I’ll go with the low-hanging fruit: Mein Kampf. I’ve read it, cover to cover. As a piece of propaganda, it’s good. As an example of good writing? Absolutely not (though I will admit I have only read it in translation). Oh, and the whole fascist, racist, and generally shitty worldview of the author that he infuses into the text. And the fact that the author is literally Hitler. You 5-star that book? You’re a Nazi. Period. And as a Jewish person, I don’t look too kindly on them.

    • princess9032@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Ok but imagine if an algorithms textbook was written so well that it’s actually super easy to understand??? In that case 5 stars is not a red flag

    • BanzaiBeebop@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      I once went to a CS convention and there was a booth with this book at the table. I mentioned recognizing the book, and the guy at the table asked how I liked it. I said it was thorough but far too dense. That other textbooks got the basic concepts that would be covered in a typical semester of Algorithms in a much more approachable and (most importantly for my old back injury) transportable way.

      He was one of the authors! He just laughed and said he got that a lot.