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I had it slighty worse: As a teenager I bought Holy Blood, Holy Grail on a whim (it were the 90s) in a bookstore because I was reading another Grail-focussed bo
by ttepasse 3y ago
I had it slighty worse: As a teenager I bought Holy Blood, Holy Grail on a whim (it were the 90s) in a bookstore because I was reading another Grail-focussed book series. HBHG is an utterly absurd book which could not even hoodwink a 14-year-old. One of the few books I deeply regret buying. Slightly later I read Focault’s Pendulum which of course inoculates one even more against this crap.
But of course Brown copied everything in his Da Vinci Code from HBHG which is obvious, when reading it. Every twist and turn is then utterly predictable. There was a copyright case in the 90s, annoyingly decided in Brown’s favour.
The real history behind HBHG is far more funnier: turns out the authors took their story from a french con-artist who fabricated documents and genealogies and deposited them into the Bibliotheque Francaise. And of course according the the con-artist the last descendant of the Merovingian Kings was himself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Plantard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Plantard
- Gordonjcp 3y ago> One of the few books I deeply regret buying. For me it was Ayn Rand - Atlas Shrugged, and I begrudged every single penny of the 50 pence I paid for it in the Oxfam bookshop on Byres Road. It's the only book I've ever intentionally destroyed, too. I soaked it in waste Citroën hydraulic fluid, and took it out to the gravelly yard behind my flat, and burnt it. I couldn't bear the thought of anyone without the intellectual rigour to see it for what it is getting their hands on it.
- randrus 3y agoHah! I had a similarly visceral reaction to Fountainhead - I finished reading while pacing angrily, and afterward threw it as far as I could. The only book I intentionally destroyed though was Kaplan’s Advanced Calculus, but that was just the frustration talking.
- johndhi 3y agoWhy? I never get the hate for Ayn Rand - aside that it's weirdly cool to hate her books so people jump onto that bandwagon. I remember really liking Fountainhead.
- randrus 3y agoFountainhead triggered a kind of moral indignation in me. I read it as arguing that the path to happiness and success was to ignore social mores, hold your vision firm, and take what you want. I think I described it as glamorizing sociopathy. Also, I want to reject the imputation of faddish dislike for her. I read this 40+ years ago - I'm not some johnny-come-hately.
- notRobot 3y ago[flagged]
- cjohnson318 3y agoAtlas Shrugged is a long book with unrealistic characters. The whole thing feels out of touch, like a podcast run by elitist trust-fund people complaining about the mind-numbing mediocrity of everyone else. I never read Fountainhead, maybe it's better.
- gonzo41 3y agoIt's also super frustrating to know the author lived on a public pension. Couldn't even live the fantasy.
- musicale 3y agoAvoid Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series then. But I still wish we'd gotten a third season of Legend of the Seeker.
- duskwuff 3y agoOof, yes. There's a reason the TV series was just set in the same world rather than being an adaptation of the books, and it's because the writing started out weird, and got progressively more insane with each volume. (Also, way too horny for even cable TV.)
- johndhi 3y agoI liked sword of truth but will admit it got a little darker than I'd have liked.
- toast0 3y agoAre there any good books depicting failures of railway signals? Or just railway signal networks at all... Without all the rants and sex and rants in the middle of sex.
- YeGoblynQueenne 3y agoThat's awfully precise, but how about this one? Handbook of signalling symbols and terminology https://rdso.indianrailways.gov.in/works/uploads/File/Handbook%20on%20Signalling%20Symbols%20&%20Terminology.pdf https://rdso.indianrailways.gov.in/works/uploads/File/Handbo...
- K0balt 3y agoIdk, I’m reading a lot of sex between the lines in that one. It’s thinly veiled, but c’mon: “Normal aspect double yellow of a distant signal in rajdhani route( where double distant signal is provided)” is a clear reference to some seriously kinky stuff “rajdhani route” to wit. And the “symbols” and diagrams - don’t even get me started. It’s like a pictographic Kamasutra.
- YeGoblynQueenne 3y agoWell, if it's on the internet, it's probably porn already :P
- carrolldunham 3y agoyay, burn the books!
- HocusLocus 3y agoYou've gone grey my friend. Wrongthink is being thunk by you.
- Yoric 3y agoYeah, Atlas Shrugged was really bad.
- melagonster 3y agounfortunately, it is rare that a 14 old kid who can read Focault’s Pendulum.
- Yoric 3y agoI did and I'll certainly try it on my kid :)
- ttepasse 3y agoSome of the utter joys that Eco’s books give you, is that they grow with you. The more you learn about the world (and yourself), the more layers and nuances you’ll find in re-reads. As a stubborn and curious 14 year old Foucault’s Pendulum is still a somewhat readable story, which I enjoyed and got the general gist. Later Re-reads of course brought more, because I have grown and known more in the meantime. I found that even more with re-reads of The Name of the Rose. And of course that process is never finished. I’m sure, I’ll find even more stuff, if I were a full scale medievalist or could read better Italian than reading in translation, even though translations of Eco are said to be rather good. Reading, thought in that way, is never done.
- Yoric 3y agoWhich I guess makes him a descendant of Jesus, in Diabolical logics? Such humility :)
- bazoom42 3y agoThe case that Brown plagarized Holy Blood Holy Grail is hilarious because Holy Blood Holy Grail claimed to be historical research rather than fiction. So how can you plagiarize actual history? The case was basically them admitting it was made up.