(no subject)

[cassildra.livejournal.com]

I don't know if this has been posted already. If it has, my apologies. Also, someone will have to fix the tags, since I'm not sure how this would be categorized.

Apparently, readers have decided that Guilty Pleasures deserves #87 on the list of the top 100 novels of all time.

Granted, I liked Guilty Pleasures. It was before Anita was the Gaping Crotch of Doom, and the stories actually had plot. But I don't think it was one of the top 100 novels of all time.

So, Lashers, what do you think?

Comments

[lilacwire.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I'm not sure how Guilty Pleasures ended up on a list with Atlas Shrugged. I liked Guilty Pleasures as well, but in no way is it reading that should be put on a list like that.

[cassildra.livejournal.com]

Granted, I think the lists are a bit heavy on the Rand--the nonfic is HUGE on it--but yeah. Choosing IT as the King representative was a bit disappointing, too.

I think the readers that responded were a bit.. um... how to put this delicately....

stupid?

[lilacwire.livejournal.com]

LOL, yeah. Maybe not stupid, but the "popular" vote. I agree that the list seemed Rand heavy too, though I admit, I did love Atlas Shrugged.

I am just failing to see how Guilty Pleasures can stack up to books that explore the human condition, our society, what it is to be a person...and then here comes Laurell, not dating vampires, but killing them.

[drho.livejournal.com]

#3 is Battlefield Earth. Ken Kesey and Stephen King are below Laurell.

I don't think the list is an accurate measure of quality.

[cassildra.livejournal.com]

Plus, they chose It as King's best. I'm reading it now, and I'm not very impressed.

Yeah, I think the readers who responded needed a bit of a reality check.

[pith]

Two words: popularity contest.

Or put another way: she's in the public eye currently. Do this poll again in two years, and it would probably be an entirely different list.

[cassildra.livejournal.com]

After I posted this, I saw that the list was created in 1999. That makes me wonder even more. With the state of her current books, do you think she'd be higher on the list, or lower?

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

I think this is further proof that Internet Voting is a bad idea.

[cassildra.livejournal.com]

At least, when there aren't set choices.

[siedhr.livejournal.com]

Uh. NO.
The early AB books were a pleasant read, but they were never in any shape, size or form comparable to most books on that list (or close to any valuable literature as I understand it). The simple fact that it's rated higher than "ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST" is laughable and makes that list rather worthless as far as ranking (and in most part content) goes.

[christraven.livejournal.com]

With as many L. Ron "Scientology" Hubbard books as are on the list, it's plain to see that many of the people who voted wouldn't know good literature if it bit them on the ass.

[siedhr.livejournal.com]

Agreed.

[mranon-y-mous.livejournal.com]

Take that!

Wait, Scientology has always been the internet's buttmonkey.

[brightlyiburn.livejournal.com]

It -does- seem to be a bit heavy on the books that spawned cults and what have you, doesn't it?

[gwynethfar.livejournal.com]

I love that book, but no. Not one of the top 100 of all time. There are a lot of books in "all time".

[cassildra.livejournal.com]

People are indeed morons, as most of that list suggests.

[wyrdmuse.livejournal.com]

Ulysses is only there because no one knows what Joyce is saying, so it must be great, right?

Catch-22 was apparently written by Anon.

As for the reader's list, I think it was ranked by high school and college students. Ayn Rand? Really?

[cassildra.livejournal.com]

I know, right? Either that, or Randriods and Scientologists.

[belledewinter.livejournal.com]

Guilty Pleasures was not bad.

But WTF.

[christraven.livejournal.com]

Maybe one of the top 100,000,000 novels of all time?

Nah. Even that's too short of a list.

[slayra.livejournal.com]

Is this an ongoing contest or something. Guilty Pleasures is at #82... weird-ness. How can someone consider it one of the 100 best novels of all time? It's... er... I don't have words for it. :p

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

This is known as "Who has more rabid fans willing to game the poll?"

Note prominence of L. Ron Hubbard and Ayn Rand for proof.

[artemis-rex.livejournal.com]

I don't take any list seriously that has three L. Ron Hubbard novels in the top ten.