It is not very often that I find Greg Sheridan's column in The Australian edifying, but I felt more than a little self-satisfied when I read this incidental jibe within his piece about the Salman Rushdie-Knighthood controversy:
"Either Rushdie has the right to pen his boring books even when they are offensive, or he does not".
Wow, the Emperor really does have no clothes.
To be fair, I have not actually read The Satanic Verses. I have, however, endured 50-odd pages of the soporific sludge that is Midnight's Children. It started me thinking about all the other tedious tripe I have encountered in my adult life.
My top five boring books of all time are:
- Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children.
- V.S. Naipaul's A House for Mr Biswas.
- George Eliot's The Mill on the Floss.
- Tim Winton's Dirt Music.
- Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
Like Midnight's Children, all of these books were required reading for university units. I am probably going to cop flak from some feminist with hairy armpits for including Charlotte Bronte on the list and perhaps I do have some cultural prejudices. On the other hand, I am too old to be ashamed of being male, middle-class and white.
I tag all the people who read this blog (and anyone who leaves a comment) to make their own list. You know who you are.
3 comments:
Oh, see I liked Jane Eyre. But I think it's a bit of a dreary chick book that is difficult to get into or even like at times.
I found Heart of Darkness to be one of the most painful books I've ever attempted to read.
It was okay once I got started but it was like pulling teeth.
Yeah, I think I prefer dreary books about neurotic men rather than neurotic women e.g. Hamlet, Crime and Punishment, Youth. Although, even I found Heart of Darkness hard going.
Um, I forget some of the authors:
Vanity Fair
the sequel to Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster
The River Ophelia
Being and Time by Martin Heidegger (don't tell anyone that I only got through the first few pages)
Ew, what a depressing list.
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