Other Polarizing Books

[Mike]

I've been reading a lot of the threads on the Magicians and it's pretty clear that a lot of people really hated it. I know there will always be those who don't enjoy a book, but there seem to be far more with the Magicians. On the other hand many people seemed to love it and identify with Quintin. I was wondering if anyone else could think of another book that is this polarizing.

By the way, I personally liked the Magicians, but I can totally get why it doesn't appeal to everyone.

[Agatha]

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell appears to fall into the love-it-or-hate-it category, judging by the reactions in the next Sword pick thread. There are a lot of classics that fall into this, as well; books such as those by Dickens (a lot of people seem to vehemently dislike A Tale of Two Cities, for instance, which is by far my favourite) or a lot of the French authors, judging by my past lit classes.

As far as lasers go, Starship Troopers is one very polarizing book; I personally love it, but I know a lot of people who detested it.

For the record, I really enjoyed The Magicians, myself.

[Dharmakirti]

R. Scott Bakker's Prince of Nothing (The Darkness That Comes Before, The Warrior Prophet, The Thousandfold Thought) and Aspect Emperor series (The Judging Eye, White Luck Warrior) seem to be polarizing titles. They have all garnered a fair amount of conversation in regards to the depiction of misogyny.

I happen to love these books and think that they are some of the best and more important novels to come out in the last decade, regardless of genre.

[Amanda]

Can I at least vote for a giant meh on Bakker? I keep trying to get into it, get 3/4s of the way through the first book and see how closely mirrored the Crusades were, get distracted and wander off into a book about the actual Crusades. :)

Twilight is the consummate polarization book, though I agree with Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. I can vote for the same with The Hunger Games and even, occasionally, wonderful books like Ender's Game (my husband hates it. I wonder how I married him.).

[[deleted user]]

Perdido Street Station. Lots of folks love the hell out of this book and Mieville in general.

A whole other set of us wanted to stab ourselves in the face reading PSS.

[Dharmakirti]

Amanda wrote: "Can I at least vote for a giant meh on Bakker? I keep trying to get into it, get 3/4s of the way through the first book and see how closely mirrored the Crusades were, get distracted and wander off..."

Sure. But you are wrong :) (I kid).

[Aloha]

I'm surprised the most obvious, His Dark Materials series, by a famous atheist Philip Pullman wasn't mentioned right away.

Also, books by L Ron Hubbard that formed Scientology.

[Agatha]

Everyone I've ever talked to about it absolutely loved HDM, so I didn't think of it. Although you're right, that's probably one of the most famous examples of a polarizing book.

[Alterjess]

Aloha wrote: "Also, books by L Ron Hubbard that formed Scientology."

Are there non-scientologists who like these? I read Battlefield Earth (before the movie came out) out of sheer stubbornness, but I can't recommend the experience to anyone else. I normally love badly written pulp sci-fi, but even I have my limits.

[Mike]

I saw the Hunger Games mentioned earlier and I have to agree. Right now I'm currently mired in the final part of Mockingjay, and while there are parts of the story I find enjoyable, it's been kind of a slow trod through the relationship bog. Only reason I picked it up again was I had no other new audiobooks on my iPod and a full day of work ahead of me, so I un-lemmed this one.

[Fresno Bob]

Atlas Shrugged

[terpkristin]

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/8...

[Bryek]

mockingjay had a terrible ending imo. it does a disservice to the series. but another polarizing book/series in my opinion is ASong of Ice and Fire. I hate that series with a passion

[Erik]

I really like Children of the Mind by Orson Scott Card. But no one else seems to like it better than "meh". Is this one polarized in our group here?

[Anne]

We already have a thread dealing with the same question here: http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/869636-marmite-book

The starter of thread called these books "Marmite books" (I guess that's "Vegemite books" for all Australians), referring as well to books that people either love or hate.

[Kim]

One I've found is The Night Circus. Everyone with this one is very polarised. And I know it's bad to bring this book up but wouldn't Twilight be a vegemite book?

[Anne]

Fresno Bob wrote: "Atlas Shrugged"

That's what XKCD says.

[Rik]

Stephen King's It

Some are polarized by the staggering length of it. And even amongst those who liked it I think we are polarized internally by the one scene near the end of the book (if you've read it you know what scene I mean). Can we still like the book despite that scene which to me and probably many felt utterly wrong, unnecessary, borderline child pornographic, and absurd? (view spoiler)[ For those who haven't read it but are curious what I'm talking about . . . basically a bunch of twelve year old kids defeat a monster. To celebrate or something the five boys and one girl all decided to have a gangbang on the girl and they take turns on her and its somewhat graphic in description. Twelve year olds! Ugggh! (hide spoiler)] I know for me it completely ruined a book that I had really enjoyed to that point.

[Nick]

Rik wrote: "Stephen King's It

Some are polarized by the staggering length of it. And even amongst those who liked it I think we are polarized internally by the one scene near the end of the book (if you've r..."


I agree about that one scene in "It" but I've been able to separate my dislike of that scene from the rest of the book. In the case of "It" the length and King's tendency to have a staggering amount of side stories work in favor of the overall story. The sides stories in the case of "It" work to build a rich history of the main monster and help you understand what is really happening in the town. I read "It" when I was younger and had a much lower tolerance for King's ramblings so it speaks to the strength of that particular book that I was able to make it through that whole book.

[Dharmakirti]

Anne wrote: "Fresno Bob wrote: "Atlas Shrugged"

That's what XKCD says."

Thanks for the link. I got a good chuckle out of it.

[Joseph]

I thought God Emperor of Dune, moreso than Children was really the Dune book that caused the most dissent just because it was such a radical shift in the series.

[Matthew]

Nobody mentioned Blindsight a S&L read some six months ago? That books seemed to tear the community apart for a while there.

[terpkristin]

Matthew wrote: "Nobody mentioned Blindsight a S&L read some six months ago? That books seemed to tear the community apart for a while there."

Maybe people were trying to forget it? ;) I know I skipped that one entirely.