[issybird]

For me, of the three main qualifications as I saw them, long, difficult, boring, I think a book has to have at least two of them to meet the “lying poseur” level of (dis)likeability. I get The Old Man and the Sea and The Trial and others of that ilk; they’re both difficult and dull enough to make someone look squinty-eyed at a person who said they liked them. Ditto for …and Ladies of the Club; not difficult, but certainly long and boring. But Pride and Prejudice? It’s one thing not to like it; maybe social comedies of manners are not your thing, and it’s compounded by being set two centuries ago. However, you really can’t get that other people might actually like it? That is, a book has to be more than just boring to qualify. There has to be that element of turgidity.

I’m not singling out Jon, just a title. I rather agree with him about Infinite Jest, Gravity’s Rainbow, Naked Lunch and Ayn Rand; well chosen. But a book has to be more than just “not to my taste.”