The Century So Far - Books

[ret]

Toronto Star published a list of 10 books that have made an impact on this century so far in various genres according to their criteria

- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
- The Omnivire's Dilemma by Micheal Pollan
- The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery
- The Looming Tower, Al Qaeda and the road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
- The Brick Lane by Monica Ali
- The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
- Louis Riel: A comic strip biography by Chester Brown


Which one of these have you read and recommend?

 

[sledger]

Toronto Star published a list of 10 books that have made an impact on this century so far in various genres according to their criteria

- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
- The Omnivire's Dilemma by Micheal Pollan
- The Weather Makers by Tim Flannery
- The Looming Tower, Al Qaeda and the road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright
- The Brick Lane by Monica Ali
- The Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling
- Louis Riel: A comic strip biography by Chester Brown


Which one of these have you read and recommend?

The Da Vinci code is absolute bilge. The God Delusion is quite good, and worth a read. Harry Potter is unadulterated pap but quite the page turner. And I've not read any of the others.

 

[superkingdave]

The Brick Lane is actually called Brick Lane.

Have only read Harry Potter and about 4 pages of that Dan Brown sh*te

 

[Goughy]

I have read

- The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
- The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

All of which are interesting at the time (I read Da Vinci Code pretty early). The Da Vinci obviously immediately turned out to be complete tosh after spending 10 sec scratching the surface and has therefore little to no value.

TGD says nothing really new. It covers all the ground atheists have already worked out themselves and is not going to change the mind of religious people.

TTP isnt something to get excited about. More "Ah, there may be something to this" rather than "Hold the phones, he has worked it all out"

Harry Potter was by far the best in the series but it is what it is. An above average fantasy book.

All four I have read are populist works that dont really say much about this decades cultural significance.

 

[Uppercut]

Personally I found The God Delusion very boring. It's really not that satisfying to sit for a few hundred pages reading and agreeing with pretty much every word. I don't recommend it to religious people, because their mind won't ever change, but I do recommend it to people who criticise Dawkins. For all the slander and myths about Dawkins and general criticism (e.g. "he's creepy" or "he's just another fundamentalist"), there's very little wrong at all in what he actually writes.

The Da Vinci Code is pretty poor. I haven't read the rest.

 

[Pratters]

I have read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It is by far the best Harry Potter book I have read (I haven't read the last book of the series). 7/10.

 

[Goughy]

I have read Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It is by far the best Harry Potter book I have read (I haven't read the last book of the series). 7/10.

Oops. I didnt even read the title. I just assumed that the final book was the one listed. The conclusion is, IMO, by far the best and most mature. It shows a massive progression from the early books.

 

[Matt79]

Find the condemnation of the Da Vinci code quite funny. It's a fictional thriller - if we're going to slam it for being utterly fanciful and having no basis in reality, we better chuck out the collected works of Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Michael Critchton, the entire Bond franchise and all novels featuring fantasy or science fiction elements.

Dan Brown is no doubt the literary equivalent of Maccas, but in terms of disposable page turning thrillers, he writes pretty good ones. And he's had a massive impact this century in terms of the number of people he's got reading - he's the adult equivalent of JK Rowling. So his inclusion in this list is fair enough. I have no problem admitting in read and enjoyed the Da Vinci Code, even if I treated it as seriusly and it had as much influence on me as the last Bond flick.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Read the Harry Potter series and will always have a soft spot for it.

I read the Da Vinci Code after all the hype it received and found it average. Not because it was fanciful, but because it just seemed like a vehicle for all these little 'facts' with little actual story to go with it.

 

[Uppercut]

Find the condemnation of the Da Vinci code quite funny. It's a fictional thriller - if we're going to slam it for being utterly fanciful and having no basis in reality, we better chuck out the collected works of Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Michael Critchton, the entire Bond franchise and all novels featuring fantasy or science fiction elements.

Dan Brown is no doubt the literary equivalent of Maccas, but in terms of disposable page turning thrillers, he writes pretty good ones. And he's had a massive impact this century in terms of the number of people he's got reading - he's the adult equivalent of JK Rowling. So his inclusion in this list is fair enough. I have no problem admitting in read and enjoyed the Da Vinci Code, even if I treated it as seriusly and it had as much influence on me as the last Bond flick.

I presume you're not referring to anyone here, because none of us slammed it for being fanciful/unrealistic. I suspect that everyone else, like me, didn't like it because it was poor as that type of book goes. Personally, Battle Royale is one of my favourite books and it's equally lacking in lasting impact. Actually it's even more poorly written (probably because it's a translation) but it has what I'd describe as a properly thrilling storyline and it's impossible to put down.

