Jed's Super-Dooper Newbie Question-of-the-Week Thread

Laineywrites

Just doing it.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 12, 2011
Messages
78
Reaction score
3
Location
The Big Apple
Newbie Question-of-the-Week ?

Do yo find Shakespeare dull and boring?


I find Shakespeare sublime. Romeo and Juliet. Hamlet. Love, love, love. I think my love for his writing started as a game. I enjoyed my struggle to understand it. (I was in Junior High). After a while, I simply fell in love with the phrasing, and then the stories themselves. Now I'm hooked.
 

slcboston

Pasture-ized
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 1, 2007
Messages
50,312
Reaction score
29,060
Location
Second Star To The Right
New QotW

All right folks, time for a new question:

Who is an author you always wanted to read, only to be disappointed when you finally did, and why?

For me it was/is LeCarre. I tried reading his books - two of them - and to date I've just never been able to finish them. I don't know why, precisely, other than I think it's just something about his writing.

I had this problem with Anne Rice, too, the first time I read Interview With the Vampire, but eventually I came back to those and enjoyed her books. Before she went crazy. Or crazier, at least.
 
Last edited:

Traci-jo

Registered
Joined
Mar 7, 2012
Messages
14
Reaction score
3
Location
Virginia
Victor Hugo. I loved Les Miserables on stage, but I couldn't get through it in book form. It was too slow, not enough action.
 

jallenecs

Searching for Wonderland
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
Messages
9,940
Reaction score
1,292
Location
Appalachia
Who is an author you always wanted to read, only to be disappointed when you finally did, and why?

Charles Dickens. My mother is an absolute junkie for his work, so I came at his work with a strong good impression.

I got over it quickly. The Mary Sue characterizations, the torturous coincidences and deus ex machina, and the sugar-coma-inducing sentimentality destroyed whatever pleasure I could find in the stories themselves. to this day, the only book of his I truly enjoy is Bleak House.
 

slcboston

Pasture-ized
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 1, 2007
Messages
50,312
Reaction score
29,060
Location
Second Star To The Right
Charles Dickens. My mother is an absolute junkie for his work, so I came at his work with a strong good impression.

A Christmas Carol is worth the read. The rest? I'm with you. There's one or two I like, and the rest are just tedious.

Tale of Two Cities should be this great story of romance and heroism and sacrifice set against the backdrop of the French Revolution (exciting in it's own right), and it's like watching paint dry.
 

Blackfire

Ghost amidst the caligraphy.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 10, 2012
Messages
117
Reaction score
7
Location
Port Colborne, Ontario
Who is an author you always wanted to read, only to be disappointed when you finally did, and why?

J.D. Salinger. I'm sure many people enjoyed Catcher in the Rye, and I mean no disrespect, but I couldn't get into the book. I shouldn't generalize the author based on one book, being the only one I've read, but I can say that I've enjoyed every novel I've read in school prior to this one.

Clearly Salinger deserves merit, because his work is featured in schools and praised as a classic, but his novel didn't engage me . . . Needs more dragons.
 

night-flyer

roasting cows
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Aug 12, 2010
Messages
35,204
Reaction score
13,057
Location
Texas
All books need more dragons. ;)

I tried to read A Tale of Two Cities. Really tried, really hard to get through it. :( I gave up before I even got half-way through it. But every two yrs or so I go back and try again. One day I'll get it read. :Shrug:
 

jallenecs

Searching for Wonderland
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 17, 2010
Messages
9,940
Reaction score
1,292
Location
Appalachia
A Christmas Carol is worth the read. The rest? I'm with you. There's one or two I like, and the rest are just tedious.

Tale of Two Cities should be this great story of romance and heroism and sacrifice set against the backdrop of the French Revolution (exciting in it's own right), and it's like watching paint dry.

Christmas Carol is the most egregious offender in the "cloying sentimentality" category. Then again, I'm not a big fan of Christmas, anyway, so I might be biased.

I read Tale of Two Cities in high school. Who needs sleeping pills when there are books like this out there?

My personal target of extreme hatred is Oliver Twist. Dear God, make it stop! Can you say Mary Sue? really really loud?
 

Songoftheskies

Registered
Joined
Mar 10, 2012
Messages
13
Reaction score
2
Location
USA
All right folks, time for a new question:

Who is an author you always wanted to read, only to be disappointed when you finally did, and why?

Alexandre Dumas. I read The Count of Monte Cristo and I had to struggle to remember who the characters were, which characters were allied with which other character, and what the motivation for most people was.

I didn't care about any of the characters when I was finished because I was too confused.

Because of that I never read The Three Musketeers.

(Though now I want to re-read it and see if I understand it now.)
 

