Don't waste it.' If you start reading at 10, and do a book a week for 70 years, that’s 52 x 70 = 3,640 books. I imagined my compulsive completion a sign of adult seriousness. Or it is me reading online fictions, as opposed to actual published works. Granted, it's a good idea to give some books a chance even if they don't grab you at first, especially if they come recommended by someone you trust. For Lispector, there aren't easy answers—and her universe sure as hell is not interested in your hopes and dreams. It fails to capture the absurdities and impossible conflicts of war. However, one of the most arresting novels I've read about war is Kachachi's The American Granddaughter. I Don't Know What to Read. —Drew Magary, GQ contributor, The worst crime committed by Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is that it makes first-time Twain readers think Twain wrote tedious, meandering stories. We read bad books so you don't have to. It unspools as a sort of nightmare that begins on a Greyhound bus. A Guide to the World of Youth Literature & What You Can Do About It. Click the links below to jump to a specific category. A certain class of books isn't called "beach reads" for nothing. Reading bad books, or books that are wrong for a certain time in your life, can dangerously turn you off the activity altogether. Seemingly any reference to sex, drugs, cursing or homosexuality qualifies a book for "bad" status. The book is over almost before it has begun. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger, 4. Reading time is precious. That such a book, nearly a hundred years old, would be a pleasure to read today might seem improbable. —Manuel Gonzales, 'The Regional Office Is Under Attack! —Tommy Orange, 'There There', Several people described The Ambassadors by Henry James in such a way as to make me impatient to read it, but between those descriptions and my experience of the book lay a chasm of such yawningness that it will never be crossed. The subtlety and cruelty of this story is like that famous sword stroke (from below the boat) that plunged upward through the bowels, the lungs, and the throat and into the brain of the rower. Death Comes for the Archbishop is about a priest in what I'm pretty sure is Santa Fe. And that’s just a part of this story. I have occasionally heard from a reader fuming because he or she did not enjoy one of my novels yet still read to its bitter end. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien, Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. But let’s not get so self-serious that we can’t enjoy books that catastrophically misfire in interesting ways. Since 1957, GQ has inspired men to look sharper and live smarter with its unparalleled coverage of style, culture, and beyond. Parents have the right to control what their kids read but, not other kids. I have to second Sidney, above. They also happen to be the driest, boringest tomes you'll ever sludge through. I'm sure you've been halfway through a book and asked yourself, "Why am I reading this?" It's also an invigorating revenge story: Douglass identifies slave owners by name and hometown, detailing their crimes with such specificity that their descendants will be embarrassed forever. ', Gothic-horror classics like Dracula and Frankenstein always leave me cold. The book came to public attention when it was republished in 1883 with the title English as She is Spoke, although that phrase does not appear in the original book. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, 9 & 10. It's actually still as gripping as any literary classic. This series of vignettes about a grandmother and granddaughter living on a remote Finnish island is not just heartwarming: In its views of both Nature and human nature, it teaches us what it is to be in sync with the world. It because everyone else in school was reading it but thought it was vanity. Characters closer to cruelty than to kindness what I 'm the only weird one, but let 's see that... Permission to strike these books from the next room as clearly as rain out the.! And Frankenstein always leave me cold vaunted American über-tome thoughtful, nuanced, and beyond as out... 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