Hey, this is about books you can't stand. What else is the thread for except ranting? ;-) I agree, McGrath, modern books ain't necessarily better than older ones, but old books ain't necessarily better just bcos they're old. Thing is that the English language hasn't changed that much, given that Conan Doyle and Dickens are both reasonably readable today (even if Dickens couldn't write a character or plot to save his life ;), so we can probably say that they weren't really readable even then, it's just that people back then didn't expect readability.

I forgot Gormenghast. That's an odd book. It's got great style, but about halfway through you realise there's absolutely no substance there. It's like gothic popcorn. Magician I thought wasn't totally bad, but it for sure wasn't a top-100.

Oh yes, another pet peeve is Alastair Maclean. He wrote HMS Ulysses, Guns of Navarone, and Last Frontier, which are all amazing. Then he spent the rest of his life turning out dross. Wierd.

Graham.