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Devil's Advocate here, and I'm curious: did you read all of the published authors and tally up the disappointments, or are you making a wild, unsupportable extrapolation based on incredibly limited sampling?

If you like Chuck stylistically, that will definitely scratch the itch. Hands down his best in my opinion. 'Choke' is a favorite for a lot of people, and it's very good, his 'break out' book in many respects. And I don't have the aversion to the supernatural some do, so his horror novels...

Many fans of Chuck, and I'm one (complete with autographed first-edition hardback 'Survivor') will tell you to skip the 'connective' material in 'Haunted.' The poetry is beyond terrible and the 'plot' of the novel is as tedious and pointless as it seems. The stories are good, for the most...

You're not particularly far in. The short stories, for the most part, are good. If you like the connective material, great. The setup was good, I thought the payoff was lousy.

I'd say pace yourself with ANY author. There's exceptions, of course. I read Faulkner's 'Snopes' trilogy back to back plus 'Flags in the Dust' without burnout. It actually got better as I learned to speak Yoknapatawphan. The flip side is Will Christopher Baer, who I started out so high on...

I think a smart person can get out of jury duty without the legal battle, though I grudgingly admire the guy's stubborn honesty. If you're drafted and don't want to enlist, tell them you're gay (oops, they didn't ask but you told). Or a Communist. Tell them you're a gay Communist who has...

Chuck's been all over the map to a sufficient extent that it would be a rare reader who gets thrilled by all of it. 'Survivor' is on my all-time favorites list of almost any length, but 'Invisible Monsters' was one I struggled with and 'Haunted' should have been released as a collection of...

'Winter' is on my 'to read' list still, also 'Cannery Row' and 'Sweet Thursday.' The only non-fiction of his I've read is 'Travels with Charley,' which makes a nice companion read for 'On the Road.'

I used to buy books like crazy. Which was crazier for the fact that I read a lot of pulp that I never re-read. Once I knew how a story came out, I wasn't going to re-read it. Then I had kid, got a house in the 'burbs, etc., and I had to look at things more realistically. The library lets...

I think it's safe to say that if you see symbolism in Steinbeck, there was no accident about it. 'East of Eden' is even heavier that way. The thing I remember from 'Grapes' as being over the top was the turtle and the trucker. It was valid to his theme, but struck me as ham-handed. Then...

'Grapes of Wrath' gets heavy-handed on the symbolism at times, but don't give up on the man. 'In Dubious Battle' might be too much for you, it's got a bit of throw-weight and if you didn't dig 'Grapes,' forget 'East of Eden.' But that still leaves you some great fun: 'Tortilla Flat,' 'The...

'Literary' can't be fun? Pynchon writes about some of the rough patches in his early short stories, 'Slow Learner' that he was writing with the credo of 'make it literary,' which he admits is bad advice he made up himself and followed. There seems to be a mentality about what constitutes...

(NOT trying to derail the topic) I never in a million hears would have thought of Begbie and Hannibal as similar characters. The thing that's interesting about Hannibal as a character (though I think Harris fucked the dog with the ending of the last book), is his motive is so different...

Okay, let me know where the bridge is that I'm supposed to push you off of. That's his best book! You're an Infidel and must be dealt with! Go figure, it appears 'Haunted' is his most successful to date, sales-wise, and it's dead last in my ranking of his books. And it's rare that I've...

If I thought it sucked, I wouldn't have finished it. But I was just perusing my copy of 'Mason & Dixon,' as I decide whether to finally read 'Gravity's Rainbow,' and Pynchon wrote 'M&D' in period language, especially the dialogue, but really even the narrative of Wicks Cherrycoke is full of...

I forgot about 'Side Effects' by Woody, good book as I recall, very funny. If you didn't like 'Choke,' dont' write Palahniuk off totally. His best is 'Survivor.' But I do love 'Choke.' The 'Haunted' apology tour is over, so hopefully Chuck will get back to what he does well...

Assuming that Faulknger, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Steinbeck aren't in the picture: Lionel Shriver. I'm about 2/3 of the way through 'We Need to Talk aobut Kevin,' and I'm impressed with her style (though she uses the words 'sisal' and 'comestible' too much. Terry Souther, esp. 'Magic...

I thought Shel Silverstein just wrote songs for Johnny Cash...

I think it's an unusual case when the movie improves upon a book, but 'Fight Club' is one of those exceptions. There are things I'd do differently, sure (I'd include the perfume scene, for instance). But instead of Tyler getting beaten up by the projectionist's Union boss and the spacemonkeys...

I don't know that I meant my ranking to be in a strict order. I just resorted to decimals because I couldn't keep it to 10 in whole numbers. I haven't read Cervantes yet, only seen the musical (so to speak), and the only Swift I remember getting to was 'A Modest Proposal.' All it good time...