I guess I just prefer Green Shadows, White Whale.
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I had a pretty similar experience - it was too dense and dry for my early teen tastes. I should probably take another pass at it some time, but I’m worried it’ll end up another Last and First Men scenario…
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Anyone have enough time in its life to read The Lord of the Ring AND Earthsea, books are not mutually exclusive.
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I have never been able to fathom why The Catcher in the Rye is such a canonical novel. I read it because everyone else in school was reading it but thought it was totally silly. Now, looking back, I find that it is without any literary merit whatsoever … I read Olivia many, many times, bought it for many of my friends, and consider it the inspiration for Call Me by Your Name. —André Aciman, ‘Call Me by Your Name’
You know what, Andre Aciman, ‘Call Me by Your Name’? You’re a big crumby phony.
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What the…? As an aficionado of both Melville and Bradbury, and a fan of the movie (though I have to fast-forward through the scenes of actual whaling) it boggles my mind that I didn’t know about this. Must be some kind of Mandela effect thing. Heading to Amazon now…
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Tristram Shandy is the best “read a chapter before bed to relax” book. You don’t really need to follow the plot. Like Don Quixote (who the author compares it to), it’s intentional, fun confusion that you can just roll with until the end, where it (somewhat ) all comes together. Although, as much as I loved it, my heart goes out to anyone who has to study it. I’d still teach Gulliver’s Travels over Sterne’s tome anyday.
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I mean, I don’t even think anything could be thought of as a substitute. Sure, you could read some other religion or philosophy, but that would be a bit like saying, “Instead of being a historian focusing on the dark ages, you should be a historian focusing on world war 2”. Like, those are two different things. There is no book that is at all the same as the bible because of the bible’s place in history.
Again, I’m not saying anyone should read it. But if you want to read it for any reason that you would want to read it, there is no substitute.
True story: I told a friend about the “instead of reading the bible…” over text and they apparently laughed out loud on the bus and then chuckled all the way home.
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Which is exactly what the GQ article does with various books. 
“Don’t read Rupert Graves’ autobiographical account of the First World War, read this book about the Vietnam War instead”.
“Don’t read ‘A Farewell to Arms’, read this book set in the period after the Second World War instead”.
“Don’t read this book about John Adams, read this one about James Garfield instead”
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Yeah, it kind of does. I certainly recognize a spectrum of replaceability. Like if someone is like, “Don’t read James Bond novels, read [whatever] instead,” then while you can’t replace James Bond’s place in cultural canon, if the reason you were going to read them was for the spy action then there might actually be better choices.
It’s possible books set in one war could be replaced by books set in another depending on the reason you are reading the book. The John Adams / James Garfield thing seems like a real stretch.
I can’t think of any reason at all someone would read the bible where something else would be a replacement. Like, were you just looking for a great list of who begat who and some you’re better off reading some recent genealogical research?
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“If you’re going to read one religious book for moral guidance…”
Then please, read anything but the Bible. Hell, read “Letters to Penthouse”.
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Ha. It actually didn’t occur to me that anyone would possibly be reading the bible for that reason.
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I was just going to say, “It probably didn’t occur to you…”!
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And to be fair I think there are some pretty good morals in the parables. It’s just it’s very hard for me to imagine someone turning to the bible for moral guidance unless they are already turning to the bible to find the word of their lord and saviour.
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My father’s on a dead presidents kick, and he tells me the Garfield book is pretty great.
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But there’s more bad than good, so you have to start with a good enough moral compass to sift the good from the bad, at which point you obviously don’t need the Bible in the first place.
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It does sound interesting. Won’t be much help if you’re looking to learn about John Adams though. 
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Haha. Booknerd clickbaiting.
I sort of agree with them on LeGuin > Tolkien, though both have their strong points and weaknesses and I think it would be best to just read them both.
However why you would bash The Catcher in the Rye or Franny and Zooey is beyond me.
(Except off course to clickbait booknerds, which is of course what they are doing 
)
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Is it worth reading? It probably is, he’s a sneaky-good lyricist.
I’m a former middle/high school ELA teacher and I think Catcher in the Rye should have been retired from the syllabus long ago. I enjoyed the LotR series when I was in 10th grade but can’t imagine re-reading them as an adult. The Hobbit was more fun and easily recommendable. Catch 22? Somewhat dated but worth reading.
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