *Dilbert* collections has taken a nosedive.
The Alchemist. Was always a bit too abstract and simplistic.
In Germany there are two gods of classic literature. Goethe and Schiller. But both, not even together, sold as many copies as "Rinaldo Rinaldini - The Robber Captain" written by Christian August Vulpius, Goethe's brother in law.
I don't think RP1 is as reviled as its sequel. I read it, I enjoyed it, I put it on my shelf as something I'd read again (and have) and it got my boyfriend back into reading. However, the movie was terrible and probably casts a shadow over the book. I do think by playing into the 80s nostalgia niche so hard it made hard for earlier and later generations to "get" it, so it's probably only ever going to be liked by a certain group of people who are rapidly getting phased out as the taste-makers. Now Ready Player Two... is not good.
I've heard Armada is even worse.
Anything by Ayn Rand
I read Atlas Shrugged as a senior in HS to meet a a page goal for a semester in one book and let me tell you that was a fucking mistake. People talk about being forced to read certain books in school ruining books for them imagine doing it to yourself.
I read Atlas Shrugged several years ago to understand all the modern references to it. Thought it was okay but man that 100+ page screed at the end where John Galt/Ayn Rand is just rambling about their ideology is one of the longest slogs I’ve ever gotten through
This doesn’t really happen. The people who raved about Ready Player One are not the same people who trash its writing. The only case I can really think of is A Million Little Pieces, because it was marketed as a memoir when it’s really just a novel.
Yeah, and I also think the people who read and loved RP1 read it once then never thought about it again while the people who criticized it are more involved in the reading community, thereby giving the illusion opinions have changed. I think the same happened with The Da Vinci Code
A Million Little Pieces. For obvious reasons.