Harry Potter
I read the first one and it was clearly aimed at a teenage/younger audience. So when I see full grown adults reading them my literary snobbishness decries that a small part of me dies inside. They are to literature what starbucks is to coffee - accessible, available, but nowhere close to outstanding. While I would always advocate reading books rather than spending ones time watching the inane drivel that tv delivers to our subconscious I can't help thinking that if you're reading Harry Potter and you're over the age of 15 you're missing out on the good stuff.
(The Archduke of South London I'm in your Girlfriend eating her organs, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 10:11, 22 replies)

I read lots and lots of books
Harry Potter books are badly written, contain plot holes, stupid nonsensical games (quidditch is shit)& the 1st 3 books are almost identical.

BUT

They are loads of fun and thoroughly engaging & exciting and worth reading so long as you aren't a intellectual snob. I've read Umberto Eco's Foucault's pendulum. Which is like a 3 course meal of a book. The Harry potter books are more like chewing gum. We all need to eat but chewing a bit of gum every now and then isn't bad is it?
(sittingduck Attention seeking, bullshitting fuck-knuckle, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 11:18, closed)

How about that airline food?

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 11:28, closed)

I'm reading them to my daughter
as bed time stories. I am now partway through the 5th book and really enjoying them.

My wife reads loads of Mills and Boon books and I take the piss out of her for it but as she says, sometimes you just want to read a bit of crap that doesn't tax you too much that you can enjoy.
( Peej, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 11:45, closed)

This is a wife thing to say.
I cannot make sense of it, but they do say that don't they.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 13:10, closed)

What do you make of what the David Attenborough programmes deliver to our subconsciouses?
Or of Paxman's interviewing technique? Or Working Lunch on the Beeb? Or the political analysis of Nick Robinson?

It's just that there's an equal amount of crap, masterbatory literature out there - probably more than, since the media's been around longer - as there is of crap, mastabatory television.

Such snobbery strikes me as unfounded, and pretentious - like saying one style of music is "better" than another style of music.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 12:15, closed)

well....
Clearly dubstep is inferior to D&B. There isn't really a convincing argument to the contrary.
(The Archduke of South London I'm in your Girlfriend eating her organs, Mon 9 Jan 2012, 15:05, closed)

Wait, hold on, ware you saying that people can only ever read one book series in their lives?
Because I'm pretty sure that most people are capable of reading the Harry Potter books and then any other book that they want to.
( JessAction Give me all your expensive brandy and hubcaps., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 12:49, closed)

He'll be burning them next - mark my words.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 12:51, closed)

No, no, no!
It's not snobbery or sneering at the intellectual choices, it's just about saying "fine, but you could do better"

As I said in another post on this exact subject, (because an adult will inevitably mutter an apologetic reason for reading Harry Potter),

"It's the literary equivalent of saying that lukewarm piss is nearly as good as wine because they are both liquids that it is possible to consume without dying."
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 13:08, closed)

It's absolutely snobbery - it's sneering snobbery.
People have different tastes in literature - get over it. You're not in a position to tell anyone at all anything about what is "good" and what is "better" or "worse". You may only spout your equally worthless opinion in the hope that perhaps they'll agree with it.

It's the social equivalent of the playground justification "Well I've got a degree so I'm cleverer than you" - ie - bollocks expressed purely to instruct people that you're superior to them, when actually, you're not.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 13:18, closed)

Well I think that "could do better"
is a reasonable enough and gentle enough observation. It certainly didn't harm me in my yoof and doesn't harm me in my career or life in general. I ain't carrying a shoulder chip, I manage and teach people way better qualified than myself and they challenge me as I challenge them to be better and think smarter and give the grey cells a daily workout.

Social equivalent m'arse, I'll stick to the wine, there's more than enough piss to go around.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 14:24, closed)

"Could do better" isn't an observation, it's a patronising judgement.
As for the middle-managementspeak of "I challenge you to be better and think smarter" - I can only think of a few examples of less justifiably pompous, patronising nonsense, and one of them is "there are no problems, only solution opportunities".
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:00, closed)

Ooh, have a I touched a raw nerve?
Managementspeak ruined your day before has it?

It's only an internet, relax.

I give less than a fuck for Managementspeak, but I do give a fuck that people should try to improve what they do and to be able to justify their actions and decisions and challenge me if they think I've made a bad choice, just as you are doing here. Challenge is just a word, there are others but this is a good one to use in this environment.
Why do I care? It's our business and our livelihood in a competitive world and no amount of whining about being patronising will get you your job back when it falls apart.

Now then, back to books and kittens and nice things. Tea or coffee?
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:14, closed)

I'm being intolerant of your intolerance, yes.
But it is not equal intolerance. I am merely pointing out that your intolerance is unjustifiably judgemental, as you are not superior in any way to me or anyone else except whatever spawn you have.

Passing judgemental comment on what people choose to read, however, indicates that you think you ARE superior to people, and I'm merely telling you: you're not.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:25, closed)

So your intolerance is better than mine?
because you choose to take issue with something that rankles you for reasons I'm not interested in. This has nothing to do with superiority or whatever else you choose to paint it as, but smacks of something deeper. If I was also to play amateur psychologist then I'd have a stab but it's not my game, or yours either it would seem.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:38, closed)

So now you're passively trying to pass aggressive comment on my character, based on my one of my opinions.
Pffft.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:47, closed)

What am I, your bathroom mirror?
Pffft indeed.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:47, closed)

It is pure snobbery, and you've assumed that someone can't enjoy both Harry Potter and whatever books you claim to be 'intellectual'.

( JessAction Give me all your expensive brandy and hubcaps., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 13:34, closed)

Are you saying I can't summarily condemn people on their choice of reading material now?
I don't know what the world is coming to.


Thing is, I don't care all that much, I ain't the one apologising for what I read.
Perhaps "people like me" are the reason that others find it necessary to apologise, or perhaps there's another cause. I'll try not to let it keep me awake at night.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 14:33, closed)

But I haven't apologised for what I read. I'm not entirely sure that you're reading the same thread as the rest of us.

( JessAction Give me all your expensive brandy and hubcaps., Fri 6 Jan 2012, 15:43, closed)

Okaaaaaay

( Infidel , shit and wrong, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:48, closed)

'I read the first one'
Did you start Star Wars with The Phantom Menace and assumed the rest of the films were all crap aimed at marketing tie-in merchandise as well?
(louveciennes , Volvospotter, Fri 6 Jan 2012, 16:11, closed)