Yeah, ever since I read The Hunger Games and Harry Potter I can't have fun reading stupid books like Twilight >.<

by Anonymous 12 years ago

that wasn't a very good example

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Personally I don't think The Fountainhead is a good example. People can draw meaning from whatever books they like, whether it's No Exit, or Infinite Jest, or War and Peace, or Harry Potter.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I was like this when I started reading Vonnegut, then I ran out of books to read that were written by him D:

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Yes! He is amazing

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Not sure what you mean by trivial novels, you can get meaning out of anything. If you need the meaning to be shoved into your face by 300 page speeches by the characters I guess not, but any novel can have a deeper meaning if you're willing to give it one.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You would be better off reading something that could give you insight into your life rather than fiction work that just gives you entertainment.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

So fiction is incapable of being both entertaining and insightful? Personally I found Ayn Rand's philosophy to be neither and Sartre's No Exit to be both, and I've found that most books I love reading help me reflect upon my own life while also keeping me entertained.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I remember I was reading a book by John Green (if you haven't read anything of his, I strongly recommend it) and the author's note at the beginning was talking about people who are constantly asking if his stories are at all true. "Such efforts attack the very idea that made-up stories can matter, which is sort of the foundational assumption of our species," which I always thought was a very true statement. As humans, made up stories do matter because they tell us so much about how other people think, feel, and act. This is why I believe that fiction and nonfiction are equally important.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Well of course all novels are not equal, but what is trivial to one person could be a revelation for another.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

All novels are not equal, of course. But fiction and nonfiction are, in my opinion, and I think almost everyone else probably finds this to be true as well.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

That was a response to Logan sorry for the confusion

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I still read love to read trivial novels but I voted YYA for mentioning the Fountainhead. Atlas Shrugged is way better though.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Like Courage_Wolf said, you can find meaning pretty much in any book. But after I read A Song of Ice and Fire last summer, all the other characters in books (for the most part) seem shallow and one sided because he has the most realistic characters I've ever read.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Recently I've had this issue where teen fiction just doesn't do it for me anymore. I find a lot of it boring or shallow. But even a year ago I would have found that statement ridiculous. People should read what they're interested in, even if it's "trivial."

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Meaning and morals can come from nearly any book if you look.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

My point is, for the love of all sane, is that some meanings and morals are more important from other books. What morals, meanings, or lessons could you possibly get from the Hunger Games? All I keep seeing is racism because one character was black. A lot of these books hold nothing of importance, most arbitrary.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I find the Hunger Games being a very meaningful book. It deals with the fact that our society is becoming very blind to the suffering of others. Children in their world are forced to slaughter each other to pay for the uprising of their ancestors many years before. It deals with an opressive government, and also teaches the important lesson that family and friendship are very important, as Katniss is willing to die for her little sister to live, and that even though Gale and Katniss aren't family, he still takes care of her mother and sister while she is away. And if "true love" is your thing, than you could also take away from it that Peeta was willing to die for Katniss too. I think there's a lot of meaning. Books can be important and meaningful even if they don't have 30 page long monologues talking about them outright.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

To all his own opinion.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

On top of that, I doubt every single person who read the Hunger Games derived that "message." I'm talking about those books that don't have any other reason but to educate the public on life.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Please, I'd rather teenage girls read "The Fountainhead" and find some purpose in their lives over rereading "twilight" and drooling over freaking vampires. Sure I agree, trivial might have been too harsh of a word.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Let's put it this way. I love both Atonement and Anna and the French Kiss, but both have their own purpose for me. The former is amazing because I love to think about the moral implications of the events in the book and to what degree the main character was at fault for what happened (which, as far as I'm concerned, is barely). Also, there were just a lot of quotes, particularly towards the end, that were incredibly powerful. But there's almost nothing happy about Atonement, and so I can't indulge it forever or I'll just get too depressed. Ad everyone gets that way, you know? That's why books like Anna and the French Kiss exist, because that book is nothing but fluffy and adorable. It doesn't have any meaning, but it genuinely makes me happy. Therefore, I don't believe it's accurate to call it trivial.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I read both serious books and trivial, fluffy ones. I get too "depressed" when I read nothing but historical books, and I feel too much like an idiot when I read nothing but fluff chick lit books. I always have a balance.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Ayn Rand's books don't just "contain a deeper meaning" they hit you over the head with an author tract large enough to bludgeon someone to death with. I consider myself intelligent enough to perceive the more subtle meanings of other books. I've learned plenty, either about science, history, technology, or philosophy from cheap paperbacks meant to entertain. A good author will write good, fleshed out characters which will always teach us a lot about human nature, if nothing else.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I felt that way after reading my first Vonnegut book.

by Anonymous 12 years ago