Most over-rated book

Jan 16, 2011 82 Replies

Seeing all the smart people in this group, chances are you're all big readers. What's the most over-rated book in your opinion? A book that gets praised every once in a while but really sucks? For me, it's Douglas Hofstadter's Godel Escher Bach. What repetitive & trite tripe.


The bible.

Dirk http://www.neopax.com/technomage/ - My new book - Magick and Technology

Ever read it?

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

Dr Philip C D Hobbs Principal ElectroOptical Innovations 55 Orchard Rd Briarcliff Manor NY 10510 845-480-2058 email: hobbs (atsign) electrooptical (period) net http://electrooptical.net

Anything by Sarah Palin, Ann Coulter, or Gee Dubya.

....duck and cover now. :)

But seriously? Dante's Inferno? (Either that or the 9/11 Commission Report, which incidentally, I did once see in the Fiction Section).

Anything by Henry James.

The idiotic "Da Vinci Code" books.

The Radiotron Designer's Handbook.

HoJo's Black Magic book.

Anything by Thomas Mann.

The many go-go dot.com "eBrand" books of the 1990s... hilarious.

John

I've read a couple of Ann's books. They are interesting and make sense, and are very well reseached and referenced.

John

This one is great:

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The price is right, too.

John

Yes. When I was at school it was compulsory reading.

Dirk http://www.neopax.com/technomage/ - My new book - Magick and Technology

Rich Grise recently posted a really great quote from it though. I just wasted an hour trying to find it.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Bible, koran, (add all the other religious fantasy).

Anything from Jan Wolkers

Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply indicates you are not using the right tools... nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) --------------------------------------------------------------

A of E ?:-) ...Jim Thompson

-- | James E.Thompson, CTO | mens | | Analog Innovations, Inc. | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | Phoenix, Arizona 85048 Skype: Contacts Only | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at

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| 1962 | I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.

I could agree.

Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply indicates you are not using the right tools... nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) --------------------------------------------------------------

Maybe I should revise my list. If we're allowed to include poems, then by far, the most over-rated gibberish has got to be "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Caroll.

Unless you're surrounded by language arts addicts, I see no reason to teach this drivel to anyone. It is practically indistinguishable from an account of a bad acid trip (not that I would know).

I was clearing out a bunch of things for the New Year, both mentally and physically, clutter, etc... I for one have zero desire to "study" other people's f^cked up musings from a century ago. Surely there are more practical things we could teach our kids? Like how to pronounce and write "the" instead of "da"?

Needless to say, I flushed the Jabberwock. !!

"The Wisdom of Glenn Beck", with a forward from Sarah Palin. Available only in clear acetate.

"Jim Thompson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I'm thinking you should write an electronics book of your own, perhaps titled something like, "Electronics for Non-Weenies." :-)

You need to read Martin Gardner's annotated version. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was satirising a number of then-popular pretentious poems which haven't stood the test of time.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was in many respects a thoroughly f^cked-up character, but he was an able mathematician and a supremely competent writer. I don't know quite what message he was communicating in the "Alice" books - any more than I know what music is telling me - but I'm sure that your kids will be worse off if you don't let him communicate it to them.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

Snap. I know Henry James is a great writer, but he's not a writer that I can read.

Obviously.

Don't know it.

There is useful information in there, but not a lot of it.

Snap. I know Thomas Mann is a great writer, but he's not a writer that I can read.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

Which is to say that the research produced the answers that John Larkin wanted and expected. Most of the books that John recommends fit that kind of mould.

-- Bill Sloman, Nijmegen

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