Thread: What books have you 'snobbed'?

Okay, you got me thinking about it, moderan. I love Dick, enjoy some of Bradbury's stuff, and I had an audiobook of Asimov's which I never finished listening to, but didn't hate. And the Star Wars original three are probably my favorite movies. And it wouldn't be too hard to argue that Clockwork Orange is sci-fi, although I've never viewed it as such. Love that one too.

I tend not to read novels that are actively marketed as part of a genre, preferring novels that are deemed literary - whatever that really means - over things like sci-fi, fantasy, and romance. Sometimes there are crossovers - magical realism being a branch of fantasy, for example - and while I would prefer to take a book on the Wildean premise of it being good or bad, that is all, but those awful covers, titles, and reams of never ending series sing bad before you've even picked them up. I like the idea of being a 'book snob', it shows I'm discerning.

I've snobbed the Harry Potter series. It may just be the movies which have put me off and makes me unable to get into any of the novels. I hate those movies, me and my girlfriend went to the first one in seventh grade and we both fell asleep during it, no joke. Though I guess I shouldn't snob a book based on the movie or for the fact that I haven't read it. I don't know there is just something that makes me wary of Harry Potter.

Possibly the hype? I snob Potter as well, though I did read most of the first one. It just seems like a mishmash of l'Engle and CS Lewis with a big helping of those preteen-aimed Scholastic novels and stuff like the Groovy Goolies for seasoning.
Doc, you know I like me some scifi and I don't think I've steered you wrong with recs over the last year or so. The first Dune book is exemplary if a little slowmoving, the second two decent enough, and from the fourth on they lessen in quality. You seem to like near-future stuff from that list, try some Gibson or Stephenson. Neuromancer, Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon are highly recommended. Also Gibson's Pattern Recognition, which straddles the border between sf and litfic.
Burgess' Clockwork is dystopian sf by my definitions.

I don't really snob anything but romance and high fantasy, but mod's right about Stephenson; the guy can write pretty damn good novels. I even read the entire Baroque Cycle from start to finish and enjoyed it alot (Quicksilver can be a little boring at first if you don't appreciate Newton and what he did for science, but it gets a whole lot better.)

There are several authors - Judy Blume is one (a kid's writer, I know, but I didn't like her when I was a kid) - that I don't like, and I put it down to their style. Agatha Christie, Daneille Steele, Pamela Dean, Cormac McCarthy (so kill me) - for various reasons, I have officially snobbed these people.

By-the-way Sparky the avatar is an Alien from Alien. (I know it's off-topic, and random, but I was reading some older posts and I saw that I had not replied to you. So now I did.)

Originally Posted by Katastrof

I don't really snob anything but romance and high fantasy, but mod's right about Stephenson; the guy can write pretty damn good novels. I even read the entire Baroque Cycle from start to finish and enjoyed it alot (Quicksilver can be a little boring at first if you don't appreciate Newton and what he did for science, but it gets a whole lot better.)

Hmm. I haven't read the Baroque Cycle, though I have it in my bookpile. I've been busy snobbing self-help books and anything recommended by Oprah.
Today I also snobbed rockstar biographies, tomorrow I'll find something else (though perhaps not as badly-written as those). It is much more satisfying, I believe, to turn one's nose up at entire subgenres than to single out any individual practitioner. True Crime, perhaps, tomorrow.

I snob Palahniuk for the most part. I like his style, and some of his stuff is great, but his overall body of work is way overrated in my opinion. I'm starting to snob Hunter Thompson too. He's a great journalist and columnist, but he's not much of a novelist.

I can't imagine anyone not liking Judy Blume. I reread Superfudge for like the thirtieth time last year and enjoyed it as much as I did as a kid.

I guess I'll have to check out Stephenson since you guys both recommend him.

Oh, and I read the first Harry Potter book (or most of it at least) expecting it be something really good since I've heard so much about how "adults love it too!" but I was sorely dissapointed. It's basically just what moderan said. Now I just look at it as a kids' book in a genre I didn't even like as a kid.

I started snobbing Thompson @Generation of Swine, which was some time ago. His novels and letters are just extremely uninteresting and he burned his talent away long before he died. Still think Campaign Trail was his high-water mark. He should have done more sportswriting.
Stephenson can be a really fun read. You do sometimes have to get past his patting-myself-on-the-back-for-my-own-cleverness stylings but his plotting is soooo Byzantine and his characters behave more or less humanly. Haven't read much Pahlaniuk but I put him in the class of writers I just don't care to read, along with Don DeLillo, Cormac McCarthy, and some others. They're probably great and all but I don't really care about what they have to say. It's the hype (again) that throws me off. I have a built-in hype repulsor, and tons of people liking something can make me not like it in a hurry.
Plus I thought Fight Club (the movie) was transparent and stupid. We used to do Irish standoffs when I was a teenager. Most of us grew up. People don't seem to be maturing much anymore *shakes head sadly* but that's an entirely different hobbyhorse.
Love the new sigquote, Doc.

Irish standoff? Google returned nothing on it (except, coincidentally a rugby article about a Malone).

Stole the sig quote from the new Nader docu.

You stand there and I swing at you and try to knock you down. You return the favor. First one to hit the ground loses.

Originally Posted by Caballo

Hmmm... I enjoy fantasy novels but usually you have to sift through an enormous amount of fluff to find anything of substance. I find myself unable to read some of the more poorly written ones --- I didn't think this was unusual until one of my friends called me a 'book snob'.

Am I the only one out there that's like this? If I don't like the author's writing style, I can't take the story seriously, and unless it's some hugely acclaimed need-to-read book, I just can't force myself through it

I would say your friend has no clue what they are talking about, if you tried to read something and did not like it, then you are not a snob.

If you turn your nose to something before you even give it a chance, then you are.

So with that in mind, I pretty much will give anything one chapter, if I like it, I'll *TRY* to read the rest of it.

For those of you who do not enjoy fantasy, read The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny.

I have yet to meet someone who hasn't liked that series.



As for the books I've snubbed- Twilight comes to mind. So does the Inheritance trilogy, the Redwall books, and anything by Kevin J Anderson.


I don't know if you could call it snubbed, but I have, to date, found myself unable to forge through the Gormenghast trilogy, even though it is very, very good.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gormenghast

Anything by Zelazny is good (and a good portion of his oeuvre is transcendant). "Amber" lessens in quality toward the end but what series doesn't? Good rec as far as "high fantasy for those who dislike high fantasy". Another is Lord Dunsany, if you can find the books.