Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

[Misfit]

**ducks flying objects**

This is hands down the worst book I've ever read. Cookie cutter characters taken out of the 20C, let alone one was either very very good or very very bad. Historically inaccurate and in no way represents the medieval period, let alone the graphic sex and violence.

[Tara]

Aww, I'm all sad now, because Pillars is one of my favourite books. In fact, I am in the process of reading the sequel at the moment.

But I do get your points. The characters aren't exactly the most inspired or historically accurate, and the sex and violence are a little squick-inducing.

Maybe I liked it so much because I first read it when I was fourteen and my literary tastes were still forming. I still love it though, because of the epic feel of it, and the cathedral, and Jack and Tom, who in spite of their flaws, are still awesome characters.

[Erica]

So, Tara, have you ever felt that books you read when you were in high school are just somehow better than their counterparts that you read later? I sometimes feel as though I actually bonded with some of them (or maybe imprinted on them, like a clueless duckling). Newer books by the same author don't do as much for me. Joan Aiken and Mary Stewart come to mind.

[Misfit]

I've recently reread some books from my school days of so many years ago and found it quite interesting how my perceptions of the book/story came through reading them as an adult and not a teen - Jane Eyre and Gone With The Wind.

[Tara]

Erica - I just finished reading the sequel to Pillars, and I loved that too. Though to be fair, given it's similarities it was kind of like re-reading Pillars. I am less fond of Follett's works that I have read as an adult.

As for other books I read as a teen, some of them I have put behind me as 'too childish', although I do still read and enjoy some new YA fiction. But yes, I would say that some books that I read when young I still re-read and love now, though I can't understand why I enjoy them so much. The romance books by Laura Black come to mind. Childish and pointless, but I can't seem to get rid of them.