Just for the heck of it, I have to ask. Never having read a Danielle Steele book, are they REALLY that bad? Right now I have 25 books in a stack waiting to be read - yes, I read a lot - so it will be a while before I find out about her for myself. By that time, I'm sure I'll have other books I'd rather read, so...without someone telling me, I may never know "why" you feel her books are so bad.

Lee

'Fifty Shades of Whatever' sounds entirely resistable to me. I suppose it's wrong to judge a book without even trying to read it, but sometimes the wrong way can be the right way.

Does the fifty shades mean that once you've read one, you've read them all?

Edit to fix a fat finger typo.

Believe it or not, it refers to the 50 shades of Grey that the protagonist's eyes can be, though the author seems to favor slate over any of the other hues to describe him... His last name is Grey, and she thought it was very clever to have his eyes be that color too... I think she even used the word "quixotic" once... That one may have made her have to take a break for a while. It's exhausting writing an e-book to tittilate the masses.

I usually won't read a book that's so hyped up it's ridiculous - I refused to read Harry Potter for years and only read it because I NEEDED something to read and it was the only thing in the house at the time (thanks to my 9 yr old son). I loved the books and am glad I read them in the end

I feel/felt the exact same way, and now JK Rowling is one of my favourite authors.

I read all the "Twiilght" books because there were so many arguments over the minutiae here on FT. Stephenie Meyer did not become a favourite author.

I'm by no means immune to hype, and did read the Harry Potters, including making a trip to the (now defunct) Woolworth's while on crutches when Amazon let me down by failing to deliver on the day the last book was published. My daughter (in her 30s) was waiting for me to ring when I finished it so we could compare our reactions - it was midnight before I got there, but she answered immediately!

On the other hand, I've still avoided 'The Da Vinci Code' and its sequels and can't see that changing - unless any of you can persuade me otherwise.

Rossian, the Da Vinci Code, its sequel and prequel ("Da Vinci Code" was NOT the first), as well as Dan Brown's other two stand-alone books are by far the best novels you will ever read. I read them before they were so hyped.... Those books keep you thinking, and just as you thought you had figured something out, and it seems so obvious, hold up, not even close. Here's what really happened.

Of course, they pale in comparison to "Digital Fortress" and "Deception Point", by the same author.

But I HIGHLY recommend the books, as they are some of the best books you will ever read. Even the casual reader will find themselves not being able to sleep or put the book down to eat. They're that good.





I'm one of those who likes to "discover" books for myself. I read the Hunger Games long before they were popular, and I do that with most books I read. We like to search for books that seem very enjoyable, and I think "hey, those could be something someday". It's nice to have already heard of all the books and read them before people even know they exist. Someone asks "have you heard of the Hunger Games movie coming out? It was based on a book!" "I know, I read the book years ago when it first came out."

I've tried my hand on a few Italian detective stories (written by Monaldi and Sorti, and by some others I don't recall). Avoid these gialli if you're not into very lengthy descriptions.

Sue, I want to know how you know that?
(are you secretly the writer of "50 shades of Grey"?). Do tell.

Mock her as we do, she's laughing all the way to the bank!

That's a very good point, skunkee.

I might consider writing some bizarre story that everyone makes fun of.... Yes, a very explicit story about sparkling vampires that play Quidditch. That should do the trick, shouldn't it? People will hate it.... But people will love it, and I'll make billions!



Or I'll just stick with editing.... I want to become a freelance copyeditor, so I'll just EDIT the books that make billions. :P

'Rossian, the Da Vinci Code, its sequel and prequel ("Da Vinci Code" was NOT the first), as well as Dan Brown's other two stand-alone books are by far the best novels you will ever read.'

Oh salami.
I read a few of his books a couple of times and quite enjoyed them. Not enough to give them shelf space in my massively over-stocked house though.
That's the joy of diversity, somewhere out there is a Danielle Steele fan who just got all huffy and protective over her.

My 90 year old friend loves Danielle Steele. :P

We have a library in our house, literally; we let people come over and check out our collection and then check out books. We actually have a system so we know who has which books, then they return them and check out the next book they want.

We get a lot of donations because of this, and the library gave us free books for it too.

We started the Dan Brown collection when my dad got in a conversation with a woman on a plane, who was reading "The Da Vinci Code", hardback, and he asked how it was, and if she recommended it. She said it was wonderful, and said that when she was done she'd give it to us. She finished reading, we landed, and she gave us this ginormous hardback book because she doesn't like to keep books once she reads them (she usually only checks books out but had to buy one for her vacation). So that is what started our Dan Brown collection, and now I absolutely love them all.

Rossian, I am a voracious reader - when there's nothing to read I will read the labels on a ketchup bottle. I had read a Dan Brown once, one of the computer novels, and it was all right - not good but all right. However, the Da Vinci Code is one of the two worst books I have ever tried to read. EVER. And note the word "tried" - I once made a vow to read any book to page 50 because it might just grow on me. The Da Vinci Code grew like mould, covering all surfaces and smothering the oxygen in everything it touched. I got to page 40 and knew that if I read ten more pages I'd throw myself off Beachy Head. Don't go there!

