Authors you've finally come around to liking
I didn't enjoy Hemingway for years. Now, thanks largely to A Farewell to Arms, I see him in a different light.
I think it took these four or five years because I simply didn't appreciate what he was doing. For Whom the Bell Tolls seemed pretentious, stylistically, and the stories I read by him were, I felt, a tad overhyped. It's only now that I've read more by him and ABOUT him that I'm coming around.
Other authors I've come to enjoy more include Henry James and Paul Auster and, on the philosophy front, Julia Kristeva.
Still haven't changed my mind about Bukowski, though.
thanks for sharing.blackhawk tactical pants.
— Spambot
"I could have done worse!" exultantly cried the murderer Lebret, sentenced at Rouen to hard labor for life. — Félix Fénéon
Salinger. after reading Franny & Zooey my appreciation and admiration for him skyrocketed. the only other of his work i had read was Catcher, and although i did enjoy it and it was definitely great, i feel F&Z is absolutely timeless and beautiful and I'M NOT EVER GOING TO STOP TALKING ABOUT IT, I SWEAR!
I think Salinger would be mine too. If and when I get around to reading that Franny and Zooey. I'm ready to forgive him. I want to forgive him!
Don't think I'll ever come around to Burroughs or any of the beats though.
I do make threads with distinctively Phil-ish titles.
thanks for sharing.blackhawk tactical pants.
— Spambot
"I could have done worse!" exultantly cried the murderer Lebret, sentenced at Rouen to hard labor for life. — Félix Fénéon
When I see "Authors you've finally come around to licking" I'll now tom is back.
And I stand by my analogy of literature being a food and an individual's reading life being an infant at first and slowly growing into adulthood. You don't give a baby a steak and you don't give an adult baby food. Although I do like a little jar of tapioca and Dr. Suess every now and then but I wouldn't want to eat that shit all the time.
nate, you just want to eat moby's dick don't you?
Palahniuk, back in 1999, I couldn't tune into this style and voice. It wasn't until 2007, when I took a chance on Diary that I got into him. And Diary stands as one of my top favs by him.
Learning to love James Joyce via Finnegan's Wake and Ulysses.
Hemingway I could not read from high school (1996-2001 Canucks used to have 5 year high school programs) until this year, because teachers and writers part of the scene in my homecity told me I wrote like him.
I learned to love adore revere Dostoevsky through White Nights and The Double, then I loved all his major novels and novellas.
There are too many writers, authors, novelists, that I will never get into, let alone actually claim deserve the designation 'author'... Margaret Atwood, I'm looking at you... James Paterson and Annie Proulx you belong there too.
Please, please. Don't put Annie Proulx and James Paterson in the same sentence. Even if you don't like either of them, you must understand how egregious that is.
There is hope, but not for us.
I've read 3.2 Phillip Roth books and liked two.
I've always liked Hemingway because I love his short stories, his novels drag for me. I think his style works better for me in a short story format.
Yes, Nate it is time. Read it!
Moby shaves his head so whilst laying down in the tub he can resemble the whale's snout! True Fact!
I've always liked Hemingway because I love his short stories, his novels drag for me. I think his style works better for me in a short story format.
I was at Half Price Books yesterday and looking for Roth. I want to get that American Pastoral. All they had was The Human Stain (which sounds excruciatingly boring) and Sabbath's Theater (which sounded good but wasn't the one I was looking for) and I ended up not getting anything.
I've got a collection of Hemingway short stories that I thought were great. I think the short stories are the best way to get into authors like him and Dostoevsky. Like building up your tolerance to tackle their later behemoths!
I own American Pastoral. I didn't like it. There were a few parts I found interesting but overall I just wished that it ended a lot sooner than it did.
i accidently posted twice.
“if you want to be a bird,” you said once, “with colorful plumage and buoyant trills, you must also be ready for hollow bones."
Learning to love James Joyce via Finnegan's Wake and Ulysses.
