BOOKING THROUGH THURSDAY: Best

What, in your opinion, is the best book that you haven’t liked? Mind you, I don’t mean your most-hated book–oh, no. I mean the most accomplished, skilled, well-written, impressive book that you just simply didn’t like.
Like, for movies–I can acknowledge that Citizen Kane is a tour de force and is all sorts of wonderful, cinematically speaking, but . . . I just don’t like it. I find it impressive and quite an accomplishment, but it’s not my cup of tea.
So . . . what book (or books) is your Citizen Kane?


Perhaps the whole Toni Morrison oeuvre? I don't like her stories, I don't connect with her writing, and yet she's won the Nobel prize for writing, and Oprah loves her novels. I remember watching an Oprah book club for Song of Solomon and the members were so moved, and profoundly affected, and I was just "Huh?"


Also, Lolita by Nabokov. I read the annotated edition, and the layers and allusions and parallels in that novel were enough to make a whole other novel. It was well written, in that every word was selected for a reason, and had an important function. I don't like to work that hard for my reading. I could never decide if I liked the book, because it was well written, but without all the notes, I would have missed so much, even pertinent plot points.


Some writers, the ones that readers connect with, write the way that matches their brain, the way their brain thinks. I think of Nick Hornby and Ken Jennings for example, as writers that I just nod the whole time I am reading. Others maybe don't like or connect with their reading, but it just matches the way my brain processes information. Writers I don't get must have their brain wired differently than mine or vice versa. That's why other readers will like them - their wiring matches.