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Originally Posted by Alyssa Miranda
First of all I want to emphasize that my comments are not intended in any way to discuss the theology espoused in the Bible (although the poetry of Ecclesiastes 3, cited in my previous post, is nothing short of miraculous), but the Bible as an historical document, and in particular the King James version, which to quote Wikipedia has been called "the most celebrated book in the English-speaking world." Posters have expressed similar thoughts here (but not necessarily of the book as a whole).
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This is far, far away from the topic of "what makes you put a book down." We have a forum for religious discussions, and those are broadly interpreted as "subjects that tend to move into religious debate," which this is getting very close to. I'm going to try to stick to the literary aspects, but those are still off-topic for this thread, which is about what people *don't* like in books.
Which can include things like "this book attracts fanatics who cause me grief; I try not to read books that inspire violence and idiocy." I don't begrudge people who avoid reading the bible because they've been subject to hate and bigotry inspired by it.
Of course it's the most celebrated book in English. For generations, maybe centuries, it was legally mandatory to learn it. Failure to claim to adhere to its principles was punishable by death. Still is, in some places... being a Buddhist or Muslim or Pagan in parts of the US puts a person under threat of attack by random strangers.
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The majesty and power of the King James version
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There's also a lot of ugly in the KJV. Lots of "pissing against the wall" and tales of incest and debauchery and torture and murder. Somehow, nobody ever talks about Psalm 137:9 when they're quoting beautiful verses from the bible. Nor Ezekiel 23:19-21. Nor Isaiah 16:11.
The KJV bible has a lot of passages suitable for 13-year-old boys to snigger over. If it weren't shrouded in centuries of religious dogma, it'd be banned from most libraries as containing obscenities.
I have fond memories of reading the parts of the Pentateuch as a teenager and being amazed that people *encouraged* me to read this book. Then I got to the histories--Samuel, Kings, Chronicles--and was amazed that anyone thought this was a book of ethics and morals.
A book of 3/4 of a million words that didn't contain some beautiful passages would be utter tripe. However, cherry-picking a few of those--which have been used and reinforced since childhood, so there's no way to measure their literary impact without the cultural context--doesn't prove that the book as a whole is a masterpiece of literature.