Salman Rushdie became embroiled in a literary row over the weekend after he rated a number of books on the website Goodreads thinking these would be private when in fact the information was viewable to the public.
The Satanic Verses author’s list soon began to circulate online with many viewers aghast to read his mediocre three star rating of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird alongside the singular star given to Kingsley Amis’ Lucky Jim. Other critically acclaimed books that ranked low include Elizabeth Bowen’s The Death of the Heart and Max Beerbohm’s Zuleika Dobson. F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby did at least manage to make the grade with a full five star rating.
Rushdie has since come forward to defend his choices, explaining that he hadn’t meant to either recommend books or put readers off titles. Instead he had simply hoped that the site would use his ratings to recommend literary works based on his preferences.
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