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Authors you wanted to like, but didnt

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Kveto from Prague
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Authors you wanted to like, but didnt

Post by Kveto from Prague » Fri January 16th, 2009, 9:22 pm

reading another thread got me thinking about authors. are there any authors you thought youd like but didnt. even authors that you want to like but cant quite get into.

Walter Scott was an author i really wanted to like. i mean the grandfather of HF in many ways. I slogged through kiddnapped and even Ivanhoe and gave rob roy a try but could never really get into him. im not sure why really. but i did want to like those books.

Joseph Conrad is another author i felt i should like. i mean his stories feel that they should be right up my alley. after several of his books i just realized i wasnt enjoying them. and i felt a bit guilty about that. strange.

the Castle of Otranto was another book i wanted to like but didnt (or at least i remember nothing about it)

im sure there are a few more that might spring to mind later. it just seems funny that there are writers that you feel you "should" like for whatever reason.

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boswellbaxter
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Post by boswellbaxter » Fri January 16th, 2009, 10:06 pm

Anthony Trollope. He's written so many books, that I'd never run out of things to read if I liked his works, but I never clicked with him. I much prefer Dickens.
Susan Higginbotham
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Telynor
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Post by Telynor » Sat January 17th, 2009, 1:19 am

And I am just the opposite -- I can't stand Dickens very much, but I have always enjoyed Trollope, especially the Pallister novels. I did, however, enjoy _Bleak House_ very much, so there's still hope.

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Alaric
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Post by Alaric » Sat January 17th, 2009, 5:16 am

Patrick O'Brian.

Well, I wouldn't say I disliked it in that sense, it's more that I prefer others a hell of a lot more.

alice
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Post by alice » Sat January 17th, 2009, 4:36 pm

Poor old Scott can't take the blame for Kidnapped, that's R.L.Stevenson ;) .

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sweetpotatoboy
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Post by sweetpotatoboy » Sat January 17th, 2009, 4:47 pm

[quote=""boswellbaxter""]Anthony Trollope. He's written so many books, that I'd never run out of things to read if I liked his works, but I never clicked with him. I much prefer Dickens.[/quote]

I love Trollope! The pages just turn themselves for me. I've not really read Dickens, apart from Hard Times at school...

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sweetpotatoboy
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Post by sweetpotatoboy » Sat January 17th, 2009, 4:49 pm

For me, I can't read Henry James. I've tried a few times.

And Tolkien - which is crazy as I love a lot of fantasy. but I find he bores me terribly.

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boswellbaxter
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Post by boswellbaxter » Sat January 17th, 2009, 5:00 pm

[quote=""sweetpotatoboy""]I love Trollope! The pages just turn themselves for me. I've not really read Dickens, apart from Hard Times at school...[/quote]

Hard Times isn't Dickens at his best, IMO. Try Bleak House sometime.

I need to take my own advice and give Trollope another try, maybe The Way We Live Now. My problem is that I don't have the time to read the three-deckers that I used to breeze my way through in my younger days.
Susan Higginbotham
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annis
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Post by annis » Sat January 17th, 2009, 5:14 pm

I'll second Henry James. :)

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sweetpotatoboy
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Post by sweetpotatoboy » Sat January 17th, 2009, 5:19 pm

[quote=""boswellbaxter""]I need to take my own advice and give Trollope another try, maybe The Way We Live Now. [/quote]

I wouldn't start with that, as good as it is. It's too large and daunting if you're not sold on him. Don't know which you've tried before, but I would start with The Warden maybe. A slender tome that's the first of his best series. Or try a slim standalone novel such as Cousin Henry or Marion Fay. One of his shortest novels is The Fixed Period, which is very untypical and satirical, almost science fiction

[quote=""boswellbaxter""]Hard Times isn't Dickens at his best, IMO. Try Bleak House sometime.[/quote]

Yes, that's what I figured.

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