on books, or: I can't be friends with you if you liked The Da Vinci Code

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Lately I have been made to feel bad about being a book snob. N, the main culprit, is busy propagating myths such as "every book has something to offer" and "intellectual snobbery prevents you from learning things".

Thing is, I don't really think of myself as a book snob. It's not like I only read pretentious books. But some books instinctively repulse me and I just assume that everyone is also repulsed. It's like a black-and-white moral standard for books: some are good, some are bad. To me that's so natural that there's no space for argument.

But I was taken aback by N's vitriol and resolved to be a humbler person. Until Monday, when out of nowhere I met two shining angels bearing the message that I was right all along: there is a book heaven, and seven levels of book hell that begin with Mitch Albom and end with Dan Brown.

Okay, so they weren't shining angels as much as fellow journos and I didn't meet them out of nowhere as much as have coffee with them after a press briefing. But still. Their chorus of disbelief when I told them about N buying Tuesdays with Morrie was like manna from heaven.

Unanimously we agreed on three things: Tuesdays with Morrie is cringingly bad, The Da Vinci Code was excruciatingly worse, and anyone who says Paulo Coelho "changed my life!" should be shot. That would change their life. To death.

It's not just badly-written books, though. I also have strong negative feelings about a lot of books that have received wide critical acclaim. Life of Pi, for instance, ranks among the books I consider most overrated. (Tiger? Zebra? Sea? Wtf?) I never took to Lord of the Flies, I can't bring myself to read Tolkien, and I personally think Jasper Fforde is a grandstanding two-bit writer with too many in-jokes and too little substance.

But it must be said that I would still respect people who like Life of Pi more than those who worship pop spirituality. If that makes me a book snob, so be it.

 posted by zyn :: 5:43 PM :: 15 Comments :: permalink


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