We've had several threads dealing with various types of favorite books but I'd like to suggest an alternative. Has there ever been a book that truly reached you on some level when you first read it as a young person but which, upon a later reading, struck you as being garbage of the worst sort?

I bring this up because, like G.N. (and, I'll wager, most Wordcrafters) I do not part with books easily, especially those which touched me in some way, even when I doubt I'll ever read them again. I was in the Air Force for 21+ years and am still in possession of books that have literally travelled the world with me, read once long ago and now little more than dead weight. It's a damn shame but there you have it.

BUT!! Not all old books age well. To kick this thread off, I offer you a novel that I'm willing to bet is familiar to at least a few of the American posters who came of age back when the Beatles reigned supreme. The title: "The Harrad Experiment". Ring any bells?

Written in the era of the If-it-feels-good,-do-it 1960s, "The Harrad Experiment" was a pseudo-documentary type novel outlining the goings-on in a controversial New England college where students, sequestered from tedious and boring old-style teaching methods, sought wisdom in ways which reflected the free-spirited zeitgeist of that time. Nude mix-gendered gym classes, free love, non-committal sexual relationships, etc etc etc were all part of the established school curriculum. One interesting point the book tried to make dealt with the fact that, after seeking their MHP degrees (Master of Hanky-Panky) for 3+ years, most of the students settled into monogomous relationships. I, for one, was totally impressed by the author's vision.

That is, however, until I happened to reread this astoundingly mind-numbing piece of claptrap a few months ago. It seems clear to me now that it had to have been written by some decrepit 50-year-old fart who viewed the free love movement of that time with the alarm that only those who feel they've completely missed the boat can express. Sophomoric, shallow, manipulative. How could I ever have fallen in love so deeply with this tripe?!

So. Is this a blast from anyone else's past as well? It was hugely popular in its time. Did it cross the ocean, maybe? Or, more importantly, are there other books that fit this mold? What books impressed you as a young person but then, for whatever reason, just did not stand up to the test of time? Surely there must have been a period of B.H.'s life before he discovered Lewis Carroll when his reading standards were considerably lower. Similarly, I can picture a 19-year-old Kalleh being totally addicted to those trashy romance novels with titles like "Love's Sweet Agony" (Or was that R.E.??)

Fess up, people!

(brushing off a _very_ thick film of dust and cobwebs) Lessee now, as I recall, I read that about ten years after graduating and was distinctly unimpressed [even] at the time.

But I still have it on my shelf, I think, nevertheless. I dare say I have to number myself among the hard-to-throw-away-a-book-challenged!

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Similarly, I can picture a 19-year-old Kalleh being totally addicted to those trashy romance novels with titles like "Love's Sweet Agony"

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No, not really trashy romance novels, but, instead, really stupid novels about a nurse who always fell in love. I can't even remember the series, but it was similar to the Cherry Ames's series.

Now I'd consider them sexist, I know. The nurses were always women; the doctors were always men; and the nurses always fell in love with the doctors.

What is even worse is to look back at some of the older articles I've published. There is one that I published right after I received my masters degree, when I was quite young, that I wish I could unpublish! The worst of it is, it still gets cited. How embarrassing!

I was at UGA at the time... fairly Southern and conservative.. just a few arm-band wearing war protestors, and very few free-love devotees. I have never read it, and now I'm glad I didn't!

Kalleh, I loved Frank Yerby novels, which were historical romance, supposedly... but the female was always secondary, leaving the male to do all the decision making.

Who among us liked that Sebastian Seagull book?

I have never even heard of the book so I can't comment on it. As for the other half of the topic, in my teens I read Science Fiction almost to the exclusion of everything else. I was the archetypal spotty nerd in the library during breaks.
This of course means that pretty much everything I read between about eight and sixteen years old fits the criterion of being good then but being trash now.

I can't think of any specific examples of books off the top of my head but Clarke and Heinlein come to mind as two authors whose work I find almost unreadable nowadays.

Oh...
I've just thought of someone whose entire published works fit the criterion.

Before I reveal who it is let me say that I now consider the books to be the abosolute worst kind of misogynistic, pornographic crap and beg everyone here to forgive me my youthful sins in reading them at all.

