5 ms·
Amusingly, _Catch-22_ is the only book to make both this list (which focuses more on prestigious or famous books rather than books anyone tries to read) and als
by gwern 3y ago
Amusingly, _Catch-22_ is the only book to make both this list (which focuses more on prestigious or famous books rather than books anyone tries to read) and also my list of most-dropped books compiled from GoodReads statistics: https://gwern.net/goodreads https://gwern.net/goodreads
I find that strange because I liked _Catch-22_ and found it easy to read! (And easier than _Genji_, _Solitude_, or _Brief History_.)
- 082349872349872 3y agoI agree on _Catch-22_, but then again I found _The Glass Bead Game_ not only easy but inspiring, so YMMV. Edit: (maybe both of them suffer from the 1940's context?)
- ojbyrne 3y agoI was forced to read Catch-22 for a college course (“The American Novel”) so maybe that helped, but I loved it. I remember walking through the hallways of my alma mater with the book in my face and suddenly succumbing to fits of laughter.
- hodgesrm 3y agoI loved Catch-22 and Gengi. Gengi has a kind of hypnotizing quality to the writing that kept me going.
- js2 3y agoI was amused to see Catch 22 on the list, a book I probably started a dozen times or more over a decade and would put down after a chapter or two. Then one time I picked it up and something was different. I read it cover to cover over a few days and loved it.
- dash2 3y agoBoy am I glad to see American Gods on that list. I started reading it on someone else's recommendation, whom I obviously should not have trusted. I gave up halfway, convinced that Neil Gaiman is a pen name of Garth Marenghi. To anyone who gave up American Gods: you're right, they're wrong.
- jpm_sd 3y agoYeah, I finished it, but wasn't impressed. Some clever ideas that came to nothing in the end.
- Krastan 3y agoI really enjoyed American Gods but it took me a long time to finish. I assumed it was because my attention span was getting worse but I hadn't considered that it was just a tough book to read. The books I've read since have been non fiction which are also slow reads for me which supported my, hopefully incorrect, hypothesis.
- cadr 3y agoAre you talking trash about Garth Marenghi?!
- j4yav 3y agoGarth Marenghi - author, dream weaver, visionary, plus actor? Honestly he's the one thing that makes this world worth putting up with.
- _Wintermute 3y agoI really didn't enjoy Catch-22 because it felt like a short story dragged out to 200 plus pages, just repeating the same observation about war again and again each chapter.