Posted on 04/23/2018 3:42:10 PM PDT by Simon Green
The Bible isn't required reading -- according to GQ.
The magazine is facing criticism after it included The Good Book in its list of "21 Books You Don't Have to Read" last week.
Compiled by GQ editors, the post laments that "the Great Books" aren't all they're cracked up to be: "Some are racist and some are sexist, but most are just really, really boring."
"Census" author Jesse Ball says the Bible (No. 12 on the list) is highly rated by people who claim to live by it but haven't actually read the tome.
"Those who have read it know there are some good parts, but overall it is certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced," Ball writes for GQ. "It is repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned."
Christians disagreeing with Ball took to social media to defend the Bible.
Each of the 21 books on GQ's list includes what people should read instead. Ball suggests "The Notebook" by Agota Kristof in place of the Bible.
Other books GQ says not bother with include "The Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien, "Dracula" by Bram Stoker, "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger and "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway.
(Excerpt) Read more at wjla.com ...
What would you expect from GayQueer magazine. They know the interests of their readers.
In stark contrast to GQ’s lists are those of the Commandant of the Marine Corps. For instance, here is the Entry Level Enlsited list:
BATTLE CRY by Leon Uris
CORPS VALUES by Zell Miller
GATES OF FIRE: AN EPIC NOVEL OF THE BATTLE OF THERMOPYLAE by Steven Pressfield
STARSHIP TROOPERS by Robert A. Heinlein (a far, far different story than the movie of the same name!)
THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE by Stephen Crane
There are 11 lists in all. Some of the other recommendations are:
THE FEDERALIST PAPERS by Alexander Hamilton; James Madison, et al.
AFTER THE PROPHET : THE EPIC STORY OF THE SHIA-SUNNI SPLIT IN ISLAM by Lesley Hazleton
JUST AND UNJUST WARS: A MORAL ARGUMENT WITH HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS by Michael Walzer
THE INNOVATORS by Walter Isaacson
ATTACKS by Erwin Rommel
ON KILLING: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL COST OF LEARNING TO KILL IN WAR AND SOCIETY by Dave Grossman
START WITH WHY: HOW GREAT LEADERS INSPIRE EVERYONE TO TAKE ACTION by Simon Sinek
LEADING UP: HOW TO LEAD YOUR BOSS SO YOU BOTH WIN by Michael Useem (Intermediate Level Enlisted list!)
THINKING, FAST AND SLOW by Daniel Kahneman
RIFLEMAN DODD by C. S. Forester
I’m sorry, but the thought of someone spending their time reading GQ when they could be using that time to read Tolkien, Hemingway, Twain or the Bible is just too funny to be taken seriously.
No straight man would be caught reading GQ.
GQ. Panty-waste, man-love, metrosexual pukes.
Is it published only 4 times a year?
Then again, “Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report” is published every week. As I recall they have an annual book as well. I don’t know if they publish anything on a quarterly basis.
The latter truly amazes me. It is the American Odyssey. Without having read it, your education is not just incomplete, but willfully abased.
I'm glad they had enough sense to not include Albert Schweitzer's two volume survey of "J.S. Bach".
If you haven't read it, you just may be a barn animal.
GQ is for sodomites with feces on their penises.
“Mark Twain was a racist. Just read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was a man of his time, so let’s leave him there. We don’t need him. “
This shows that the writer is utterly uneducated and wretchedly ignorant of Twain.
And then we were treated to some little girl named Emily telling us “Catch 22 was an ok telling of some war experiences, but she prefers some book about some iraqi-American girl who joins the Army to be a translator.
Lame.
GQ always did mean “going queer”.
She made sure to tell us Mark Twain was a racist and that we don’t need him. Have you ever heard a more ignorant and uninformed statement?
Abject cowards. So the Bible makes their list but the Koran doesn’t? One reason: they wouldn’t dare.
GQ has been actively promoting the homosexual, counterculture (anti-Western) agenda for decades.
You can safely disregard anything in its pages.
in the first place. Notoriety == publicity.
Do even libs go to Vogue for "men" for literary judgments?
That's what New York Review of Books is for.
I’ve read a fair number of books on the list including the Bible.
The most important—non religious—reason to read the Bible is the rich prose. More every sayings, proverbs, and turns of phrase, come from the Bible. An educated person should read the Bible to understand the context of that part of our culture.
And, you know, the stories are pretty good.
I loved Vonnegut. I even read it for fun.
Usually, people that recommend books on the internet are giving you bad advice.
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