Which is to say, not opinions about the book DIVERGENT, which I liked, btw, but I don’t really intend to go on with the series. I know a lot of people just loved DIVERGENT, but for me it was just okay. This is mostly because of the worldbuilding, which was profoundly silly. I don’t know whether the author realized that the backstory for How The World Got That Way was ridiculous and always had in mind the Real Story, which was later revealed; but the idea of people dividing into castes based on fearlessness, self-abnegation, etc was, yes, silly.
Okay, that is actually a lead in to this post by Chuck Wendig at Terrible Minds. Chuck asks:
1.) What book do you love that other people seem to hate?
2.) What book do you hate that other people seem to love?
I don’t just want names and authors listed — I’d love to hear your reasons.
And then there are 159 comments. To which I did not contribute, because there are already so many comments that adding another seems superfluous. But they are interesting, which is why I provide the link. Of course it is not in the least surprising that one person declares MOBY DICK is a great book and another that MOBY DICK is unreadable; that is exactly what we expect. But it is still interesting to read through the comments and see what people are picking for both categories and the reasons they’re giving.
Which leads me to this post by John Wright:
If you only write one book in your whole life, and only sell 600 copies or less, nonetheless, I assure you, I solemnly assure you, that this book will be someone’s absolutely favorite book of all time, and it will come to him on some dark day and give him sunlight, and open his eyes and fill his heart and make him see things in life even you never suspected, and will be his most precious tale, and it will live in his heart like the Book of Gold.
I saw a link to that post somewhere, and that bit really leaped out at me.