Maxine’s Comments (group member since Apr 27, 2011)

Maxine’s comments from the ROBUST group.

Umm, if you want to see reviews like the ones in the article, you don't have to go any farther than Good Reads and I would assume (although perhaps wrongly) that people are on this site because they like to read, not just for the sparkling conversation. For example, the top review a couple of weeks ago was for Ulysses by James Joyce in which the reviewer claimed

1. to have read it in an hour and a half while cleaning out his aquarium and
2. it was a pointless piece of shit
Sadly, a whole lot of people seemed to agree with him.

At the same time, the number one book on the list of Best Books Ever was Twilight last time I looked.

I don't believe this has anything to do with economic circumstances (they all own computers so not that poor) but with the inability of many people to distinguish between the objective and the subjective. I don't like something, ergo it sucks.

As to why so many adults are reading YA today, I can only speak for myself. Much of it is well-written like Pullman, it is fast-paced, the stories are fun and, most important for me, it doesn't get bogged down with romance or long sex scenes which have little or nothing to do with the story. That is not to say it is the only thing I read - I love the classics like Austen and Thomas Mann - but, when I'm just looking for something fun and simple on a quiet afternoon, YA usually fits the bill. The truth is I find most so-called modern adult fiction (with the exception of fantasy) poorly written, the stories ludicrous or pretentious, and, frankly, just plain boring.

Andre Jute wrote: "Scott wrote: "Besides Joyce, are there any Irish people who have written?"

Nope. The British have stolen all our writers."

Weren't Samuel Beckett and George Bernard Shaw Irish?

Hi I'm Maxine and Canadian. There are lots of great Canadian authors - along with all those mentioned, I would add Alice Munro, LM Montgomery, and Leonard Cohen just to name a few. I love fantasy and, even there, some of the best are Canadian - Steven Erikson, Guy Gavriel Kay, and R Scott Bakker.