Kimra

Registered
Joined
Mar 11, 2012
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Who is an author you always wanted to read, only to be disappointed when you finally did, and why?
Mary Shelly. Frankenstein was so incredibly boring I still haven't finished it. It is one of two books in my life that I haven't managed to finish. At least I got over halfway right? :)
 

DJMaxwell

As Seen In Real Life
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 13, 2012
Messages
58
Reaction score
2
Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Who is an author you always wanted to read, only to be disappointed when you finally did, and why?

John Avjide Lindquist- I saw the "Let the Right One In" movie after hearing massive praises for both it and the book it was based on, but the movie was a bit confusing. I finally got around to reading the book a couple of weeks ago, and while it wasn't at all confusing, it had a lot of other things that I didn't like about it instead. It seemed like Lindquist wanted the theme to be closely tied with "preservation of innocence", and then did his best to destroy the innocence of everyone involved in as violent a way as possible. To me, that seems cruel to the reader rather than praiseworthy.
 

ElouiseBates

Registered
Joined
Mar 24, 2011
Messages
25
Reaction score
1
Who is an author you always wanted to read, only to be disappointed when you finally did, and why?

Tolstoy. I've tried three times now to get through Anna Karenina, and it defeats me every time. I haven't even dared attempt War & Peace, despite my fascination for Russian history.

As for Dickens, some of his books I love (David Copperfield!) and some I loathe (Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, etc). It's always a toss-up.
 

The Drabbler

Generally Epic
Registered
Joined
Mar 17, 2012
Messages
22
Reaction score
1
Location
Colorado Springs
Website
the-drabbler.com
Who is an author you always wanted to read, only to be disappointed when you finally did, and why?

Robert Jordan.
I tried to get into the Wheel of Time, I really did. But I could never get past the part where the hobbits leave the shire. Errrr, I mean Rand, Mat and Thom leave Two Rivers.
 

CorneliaR

Registered
Joined
Mar 16, 2012
Messages
9
Reaction score
0
Location
South Africa
What's the one genre you've always wanted to try to write, but isn't the genre you normally write

Ooh, I would absolutely love to try something historical, but am so intimidated by the accuracy I would demand of myself that I've never tried... I've always just stuck to Paranormal, where no one can argue when I say the sky is green! :D
 

Mik

losing way too much sleep over this
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 17, 2012
Messages
128
Reaction score
9
Location
Southwest
All right folks, time for a new question:

Who is an author you always wanted to read, only to be disappointed when you finally did, and why?

Wallace Stegner. I know his prose is beautiful and all, but I couldn't really connect with his characters when I read Crossing to Safety. However, he's my sister's favorite author. She cries whenever she brings up this book.
 

Mik

losing way too much sleep over this
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 17, 2012
Messages
128
Reaction score
9
Location
Southwest
The very first Question of the Day was:
If you had the choice of only doing one which would it be: to travel into space or to travel deep under the Ocean?
Definitely space. ALWAYS choose outer space.
 

AranDraconis

Registered
Joined
Mar 20, 2012
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
Who is an author you always wanted to read, only to be disappointed when you finally did, and why?

I'd have to agree with a previous post and say Tolkien, everything up to the last book in the Lord of the Rings wasn't horrible but 'The Return of the King' put me to sleep so many times while I was reading that I couldn't finish it, kind of ruined the series for me.
 

SBurton

Registered
Joined
Mar 16, 2012
Messages
7
Reaction score
0
Space for sure. The ocean's amazing but it seems like it would be hard ot be a pioneer there. Sure, there are lots of things we still haven't seen, but far more in space I believe. Great question!
 

slcboston

Pasture-ized
Kind Benefactor
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Dec 1, 2007
Messages
50,312
Reaction score
29,060
Location
Second Star To The Right
New QotW

For you, what marks the first sure sign of Spring?

I ask this as we've gone from sunny and warm here to windy and cold as Mother Nature reminds us all that it is still March, and that this is a winter month here.

Despite the flowers coming up (including ones I had to bring inside last night). Despite the birds singing. Despite my having put the winter coats away.

I did not take the snow tires off yet, though. Not quite so foolish.


So my fist sign of spring is needing to mow the lawn. Until the grass grows, we're still in the grips of winter. Or at least within easy reach.
 

LongWave

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 23, 2012
Messages
107
Reaction score
2
Location
South Florida
All right folks, time for a new question:

Who is an author you always wanted to read, only to be disappointed when you finally did, and why?

For me it was/is LeCarre. I tried reading his books - two of them - and to date I've just never been able to finish them. I don't know why, precisely, other than I think it's just something about his writing.

I had this problem with Anne Rice, too, the first time I read Interview With the Vampire, but eventually I came back to those and enjoyed her books. Before she went crazy. Or crazier, at least.

Anne Rice is probably my favorite author, but I had the same problem when I started. I tried to read the Witching Hour three separate times before I could sink into it and finish, and it now stands as my favorite book of all time.

And by the way, that whole Church thing didn't work out for her, and she's back writing the genre that made her famous. (although she still claims her Christ books were her favorite to write)
 
Last edited: