In the article: Amazon.com readers
In the article: Amazon.com readers comment on the Modern Library's Top 20 Novels of the 20th Century, Kevin Goldstein finds actual comments posted by members of the public about books that are acknowledged greats. The comments are - pretty much uniformly - rather embarrassing for their authors. But the tone of the article as a whole is patronising and insulting. I am a cultured individual who has spent six and a half years in University, and I haven't read more than three or four of the books listed on the page. Rather than sneer at those who do read them and don't get them, shouldn't we be encouraging them to try other books? Not everyone (and I include myself in this) will necessarily complete or get much satisfaction out of reading Ulysses.