Hemingway I could not read from high school (1996-2001 Canucks used to have 5 year high school programs) until this year, because teachers and writers part of the scene in my homecity told me I wrote like him.
I learned to love adore revere Dostoevsky through White Nights and The Double, then I loved all his major novels and novellas.
There are too many writers, authors, novelists, that I will never get into, let alone actually claim deserve the designation 'author'... Margaret Atwood, I'm looking at you... James Paterson and Annie Proulx you belong there too.
NOBODY HAS EVER READ FINNEGAN'S WAKE. THIS IS A FACT.
“if you want to be a bird,” you said once, “with colorful plumage and buoyant trills, you must also be ready for hollow bones."
Seriously. I own Finnegan's Wake, and I'm reading through it right now... not sure when I expect to finish, but mark my words, IF I live another ten years, it shall be read!
Don DeLillo. Didn't like Americana, couldn't get into White Noise, but his new book was nice and airy and prompted me to pick up Underworld and whoa boy--that's one hell of a Prologue. A real humdinger, that. I mean, let's face it--the man can write.
Don't think I'll ever come around to Burroughs or any of the beats though.
I love me some Beats.
One author I can't get into and everyone thinks is brilliant is David Foster Wallace.
Literary masturbation.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
One author I can't get into and everyone thinks is brilliant is David Foster Wallace.
Literary masturbation.
Them's fighting words.
Don't get me wrong, there were some amazing bits here and there in Infinite Jest, but I had to watch the guy jerk off to how good he is for 1000 pages to find them.
In DFW's defense, I read the whole damn book to impress some girl I was trying to sleep with and it tainted my whole experience.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
See I'm a rabid DFW who, shamefully, hasn't read Infinite Jest yet. Have you tried his non-fiction collections? They may well change your mind.
And did your gambit at least work? A short novel yes, but 1000 pages? I hope she was good.
It did, and she was, but then she got crazy. I blame this on her love of Infinite Jest.
I really should go pick up the collections. I really, really wanted to like DFW. I think I'm ready for another chance.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
I used to be a self proclaimed punk rocker so I tried for the longest time to avoid the mainstream with every fiber of my being. This included books. So I would never try to purposely seek out any author that I had heard of before.
That being said...
I really wanted to hate John Grisham before I read The Firm but afterwords I was like... Well maybe his next will suck. But it didn't. And he continues to amaze me with the clever legal maneuvering his characters exhibit.
He is a true and bonifide case of "Write What You Know." Seeing as he was once a trial lawyer for lower class defendants.
Another one I didn't want to like was Stephen King. It's just such a headache when you ask random people who their favorite author is and nine out of then of them will say Stephen King.
I stayed away from him until I was about twenty two when I was in jail and all they had to read was King or Tom Clancy. I chose the Stephen King novel "Carrie" and I was pleasantly surprised at it's content.
The next book I read was The Shining and that absolutely blew me away. Same with Needful things and Misery.
However I came across some stinkers like Gerald's Game, Tommyknockers, and Pet Semetary.
I didn't dislike Pet Semetary per say but I just couldn't stand the fact that nothing happened until like page three hundred.
A lot of his books are like that and I think what drew me to Chuck Palahniuk and Bret Easton Ellis was the fact that they got to the point fast. I'd like to think that my writing has been shaped by the introduction to minimalism but I do find myself going off into rants and getting too wordy sometimes.
I can't really think of an author who writes with all his or her effort that I don't like really. To me anything can be good if the author is competent and is in the genre of books that I like to read.
I could never be a critic because it's so hard for me to point out the flaws in anything these days.
I knew you made this thread! haha. I loved A Farewell to Arms. I haven't been able to get into For Whom the Bell Tolls, though. I think Hemingway is a great author, I just wish I had money to buy more of his work. My boyfriend's mother has a first-edition copy of The Old Man and the Sea that I have my eye on. I've called dibs on it.
Here it is:
I'm glad you've changed your mind about him. I went through the same thing last fall. I decided that I was going to give him a second chance, and I grew to greatly appreciate him.