Love your pet rat story. Csb indeed!

Anything who had not already done so should go over and read about Penn’s book. It is so much worse than you can imagine, but reading about it has brought me great joy. I did not believe that such bad writing existed!

This is the only correct take.

Thanks for bringing my attention to this. This sounds good enough to break my “no podcasts” rule!

People who let their kids play in floodwaters (shudders) must live in an area that never sees flooding. I just can't even imagine thinking that is a good idea.

I can’t say anything about Roger Ebert particularly, but negative reviews on The New York prevented me from seeing The Matrix and Fight Club in the theaters. It’s good to remember that critics can't always get it right.

Thank you for the friendly reminder to hide my family members's posts. They're the biggest driver of my personal dissatisfaction with the service.

That one actually looked interesting to me, so I hope it turns out to be good!

That is a better list. I only read 14 of those books, and hadn’t previously heard of quite a lot of them. I like to read classic books that I was never assigned because I want to see what quality others see in them.

Well, good for you! What your most and last favorites?

Those Rand books are characterized by a peculiar anti-quality. They are not redeemed by their stories or their prose or their message. The only use in reading them at all is to see how it can happen that so many people get fooled into believing that this crap is great literature.

Longest or best-known. No way is The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan’s best work or longest. I think her best is The Hundred Secret Senses.

I’m behind you with (about) 33. I guess you’re right about there being some bad books in there. I once read Atlas Shrugged and think it’s pretty worthless. I tried The Davinci Code and thought it was boring and poorly written. The worst of those that I read all the way through was The Handmaid’s Tale. The one I…

Apparently, I need to go ahead and read that one already! I hear so many people recommend it.

No kidding. I’m from South Carolina, I’m interested in this sort of history, and this is literally the first I’ve ever heard of this story or the man himself.  Well, I think I'd heard of Camp Robert Small, but just assumed he was a white guy. And it's a really great story, too! 

Hear, hear! We should all talk about the good Crash and shut up about that other one. More people need to be informed of the movies existence and what makes it worth watching.

Crash did have body horror. Maybe it stuck out more to me because that’s totally not my bag. I also feel obliged to point out that Crash is an adaptation, and that he greatly improved on the source material. My point being that if it seems ponderous, that may not be Cronenburg’s fault.

Damn. I had no idea about any of that. Thanks for posting, and that IS terrible!

Yes! I love this cover and wish it were better known!

Sure, but we had that sinkhole that we've got to pay for somehow!