Authors you wanted to like, but didnt

princess · Post by **princess** » Thu June 3rd, 2010, 12:46 pm

Philippa Gregory ("The Queen's Fool" and "Wideacre" - need I say more :eek

Jeanne Kalogridis - I just couldn't get into "The Borgia Bride" and I absolutely hated the part when her father watched her husband "bed" her on their wedding night

Posie Graeme-Evans - can't even remember the name of the book (think it was about one of Edward IV's mistresses exiled in Flanders or something) but I found it so dull that I couldn't read even a quarter of it - and I really did want to like it!!!

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Thu June 3rd, 2010, 2:37 pm

[quote=""princess""]Philippa Gregory ("The Queen's Fool" and "Wideacre" - need I say more :eek

[/quote]

I totally agree -- I don't read Philippa Gregory, either.

N. Gemini Sasson · Post by **N. Gemini Sasson** » Thu June 3rd, 2010, 5:52 pm

Dunnett here as well. I can't recall which book it was, but about two years ago I lugged one home from the library and after opening it three times I just couldn't get into it.

Dumas was one whose books drew me into HF in my teens, but these days I don't know if I could get through them either. My attention span is much shorter than it used to be!

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Thu June 3rd, 2010, 6:00 pm

Dorothy Dunnett is an author I'd never heard of until joining this forum. I have one of her books on my shopping list to try....

I can totally relate to the shorter adult attention span. I can remember as a teenager, getting completely engrossed in a book for hours at a time. *sigh* Those were the days, and I'm afraid they're gone forever. Too many responsibilities and distractions now vying for my attention. I have been doing better recently, though.

N. Gemini Sasson · Post by **N. Gemini Sasson** » Thu June 3rd, 2010, 6:09 pm

[quote=""Michy""]I can totally relate to the shorter adult attention span. I can remember as a teenager, getting completely engrossed in a book for hours at a time. *sigh* Those were the days, and I'm afraid they're gone forever. Too many responsibilities and distractions now vying for my attention. [/quote]

You got that right, Michy. My distractions have names and they're both taller than me now!

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Thu June 3rd, 2010, 6:13 pm

I don't have children or pets, so you'd think I would be distraction-free. Maybe I have a mild case of ADD?

Margaret · Post by **Margaret** » Thu June 3rd, 2010, 6:49 pm

We live in a more distracting world now than we used to, I think. I find that my attention span tends to be shorter nowadays than it used to be, and I think it's because so many of my activities require me to be constantly shifting my attention from one thing to another. I think we're just not used to focusing our attention on one thing for long periods of time, the way people used to do, so we feel more antsy when we have the opportunity to do that - like a part of our psyches are getting primed for the next distraction.

I think that's one of the reasons why I really, really love it when a novel is so absorbing that it does quiet down that part of my brain that is on alert for the next distraction. Novels that powerfully absorbing don't come along all that often (and different people respond to different subjects), but when they do, they're great!

LoveHistory · Post by **LoveHistory** » Thu June 3rd, 2010, 6:54 pm

As adults we've developed a fine-tuned sense of what we like and can identify what does or doesn't work for us much more quickly than we did as teenagers. It's not that our attention spans are shorter, just that we're more selective and have more demands on our time.

Celia Hayes · Post by **Celia Hayes** » Thu June 3rd, 2010, 6:59 pm

I wanted to like Larry McMurtry, especially "Lonesome Dove" and the sequels/prequels. There are reviewers and fans who keep comparing my books to those of his (mostly, I assume because both mine and his are set in mid 19th century Texas) and I tried my very best to slog through them, but I just couldn't. Too many improbablities, and too much tweaking of actual historical fact.

Michy · Post by **Michy** » Thu June 3rd, 2010, 7:08 pm

[quote=""Margaret""]We live in a more distracting world now than we used to, I think. I find that my attention span tends to be shorter nowadays than it used to be, and I think it's because so many of my activities require me to be constantly shifting my attention from one thing to another. I think we're just not used to focusing our attention on one thing for long periods of time, the way people used to do, so we feel more antsy when we have the opportunity to do that - like a part of our psyches are getting primed for the next distraction.

[/quote]

There was an interesting author interview last evening on NPR about this very thing. The author they were interviewing (I can't remember his name or the name of his book) said pretty much the exact same things you are saying. He blames it on the Internet. I think he may be right; his arguments really made sense. One thing he said that I'm not sure about, though, is that humans are hard-wired to be constantly responding to distractions. He says the x-number of decades where we led a more contemplative existence was an aberration, really, and that we are now reverting back to our more natural state.