April 2026 -- What are you reading?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:you didn't say great literature you said a great book. And I decided that because of the phenomenon that is HP, it's a great book for many different reasons other than its literary merit, of which personally, and as a children's librarian, I think it's up there.
It was a ground breaking children's book.

“Great book” is a term of art. It isn’t synonymous with “really good” or “commercially successful” or “everyone loves it” or “they made roller coasters in a theme park based on it” or “sold billions in merch” or whatever. The term refers specifically to literary merit. The kind of literary merit critics and lit professors concern themselves with, not children’s librarians.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Harry potter
The Martian
Project Hail Mary comes close

You could make a good argument that these are not "great" books. I know people would come for me on this. And I'm not necessarily saying it is the case, just making the argument.

I haven't read Project Hail Mary.

What it is not great about them? HP is a freaking phenomenon.
The Martian made it to film (w a major movie star) from a self published book.

That doesn't make it great literature.

GFY we don't need book snobs here.

Saying that massive sales numbers do not mean something is great literature does not make a person a "book snob."

Yes, it does. It also makes you insufferable. Start a thread about what you think constitutes great books instead of ruining this one.

Not at all. Stop overreacting with bizarre amounts of anger. You are the one ruining the thread by changing the whole tone of it with this “GFY” stuff. Discussing the merit of various genres is on point, raging with “GFY” in response is not, and poisons things with negativity.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:On my beach vacation I read Ordinary People and When Women were Dragons.
They were both okay, didn’t love either.
Ordinary People was well written but my patience for 20-somethings who make dumb life choices and can’t communicate effectively is limited. Same reason I can’t watch shows like Girls.
When Women Were Dragons also well written and an interesting concept (sort of an allegory or magical realism type thing), but I found it a little simplistic. It oversold the sexism in the 1950s and 1960: — I mean, there was definitely a lot of sexism but this was almost a cartoonish level of sexism. I get that it isn’t meant to be a realistic book (hence dragons) but it irked me a little.

I take it this was not Ordinary People written by Judith Guest, published in 1980?

I suspect she means Normal People.

Yes I heard my favorite actor/pod-caster raving over her series of books - just raving! So i tried to read Normal People and got so mired between the angst and the ennui. No thank you! Too bad b/c I thought i had something there - oh well.

The Hulu series Normal People, based on the book, is fantastic. It’s quite hot. Highly recommend.

+1000

That show was amazing. I haven't read the book because of the mixed reviews and I loved the show so much I don't want to dislike the book.

When I was in grad school for creative writing I remember we had a big discussion in one of my classes about why you get great book/ bad movie/tv adaption or average-at-best book with a great adaptation and there are not a lot of exceptions or in-between situations. The only instance I could think of where I truly loved a book and the film of it was A Clockwork Orange. (But that film has about the biggest problem it could have, which is in the casting. I think I love that film as much as I do because of Malcolm Mcdowell's performance, but he was way too old to play Alex. The Alex in the book is only 15 and he is younger than any of the rest of the gang, which he is running. What the authorities do to him when they catch him -- deep psychological conditioning by combining his beloved Beethoven with torture and images of crime and violence -- is a very different proposition with a teenager as opposed to a young adult. The Alex in the film is old enough that a major them of the book disappears.)

Anybody have instances of where you loved both the book and film/show that arose from it?

Gone With the Wind

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harry potter
The Martian
Project Hail Mary comes close

You could make a good argument that these are not "great" books. I know people would come for me on this. And I'm not necessarily saying it is the case, just making the argument.

I haven't read Project Hail Mary.

What it is not great about them? HP is a freaking phenomenon.
The Martian made it to film (w a major movie star) from a self published book.

That doesn't make it great literature.

GFY we don't need book snobs here.

Saying that massive sales numbers do not mean something is great literature does not make a person a "book snob."

Yes, it does. It also makes you insufferable. Start a thread about what you think constitutes great books instead of ruining this one.

Not at all. Stop overreacting with bizarre amounts of anger. You are the one ruining the thread by changing the whole tone of it with this “GFY” stuff. Discussing the merit of various genres is on point, raging with “GFY” in response is not, and poisons things with negativity.

What is GFY? I didn't post that. It's quite clear that multiple people are annoyed with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On my beach vacation I read Ordinary People and When Women were Dragons.
They were both okay, didn’t love either.
Ordinary People was well written but my patience for 20-somethings who make dumb life choices and can’t communicate effectively is limited. Same reason I can’t watch shows like Girls.
When Women Were Dragons also well written and an interesting concept (sort of an allegory or magical realism type thing), but I found it a little simplistic. It oversold the sexism in the 1950s and 1960: — I mean, there was definitely a lot of sexism but this was almost a cartoonish level of sexism. I get that it isn’t meant to be a realistic book (hence dragons) but it irked me a little.

I take it this was not Ordinary People written by Judith Guest, published in 1980?

I suspect she means Normal People.

Yes I heard my favorite actor/pod-caster raving over her series of books - just raving! So i tried to read Normal People and got so mired between the angst and the ennui. No thank you! Too bad b/c I thought i had something there - oh well.

The Hulu series Normal People, based on the book, is fantastic. It’s quite hot. Highly recommend.

