Which famous authors have you only recently read?

kidcharlemagne · Sep 8, 2009

Hi,

Which huge name authors have you only very recently read and were impressed by?

I had never read any Tom Wolfe before. I started reading 'A Man In Full' last week. I wasn't very far in when I thought to myself, 'Oh, hello, this guy is good, very good'.

I thought it would be a bit of a laborious wade through at 752 pages but it doesn't feel like that at all. It's a fantastic read.

Kitty Pryde · Sep 8, 2009

I just this year picked up Rabbit, Run by John Updike. I was super excited, and his writing is good enough to make me cry, on a sentence level. But I thought the book sucked. It was like, here's a totally unlikable and incredibly boring character whose general level of vague douchebaggery is unimpressive and also he does nothing. He was neither hero nor interesting antihero nor villain.

I might try to read one of his presumably more action filled books like Witches of Eastwick sometime.

alleycat · Sep 8, 2009

kidcharlemagne said:
I had never read any Tom Wolfe before. I started reading 'A Man In Full' last week. I wasn't very far in when I thought to myself, 'Oh, hello, this guy is good, very good'.

Come back and tell us what you think of it when you finish.

I read it some years ago. It seems to be one of those books that people either really like, or dislike. I don't remember now, but I vaguely remember thinking there was something "off" about the second half of the book.

Kitty Pryde · Sep 8, 2009

Oh! Thought of another. Just read my first John MacDonald Travis McGee novel. TOTALLY AWESOME. There are a ton of books in the series so I am taking my time to savor them

alleycat · Sep 8, 2009

Kitty Pryde said:
I just this year picked up Rabbit, Run by John Updike. I was super excited, and his writing is good enough to make me cry, on a sentence level. But I thought the book sucked. It was like, here's a totally unlikable and incredibly boring character whose general level of vague douchebaggery is unimpressive and also he does nothing. He was neither hero nor interesting antihero nor villain.

I might try to read one of his presumably more action filled books like Witches of Eastwick sometime.

I generally start off liking Updike's books, but then find them tiresome the more I read. I'm not sure I've ever finished one of them. I even tried listening to The Witches as a book-on-tape and didn't finish it.

kidcharlemagne · Sep 8, 2009

Kitty Pryde said:
I just this year picked up Rabbit, Run by John Updike. I was super excited, and his writing is good enough to make me cry, on a sentence level. But I thought the book sucked. It was like, here's a totally unlikable and incredibly boring character whose general level of vague douchebaggery is unimpressive and also he does nothing. He was neither hero nor interesting antihero nor villain.

I might try to read one of his presumably more action filled books like Witches of Eastwick sometime.

I read this last year. My first Updike experience. I kinda see what you mean but I guess, for me, the quality of the prose took me beyond the character's flaws. I've been meaning to read more of the Rabbit books but I have a bunch of other books at the front of the queue.

kidcharlemagne · Sep 8, 2009

alleycat said:
Come back and tell us what you think of it when you finish.

I read it some years ago. It seems to be one of those books that people either really like, or dislike. I don't remember now, but I vaguely remember thinking there was something "off" about the second half of the book.

Mmmh...interesting. I'm just about to hit the half way mark and I love the way the plot threads are coming together. I'm curious as to how it all ties up. Will let you know!

Kitty Pryde · Sep 8, 2009

kidcharlemagne said:
I read this last year. My first Updike experience. I kinda see what you mean but I guess, for me, the quality of the prose took me beyond the character's flaws. I've been meaning to read more of the Rabbit books but I have a bunch of other books at the front of the queue.

I think it was the plot's flaws more than the character. Rabbit is interesting at the beginning. Then the whole book kinda turns into the author worshiping Rabbit because he left his mundane boring stupid wife and kid to go live a mundane boring stupid single life. He's so damn boring about it, that I can't muster anything more than vague disdain for Rabbit.

But yeah, really good prose.

alleycat · Sep 8, 2009

Off-topic . . .

Updike won the annual award given by the Nashville Library a couple of years ago. As a member of the Library Foundation I got an invitation to go to a relatively small gathering to meet Updike. I'm kind of sorry I didn't go now. He was a very gracious guest while he was here, I have to say that about him.

Nateskate · Sep 8, 2009

John Grisham, "The Testament". I love his movies, and have watched those multiple times. This was the first book of his that I read.