I am, of course, referring to John Norman's Gor series. For anyone fortunate enough to have never encountered them let me tell you just a little of what they are about.
John Norman is an accademic (I think his discipline is something like Psychology or Sociology*) who also writes (possibly wrote - I've heard nothing of him for years) fantasy novels. Superficially these, especially early in the series, resemble Edgar Rice Burroughs. However they are set on a world where (and this is where it gets embarrassing that I read them) all women are total slaves and any man who is less than the ideal steel muscled barbarian hero is considered no man at all. As the books progress the elements of sado-masochism increase and the elements of fantasy decrease. The basic premise develops into the idea that no woman can be truly happy unless she's naked and in chains and beaten regularly with a few ocassionally being tortured or killed as a lesson to the others.
Conversely no man can be trully happy unless he's doing the enslaving, beating, torturing and killing in question.
The books got thicker at approximately the same rate that the plots got thinner.
The shame of it was that in terms of technical ability he was a reasonable writer but his ideas were unconscionable.

This appalling drivel continued for at least twenty five volumes although by the time I'd got half way through and the fantasy elements of the original story had all but vanished I couldn't take any more of it and stopped reading them.

They may still be in the botom of one of the boxes in the attic. Even in the interests of research I have no intention of digging them out.

* I just looked it up on Amazon - John Norman is the penname of philosophy professor John Lange.

Every silver lining has a cloud.
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[This message was edited by BobHale on Sun Feb 1st, 2004 at 2:41.]

I also find this - mainly as regards Heinlein's later work. However, I believe this is not perception so much as change in the authors' styles.

Clarke's early work, although sometimes scientifically dated, still reads well to my mind.

Richard English

I finally read Edgar Rice Burroughs at 50+... and have thoroughly enjoyed all the Tarzan adventures... they are extremely unreal, and very romantic.. but lots of fun! Tarzan was male to the Nth degree, and I know he is not REAL, but the books are enjoyable. History, in a way.

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Originally posted by KHC:
Who among us liked that Sebastian Seagull book?

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Are you referring to "Johnaton Livingston Seagull"?

Guilty. And the movie cranked up the Revolt-o-Meter even higher. There's nothing quite like pop psychology set to a Neil Diamond soundtrack!

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I am, of course, referring to John Norman's Gor series. For anyone fortunate enough to have never encountered them let me tell you just a little of what they are about.

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Oddly enough, I don't know if any of ya'll are aware of this, but there are people who live the "Gorean lifestyle". I've spoken to a couple, because I'd heard of it but had no clue what it was.

Here is a link to a reference site that one of them reccomended to me. (Disclaimer: I haven't really looked at the site in depth--I don't believe that it contains anything particularly offensive, but please enter at your own risk.) The whole rigamarole sounds like entirely too much work for me.

But it does make the Trekker stuff look kind of cute, now, doesn't it?

CJS - You are always right! Dammit.. It was Jonathan Livingston Seagull.. and I think I still have a copy.. but have no idea why it meant so much to me in 1972.

Yes, I remember how popular that book was. I never quite understood why.

The popularity of Richard Bach's writing is probably due to the inspiration we get from it.

Yuck. I suppose if I'm in need of an emetic I might want to read his writings, but not inspiration. Inspiration of the vomit could well be fatal.

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The popularity of Richard Bach's writing is probably due to the inspiration we get from it.

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I suppose, Jerry, but I guess it doesn't work for all of us. What is the other very famous author whose inspirational messages are all over the place? I can't place him now (because I don't like him either), but, again, droves of people swear by him, including many of you, I assume. Each to his own. I just finished one of my very favorite author's books, Anne Tyler's "Amateur Marriage." I adore everything she writes. Yet, I am sure many of you wouldn't like her.

Khalil Gibran (sp?) is frequently quoted and very popular.

Here is my own original parody ==>

"... and the People said to the Prophet, 'How would it be for you to talk to us about Hedonism?'

"And the Prophet smiled and said, 'It would be a pleasure.'"

~~~~ jerry

That's it, Jerry!

Richard Bach also wrote an "inspirational" (your call) book entitled "Illusions" that I must have read a dozen times decades ago. Don't recall why it impressed me - something about Jesus coming back to earth as a cropduster (the pilot, I mean, not the plane) in a little aircraft that never needed to be refueled.

Seeing as how I never throw away a book, I assume I have a copy floating around here somewhere. It very well may be a fair entry into this thread.


Along with EVERYthing Rod McQuen ever wrote!