+1000

That show was amazing. I haven't read the book because of the mixed reviews and I loved the show so much I don't want to dislike the book.

When I was in grad school for creative writing I remember we had a big discussion in one of my classes about why you get great book/ bad movie/tv adaption or average-at-best book with a great adaptation and there are not a lot of exceptions or in-between situations. The only instance I could think of where I truly loved a book and the film of it was A Clockwork Orange. (But that film has about the biggest problem it could have, which is in the casting. I think I love that film as much as I do because of Malcolm Mcdowell's performance, but he was way too old to play Alex. The Alex in the book is only 15 and he is younger than any of the rest of the gang, which he is running. What the authorities do to him when they catch him -- deep psychological conditioning by combining his beloved Beethoven with torture and images of crime and violence -- is a very different proposition with a teenager as opposed to a young adult. The Alex in the film is old enough that a major them of the book disappears.)

Anybody have instances of where you loved both the book and film/show that arose from it?

Sharp Objects!

Cold Mountain and Big Little Lies come to mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On my beach vacation I read Ordinary People and When Women were Dragons.
They were both okay, didn’t love either.
Ordinary People was well written but my patience for 20-somethings who make dumb life choices and can’t communicate effectively is limited. Same reason I can’t watch shows like Girls.
When Women Were Dragons also well written and an interesting concept (sort of an allegory or magical realism type thing), but I found it a little simplistic. It oversold the sexism in the 1950s and 1960: — I mean, there was definitely a lot of sexism but this was almost a cartoonish level of sexism. I get that it isn’t meant to be a realistic book (hence dragons) but it irked me a little.

I take it this was not Ordinary People written by Judith Guest, published in 1980?

I suspect she means Normal People.

Yes I heard my favorite actor/pod-caster raving over her series of books - just raving! So i tried to read Normal People and got so mired between the angst and the ennui. No thank you! Too bad b/c I thought i had something there - oh well.

The Hulu series Normal People, based on the book, is fantastic. It’s quite hot. Highly recommend.

+1000

That show was amazing. I haven't read the book because of the mixed reviews and I loved the show so much I don't want to dislike the book.

When I was in grad school for creative writing I remember we had a big discussion in one of my classes about why you get great book/ bad movie/tv adaption or average-at-best book with a great adaptation and there are not a lot of exceptions or in-between situations. The only instance I could think of where I truly loved a book and the film of it was A Clockwork Orange. (But that film has about the biggest problem it could have, which is in the casting. I think I love that film as much as I do because of Malcolm Mcdowell's performance, but he was way too old to play Alex. The Alex in the book is only 15 and he is younger than any of the rest of the gang, which he is running. What the authorities do to him when they catch him -- deep psychological conditioning by combining his beloved Beethoven with torture and images of crime and violence -- is a very different proposition with a teenager as opposed to a young adult. The Alex in the film is old enough that a major them of the book disappears.)

Anybody have instances of where you loved both the book and film/show that arose from it?

Sharp Objects!

Cold Mountain and Big Little Lies come to mind.

Oh, yes! BLL was also a really well done limited series. I believe BLL2 comes out soon!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:you didn't say great literature you said a great book. And I decided that because of the phenomenon that is HP, it's a great book for many different reasons other than its literary merit, of which personally, and as a children's librarian, I think it's up there.
It was a ground breaking children's book.

“Great book” is a term of art. It isn’t synonymous with “really good” or “commercially successful” or “everyone loves it” or “they made roller coasters in a theme park based on it” or “sold billions in merch” or whatever. The term refers specifically to literary merit. The kind of literary merit critics and lit professors concern themselves with, not children’s librarians.

Not in my book, lol.
Guess who’s buying the books? Not lit professors and critics. But librarians do.
Great can be great for many reasons.

[Anonymous]

The Godfather - movie and book both excellent!

[Anonymous]

Back to books we are currently reading.

Just finished Bat Eater, and other names for Cora Zeng; Aftertaste; and Maggie, or a man and woman walk into a bar.

Loved them all. Bat Eater is ferocious and grotesque and just ragefull. Really great.

[Anonymous]

I'm in the middle of Project Hail Mary. I am loving every second, and I'm not a science person, let alone science fiction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the middle of Project Hail Mary. I am loving every second, and I'm not a science person, let alone science fiction.

It's a top five for me.

[Anonymous]

Trust by Hernan Diaz. It's fantastic . . . leaves one to contemplate how wealth and power can dictate who gets to tell the "truth" and manipulate facts.

[Anonymous]

Just finished Lady Tremaine and I found it to be simultaneously a drag, while also being interesting. It could have been about 100 pages shorter, perhaps, but I was still anxious to see what would happen next. Overall, a good story, if not a long, overdrawn one.

Next up, Wild Dark Shore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm in the middle of Project Hail Mary. I am loving every second, and I'm not a science person, let alone science fiction.

It's a top five for me.

I'm glad to hear this, as it is on my list and I think I saw a review that said it is "bloated."

[Anonymous]

Finished Raja the Gullible... would love to hear others thoughts. It was smart, funny and well written. Not sure how I felt about the story in general.

Now reading The Bright Years by Sarah Damoff.