The Da Vinci Code really didn't do it for me. I'm not violently opposed to it, it just wasn't the absorbing, fascinating, unpredictable page-turner it's sometimes considered to be.

 

[Goughy]

Find the condemnation of the Da Vinci code quite funny. It's a fictional thriller - if we're going to slam it for being utterly fanciful and having no basis in reality, we better chuck out the collected works of Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Michael Critchton, the entire Bond franchise and all novels featuring fantasy or science fiction elements.

Dan Brown is no doubt the literary equivalent of Maccas, but in terms of disposable page turning thrillers, he writes pretty good ones. And he's had a massive impact this century in terms of the number of people he's got reading - he's the adult equivalent of JK Rowling. So his inclusion in this list is fair enough. I have no problem admitting in read and enjoyed the Da Vinci Code, even if I treated it as seriusly and it had as much influence on me as the last Bond flick.

The issue was always the "facts" sheet at the beginning of The Da Vinci Code. It wasnt presented as a fictional thriller but as a thriller based around little known, but earthshattering, historical truths. Thats the issue. It was presented as something it wasnt. It was still a pretty decent read (though still primarily because you thought you were learning something. Its a book that cheats its readers). If a lot of the stuff had not been presented as cold hard fact and as just a fictional story then it would have sold no where near as many copies.

Angels and Demons, on the other hand, was absolute trash. Terrible story that was written just as bad.

 

[Matt79]

Do you reckon anyone took that fact sheet seriously though?

 

[Matt79]

I presume you're not referring to anyone here, because none of us slammed it for being fanciful/unrealistic. I suspect that everyone else, like me, didn't like it because it was poor as that type of book goes. Personally, Battle Royale is one of my favourite books and it's equally lacking in lasting impact. Actually it's even more poorly written (probably because it's a translation) but it has what I'd describe as a properly thrilling storyline and it's impossible to put down.

The Da Vinci Code really didn't do it for me. I'm not violently opposed to it, it just wasn't the absorbing, fascinating, unpredictable page-turner it's sometimes considered to be.

Possibly misinterpreted some of the comments in this thread as doing exactly that, "absolute bilge", "turned out to be complete tosh once you scratch the surface". If that's not what people meant, then my comments are a bit pointless, yes.

 

[luffy]

Twilight FTW IMO bro.

 

[Flem274*]

Fiction is true lies. What I mean by that is the reader knows that the story is make believe, yet it constructs a reality in the imagination of the reader.

I think the Da Vinci Code did this too well for some people, and once they found out it was BS they didn't like it. Of course, Brown didn't exactly help himself with his little fact sheets etc.

Angels and Demons though, was awful. Used the awesome Illuminati conspiracy and ****ed it over and raped its dead body and unfortunately, its now the most well known story to do with that particular conspiracy.

The final Harry Potter book was bloody good.

 

[pasag]

Louis Riel: A comic strip biography by Chester Brown

Have this and Ed the Happy Clown by the same author though yet to read them.

 

[Goughy]

Do you reckon anyone took that fact sheet seriously though?

Of course. When the book begins with what amounts to "the following facts are true..." it is pretty clear what was intended.

It is presented like the Da Vinci Code is a literary mechanism to pull all this information together to be explained and revealed as part of a story. The revealing of truths or facts is 99% about what The Da Vinci Code is about and the story represents 1%. That makes the book bull****

It is a complete misrepresentation.

 

[GIMH]

Oops. I didnt even read the title. I just assumed that the final book was the one listed. The conclusion is, IMO, by far the best and most mature. It shows a massive progression from the early books.

Yeah, agree, love the series but the way it ended was immense. You knew all along that Harry would kill Voldermort, but the way they got there was great.

 

[NUFAN]

I've just read 2 out of the 10.

Da Vinci Code, I read it pretty early too and absolutely loved it at the time.

Also read Life of Pi. Enjoyed it but I wouldn't really say it made a huge impact this decade.

 

[sledger]

Find the condemnation of the Da Vinci code quite funny. It's a fictional thriller - if we're going to slam it for being utterly fanciful and having no basis in reality, we better chuck out the collected works of Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, Michael Critchton, the entire Bond franchise and all novels featuring fantasy or science fiction elements.

Dan Brown is no doubt the literary equivalent of Maccas, but in terms of disposable page turning thrillers, he writes pretty good ones. And he's had a massive impact this century in terms of the number of people he's got reading - he's the adult equivalent of JK Rowling. So his inclusion in this list is fair enough. I have no problem admitting in read and enjoyed the Da Vinci Code, even if I treated it as seriusly and it had as much influence on me as the last Bond flick.

Are you a fan of Michael Crichton? If so i was completely oblivious to this....and if so which of his books do you believe to be his best?