Gormenghast. The other worst book I ever read.

It was reading things like ketchup bottles, syrup tins, cereal boxes etc. when I was a kid that helped me to learn French, as they are printed in both languages here and you can compare one side with the other.

Flopsy, I am in agreement with you. I read the whole thing because I try never to leave a book unfinished (and I've suffered through a lot of drek that way....) and it never got better for me. It was badly written (to my taste) and the plot had so many holes in it (again, in my view), that it was making me angry. Not my cuppa tea, though I have loved other historical "what ifs" that are similarly fanciful. The Trojan Horse books come to mind.

Sue

Well, Sue, and Flopsy, I can now say that you two are just... Just... I can't even say it.

They are the greatest novels ever. You have to be in to that sort of thing, of course, and you have to give it your undivided attention, or you miss things. You have to like history, cryptics, and other puzzly type things. But if you do, they are the BEST books you will ever read.


Of course, it also helps to have read Angels and Demons first. It is the prequel, and the Da Vinci Code doesn't make much sense and can get very annoying if you haven't read Angels and Demons first. It can be read alone, but it most definitely is a lot better if you've read the first book first. :P

What a hoot! Not that I would mind being that rich and successful, but I hope that my first book will be better written than these.

spanishliz is right, the author has gotten rich and can laugh all the way to the bank no matter what others think of her. I am happy for her and all of the people she's made happy with her books. She did publish them electronically at first because no publisher would pick up the books, I don't remember where I read that, but it is from a reliable source.

Not even considering the sexy bits, the gripes I have with her writing are that the characters are nothing out of the ordinary, and not very well written either. I kept thinking the books would get better because soooooo many people loved these, but I think that they are the first books of erotica that have hit the main stream and are semi-acceptable, so that is why they have taken off. They are not my taste, because the descriptions are very repetitive, and they are not well-written at all. Character development.... poof! None. Anyway, to each his/her own, and I don't mean to disparage anyone's favorite read.

We all do have different tastes!

Sue

Sorry to disagree with you salami! I would never want to hurt your feelings or claim that my tastes are the only ones that matter. Long live books for all tastes! And the library you have is a wonderful thing. What a great community service. Hats off to you.

Meh, I've read enough of these books, and especially of the glaring errors, and they do not take my fancy, although I'm very interested in religion, and enjoy books that are quite an enigma. I maintain that there is no book that "everyone should read", and for everyone who is deeply passionate about a book, there is someone who can't stand it. :P

EDIT: Salami, just to say I love that you have a library going on in your house. That sounds delightful!

You didn't hurt my feelings at all, Sue, I was just giving you and Flopsy a hard time.

Reeshy, that is well said. You're right, there is no one book that "everyone should read" (although I'll argue that the Bible is one...), and I guess Dan Brown is not everyone's cup of tea. It's great, in my opinion, but hey, when it comes to books, I'm easily pleased. :P

It is delightful to have a library in my house. It began as a collection, then my mom wanted to alphabetize them all, then she wanted to label them because her friend kept borrowing them and forgetting to return them.... Then she decided it would be nice to open our 'library' up to whoever wanted some books (mostly our friends from church). Our collection has grown to well over 1,000 books, which perhaps is not as extensive as some other collections, but, hey, we created a library out of it, so it's the best in my opinion.

Our basement is lined with shelved, and they are packed, so we need to expand. Perhaps we need to kick my sister out of her downstairs bedroom to fit more books. :P


It's really a spectacular sight. We have some of just about everything, except romance novels (not in our tastes, and most of the people who use the library would probably be offended by the books anyway), and people continue to donate to our library. We have so many series as well, and we make sure to get every single one in the series. We're always the first in line to buy a new book.


My favorites that I have read (and I've read a lot) are the Dan Brown novels, Hunger Games trilogy, Looking Glass Wars trilogy, anything Clive Cussler, and, well, that's about all I recommend to all. I recommend other stuff to people as I learn what their tastes are.

That ended up being quite long. :P

I actually agree regarding the Bible. I think there is a lot of good in there that even atheists can enjoy.

It does sound amazing. Now I wish I was nearby to visit, haha! Of those you mention, I've only read THG (also before they became famous with the movie; it was recommended from a friend) and really enjoyed all of them, although I'm not usually a fan of YA. I find it difficult to recommend anything to anyone, to be honest, as people's opinions vary so much! But it's always interesting to hear people's favorites, and sometimes I end up checking them out.

There seem to be more 'antis' than 'pros' for Dan Brown, so I think I'll stick to my original decision. The Hunger Games series has passed me by, although I can see the books are very popular judging by the number of quizzes that come on. Sometimes there just isn't enough time. Sorry, Salami.

Flopsy - I've never tried to read Gormenghast but I did see the television adaptation. It didn't tempt me to read the book.

Gormenghast wasn't nearly as hard going as Ulysses - the only book I have attacked five times without successfully completing.