Timewaster's Guide Archive

I think that books are like any other kind of media in that there are always going to be stuff that is objectionable to someone.  But with books we can't tell without expending a lot of time and in some cases seeing things that we would rather have avoided.  And it has become the norm for adult novels to have graphic content.  My sister had a good comment about that on her blog here: http://lajendi.typepad.com/lajendi/2008/03/pillars-of-slim.html 
And since the publishing industry seems to think all adults want this it is hard to know whose recommendations to take.
The book clubs do have those warnings, but they have a rather limited selections, IMHO

Does the ipod work in the shower? I didn't know they were waterproof

The Truth series by Dawn Cook.  I picked the first one (Hidden Truth) up for a light read and it was surprisingly good, so I have to hunt the rest of them down.

If a poor movie to book adaptation really bothers you, don't see the movie.  It had some good bits, but they cherry-picked through the books for scenes they liked, and changed things for no reason that I could fathom.  It wasn' awful, unless you knew the great books it came from.

I think that what does bug me (which is probably what you are saying and I was just misunderstanding because of my unconscious need to be disagreeable) is a bunch of hand waving, vague explanations that are supposed to be scientific and are meant to add credibility to the story when it appears that the writer didn't bother to learn anything about the subject.  If they had even looked up the subject on wikipedia they'd have realized how inane their "scientific explanation" was.

 Yes, exactly, you phrased it better and more clearly than I did, thank you.  I recently was given a box full of books that I normally wouldn't read.  In addition to the book that caused the above rant I found another one with an Atlantis twist that was extremely disappointing. The author found out one interesting fact about the mantle of the Earth and then put a lot of really old, tired cliches about people living in Atlantis (they are all incredibly beautiful, young, scientifically advanced, etc.).  I know they turned out to be evil in some way because it was a thriller but I couldn't get far enough to find out what it was.  They probably use regular humans to somehow fuel their advanced society, since that is the cliche that fits in with everything else. 

I think I got spoiled by reading good science fiction and fantasy that the author has put a lot of work into so it is internally consistent and makes the reader think, e.g. Brandon Sanderson.  Then I read bestsellers/thrillers that are just retreads of stuff already done and I get irritated.  I guess I'm just cranky.

I read a book recently where the whole book revolved around a mad scientist type of quantum physics gone wrong thing.  It really irritated me, ruined the whole book, even though the plot (except for that little science bit) and dialogue and characters and most of the other writing was pretty good, but the science was so awful I felt like yelling at the characters that they were all idiots.  I had to rant at my husband later about how stupid it was, which brings me to the point of this post:
So at what point does science become a stumbling block in a book/movie/TV show for you?  I was thinking that there seems to be a spectrum.  At one point are things that not everyone knows, but are definitely true.  A lot of detective fiction uses those.  Then there is the other end where the science is completely out there and may as well be magic.  Once you accept the transporter beams and faster-than-light travel, everything else is easy.   Where in the middle does it get irritating, and does it matter how much you know about a given topic?  For example, does Jurassic Park really irritate biochemists or someone who knows how much work it would take to replicate a dinosaur while those of us who have no idea can pass it by?
Thoughts? Examples? Rants?

1. a physicist.  Seriously, I couldn't pronounce it, but I knew that's what I wanted to study.  Then I got back from a two year break and my physics major turned to a minor when the math was too hard to catch up to.

2. I was headed toward being a librarian when derailed by kids, but that still sounds loverly: quiet, books, less barf and other unspeakables to clean up.

3. I am a book-addicted mom longing for a nap.

4. I have grand hopes for being better at a large number of things that I now do just well enough to get by.  Then I will have found a whole hosts of new things to be incompetent at. Eternal Progression I suppose.