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.

  • flyover_liberal@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Utterly ridiculous ones I’ve seen here:

    Ready Player One

    The Alchemist

    The Midnight Library

    Anything by Haruki Murukami

    The DaVinci Code

    I mean, these are all kind of silly choices. I liked all these books (ok, maybe not five stars, and no I haven’t read 100% of Murukami’s work yet).

    DaVinci Code was a fun adventure if you didn’t take it too seriously. RPO was a nostalgia-fest for middle-aged white guys - it was just good fun. The Alchemist was just a fable - I never even considered the idea that it was a basis for a life philosophy or anything. The Windup Bird Chronicle was a well-written, bizarre epic written by the pantsiest pantser who ever pantsed.