I subscribe to the Ranker page on Facebook. Ranker also has a website and the premise of the site is to list a group of things or people and let the readers rank them in order. They've recently had lists of The Best Web Series, The Best Sports Franchises Of All Time, The Worst U.S. Presidents and TV Shows Canceled Before Their Time. What's really cool is that the reader doesn't have to join the site in order to rank the list.
Sometimes the subject interests me, sometimes not, but when I saw the most recent list The Lamest Authors of All Time, I had to go see what others thought were "lame" authors. Immediately, I thought of several and it was satisfying to see them on the list, but there were others I felt didn't belong, such as John Grisham and Tom Clancy....then I got to #23 (at the current time) and was flabbergasted to see Robert Heinlein listed. He's only been ranked by four people so far, two with thumbs up and two with thumbs down, but seriously? The dean of science fiction writers on a list of bad authors?
Now, I've always said our differences are what makes the world go 'round and that it's always bewildered me to see people get so upset if someone else doesn't like something they love, such as a musician or movie. The first personal attack I ever received on the 'net was when I simply stated I didn't like pineapple. (I'm slightly allergic to some tropical fruits, such as it and kiwi)
Dan Brown, the author of The DaVinci Code was listed. I didn't care for either of the two books of his I read, but I wouldn't categorize him as "lame". He's had far too much success to be put into that category. L Ron Hubbard is presently at the top of the list, and I wouldn't disagree there, even though I enjoyed Battlefield Earth. I would put him on the list because of the inane Dianetics series and the faux religion he spawned. Even though I consider myself a "small L" libertarian, I could understand Ayn Rand being on the list. Her classic tome Atlas Shrugged has some great points but I can't agree completely with Objectivism. It's also been a while since I read it and I've been meaning to read it again, but I had a hard time keeping my interest in it the first time.
I could think of other authors I would have included, such as J. D. Salinger; Catcher in the Rye has to be one of the worst books I've ever suffered through. I know it's considered a classic, but instead of being about "adolescent alienation" as others have described, it seems to me to be more about self-indulgence and selfishness. Some people have compared Catcher to Huckleberry Finn. Good grief.
My purpose here wasn't to go over each author in turn, though, but to show my shock that such a great writer as Heinlein would be included in a list of this type. You might not like sci fi, you might not like RAH because of his political views, you might not like him because of what some perceive to be his male chauvinism but I simply can't understand why he would on a list of worst authors. His books written for juveniles started me on my life-long love of reading and I still enjoy them. I gave the Heinlein books I owned to my nephews and they credit them for starting their own love of reading. (then I went out and bought new copies to replace the ones I had given away)
Sure, he wrote some books I didn't care for but that would also hold true for other favorite authors of mine, such as the aforementioned Clancy and Grisham.
Oh well, like I said, our differences are what make us unique. The difference here is that I'm right and that list is wrong, wrong, wrong for including Heinlein.
Sometimes the subject interests me, sometimes not, but when I saw the most recent list The Lamest Authors of All Time, I had to go see what others thought were "lame" authors. Immediately, I thought of several and it was satisfying to see them on the list, but there were others I felt didn't belong, such as John Grisham and Tom Clancy....then I got to #23 (at the current time) and was flabbergasted to see Robert Heinlein listed. He's only been ranked by four people so far, two with thumbs up and two with thumbs down, but seriously? The dean of science fiction writers on a list of bad authors?
Now, I've always said our differences are what makes the world go 'round and that it's always bewildered me to see people get so upset if someone else doesn't like something they love, such as a musician or movie. The first personal attack I ever received on the 'net was when I simply stated I didn't like pineapple. (I'm slightly allergic to some tropical fruits, such as it and kiwi)
Dan Brown, the author of The DaVinci Code was listed. I didn't care for either of the two books of his I read, but I wouldn't categorize him as "lame". He's had far too much success to be put into that category. L Ron Hubbard is presently at the top of the list, and I wouldn't disagree there, even though I enjoyed Battlefield Earth. I would put him on the list because of the inane Dianetics series and the faux religion he spawned. Even though I consider myself a "small L" libertarian, I could understand Ayn Rand being on the list. Her classic tome Atlas Shrugged has some great points but I can't agree completely with Objectivism. It's also been a while since I read it and I've been meaning to read it again, but I had a hard time keeping my interest in it the first time.
I could think of other authors I would have included, such as J. D. Salinger; Catcher in the Rye has to be one of the worst books I've ever suffered through. I know it's considered a classic, but instead of being about "adolescent alienation" as others have described, it seems to me to be more about self-indulgence and selfishness. Some people have compared Catcher to Huckleberry Finn. Good grief.
My purpose here wasn't to go over each author in turn, though, but to show my shock that such a great writer as Heinlein would be included in a list of this type. You might not like sci fi, you might not like RAH because of his political views, you might not like him because of what some perceive to be his male chauvinism but I simply can't understand why he would on a list of worst authors. His books written for juveniles started me on my life-long love of reading and I still enjoy them. I gave the Heinlein books I owned to my nephews and they credit them for starting their own love of reading. (then I went out and bought new copies to replace the ones I had given away)
Sure, he wrote some books I didn't care for but that would also hold true for other favorite authors of mine, such as the aforementioned Clancy and Grisham.
Oh well, like I said, our differences are what make us unique. The difference here is that I'm right and that list is wrong, wrong, wrong for including Heinlein.