Diana W. · Sep 8, 2009

I've been sampling new writers a lot lately including Lisa Jackson and Jeffrey Deaver. In fact I just bought Deaver's latest book the other day "The Bodies Left Behind." I haven't started it yet but it looks good.

shethinkstoomuch · Sep 8, 2009

I just read Philip K Dick this summer. I'm looking forward to reading more of his work.

alaskamatt17 · Sep 9, 2009

I did not read anything by Orson Scott Card until my sophomore year of college. I really regret not reading Ender's Game sooner.

Bufty · Sep 9, 2009

I picked up my first Lee Child thriller three weeks ago.

I've since bought and read six of them, and if anyone is stuck on how to write openings that pull a reader into a story using clarity and simplicity to describe settings, give interesting characterisations and crisp dialogue they should read some of Lee's books.

maxmordon · Sep 9, 2009

Geoffrey Chaucer, I started to read The Canterbury Tales a month ago.

Raphee · Sep 9, 2009

Just finished Nabokov's "Lolita."
While it's a tough book to read because of the character, then again the MC comes alive in your mind as you read along.
High quality prose, and teaches you how to write a MC that is deplorable.

kidcharlemagne · Sep 9, 2009

maxmordon said:
Geoffrey Chaucer, I started to read The Canterbury Tales a month ago.

How's that going? Is the old English a tough read?

maxmordon · Sep 11, 2009

kidcharlemagne said:
How's that going? Is the old English a tough read?

It's translated to a fairly modern Spanish, so it's like reading Lord of the Rings.

MsGneiss · Sep 11, 2009

Good thread. I picked up some Updike, and did not like it at all. I also got some Chuck Palahniuk, and loved it!

kidcharlemagne · Sep 11, 2009

I also got some Chuck Palahniuk, and loved it!

Which one?

kidcharlemagne · Sep 11, 2009

I think it was the plot's flaws more than the character. Rabbit is interesting at the beginning. Then the whole book kinda turns into the author worshiping Rabbit because he left his mundane boring stupid wife and kid to go live a mundane boring stupid single life. He's so damn boring about it, that I can't muster anything more than vague disdain for Rabbit.

Yes, Rabbit's a cad, no doubt. On Charlie Rose Updike did admit that some of his books were... phallocentric I think the words was.

MsGneiss · Sep 11, 2009

kidcharlemagne said:
Which one?

Choke and Fight Club. The others are on my list.

Xelebes · Sep 11, 2009

maxmordon said:
It's translated to a fairly modern Spanish, so it's like reading Lord of the Rings.

Would be more interesting if it was translated into 13th century Spanish.

maxmordon · Sep 11, 2009

Xelebes said:
Would be more interesting if it was translated into 13th century Spanish.

On the introduction the editor mentions The Libros de los ejemplos del Conde Lucanor y Patronio (Book of the Examples of Count Nicanor and of Patronius) which like The Canterbury Tales is set on framing device and was written around the same time; so I check them out and is not as hard as I thought; unlike English, Spanish didn't had a major vowel change, but at the same time one needs to have a bit of knowledge of French and Italian and thought out some words and expressions, so yes, it's like alright taking account the evolution of both English and Spanish, and yes, a pity it wasn't translated to Old Castilian.

Same thing happened when I read Shakespeare in Spanish, it may sound old with some archaism here and there and a bunch of "Pardee", but the grammer and syntax is quite modern (in Elizabethan times they would have said in Spanish "fazer" instead of "hacer", "cantóle" instead of "le canto" and agglutinations of "de la" or "de lo" to "della" and "della" as seen on Don Quixote) I think in retrospective the oldest English-to-Spanish translation I have seen was in Agatha Christie novels and that was because they were reprinting 1930's translations.

Now I wonder how does the English translation of Dox Quixote looks like.

ideagirl · Sep 11, 2009

Dickens. I just read his American Notes, the account of his 1840-something trip to the USA. It was HILARIOUS.

Which famous authors have you only recently read?

kidcharlemagne

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

alleycat

Still around

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

alleycat

Still around

kidcharlemagne

kidcharlemagne

Kitty Pryde

i luv you giant bear statue

alleycat

Still around

Nateskate

Diana W.

I'm evolving

shethinkstoomuch

alaskamatt17

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

maxmordon

Penúltimo

Raphee

In debt to AW

kidcharlemagne

maxmordon

Penúltimo

MsGneiss

kidcharlemagne

kidcharlemagne

MsGneiss

Xelebes

Delerium ex Ennui

maxmordon

Penúltimo

ideagirl