false 1652316 63 male Okatie, SC 10/2008 12/2009 33 2161 1604 true 5673124 read 6 true 3634209 currently-reading 551 true 3634208 to-read 281 false 4152866 reading-pool 162 false 3913953 french-lit 59 false 5562974 mystery-detective-action 58 false 3661316 short-fiction-collections 53 false 3925766 surfiction 46 false 3986547 south-american-lit 42 false 3913954 german-lit 39 false 3913961 japanese-lit 33 false 9107836 monthly-pool 31 false 3661314 non-fiction 25 false 3913955 russian-lit 25 false 3913958 eastern-europe-lit 23 false 4202629 drama 20 false 3913969 italian-lit 19 false 3678783 journals 19 false 4390884 near-east-lit 18 false 4388097 portuguese-lit 18 false 3913965 indian-lit 17 false 4007189 essays 14 false 4183048 spanish-lit 13 false 5488469 public-library 10 false 4201547 classics 10 false 3680683 anthologies 10 false 3845758 litcrit 10 false 3661168 extended-reading 8 false 5589368 poetry 8 false 4186840 african-lit 7 false 4201345 southeast-asian-lit 6 false 4007166 memoirs--auto-biographies 5 false 3913962 chinese-lit 4 false 6365493 scifi 4 false 5158596 oulipo 2 false 4183008 genre-fiction 1 false 7396370 asian-lit 1 false 6240578 scandinavian-lit 1 false 5562860 polish-lit Shalimar the Clown: A Novel (Paperback) by Salman Rushdie]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/82633458 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165468730s/4830.jpg 1652316 Michael http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1224982337p2/1652316.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1652316-michael Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:37:30 -0800 Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Hardcover) by Salman Rushdie]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/82633369 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165468733s/4835.jpg 1652316 Michael http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1224982337p2/1652316.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1652316-michael Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:36:59 -0800 The Enchantress of Florence (Hardcover) by Salman Rushdie]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79833025 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1200508801s/1317696.jpg 1652316 Michael http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1224982337p2/1652316.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1652316-michael Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:36:13 -0800 The Savage Detectives (Hardcover) by Roberto Bolaño]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/36184473 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170614503s/63033.jpg 1652316 Michael http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1224982337p2/1652316.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1652316-michael Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:35:19 -0800 more...]]> Emile: Or, On Education (Paperback) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79862390 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173771927s/326679.jpg 1652316 Michael http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1224982337p2/1652316.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1652316-michael Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:34:40 -0800 The Book of Intimate Grammar: A Novel (Paperback) by David Grossman]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43262970 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171032973s/82931.jpg 1652316 Michael http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1224982337p2/1652316.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1652316-michael Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:33:32 -0800 http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/259424-why-do-we-dislike-some-books http://photo.goodreads.com/groups/1184700395p2/426.jpg 1652316 Michael http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1224982337p2/1652316.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1652316-michael Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:25:52 -0800 Clickety wrote: "It's more about the tension between setup and payoff. It's the gun over the door rule ..."

Unfortunately, relying on hackneyed rules such as the loaded gun is just the sort of writing that results in the tedium of the most cliché riddled fiction ever to grace the wire rack at the drugstore. Rather than expect nice post-Victorian fiction such as E. M. Forster wrote about, try looking into some of the newer theories of narrative. One thought: if it is common to expect that gun to be a key element in the fiction, then it is incumbent on the author to use misdirection, often ironically, to create a fiction that surprises the reader; otherwise you have the old joke: the butler did it.

Think about it: if there is a gun and a butler in the story, then consistency means the butler has to fire the gun and commit the murder?

]]> http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/143795-terrible-books-you-had-to-read-for-school http://photo.goodreads.com/groups/1184700395p2/426.jpg 1652316 Michael http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1224982337p2/1652316.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1652316-michael Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:10:38 -0800 Danielle wrote: "The Clan of the Cave Bear ... I just think it’s a farce this book would be considered worthy of being read and taught in school. ..."

I suspect that there were several in that class who struggled with the difficulty of the reading assignment. Another example of the dumbing down of America?]]> The Complete Claudine: Claudine at School; Claudine in Paris; Claudine Married; Claudine and Annie (Paperback) by Colette]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/43043466 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171164998s/89839.jpg 1652316 Michael http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1224982337p2/1652316.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1652316-michael Tue, 29 Dec 2009 11:18:59 -0800 more...]]> The Lady in the Car with the Glasses and a Gun (Paperback) by Sébastien Japrisot]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/79833157 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1174411051s/394014.jpg 1652316 Michael http://photo.goodreads.com/users/1224982337p2/1652316.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1652316-michael Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:43:45 -0800