The Book that is Yawn City to me!

Drumroll Please.

The most over-rated book in my opinion is (pause for effect – Like we’re handing out an Academy Award) Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace.

I tried reading it once and maybe the problem is I already loved the movie. I thought the movie (Heston version) was awesome.

So, I sat down to read the book.

I made it to page ten, and thanked God we had the movie. It was as dry as a piece of ten-year-old toast for me. And boring didn’t begin to describe it.

Of course I tried to read it at age seventeen. I was into Star Trek and 2001 and there is a notable lack of starships in the novel. Maybe if I were to pick it up and read it through the eyes of an older person, it might come across differently.

Worth a try. It is at the Farr Library after all, and I won’t have to buy it.

I recall hearing a story (I’ve never been able to confirm this) that he wrote the novel while Billy the Kid was at large, and he was afraid the kid might come gunning for him.