# Authors You Really Want to Like, but Don't **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2003, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831 "2003-01-10T22:17:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fiat\_Lux](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ea666f/32.png) [@Fiat\_Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiat_Lux)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/1 "2003-01-10T22:17:19Z")
You hear all sorts of good things about an author. S/he keeps coming up when discussions of the books you like are held. All your friends rave about the author. Then you finally get around to reading one of their books and it’s… well, eh. What was all the fuss about? For me, it’s G.K Chesterton. A lot of the authors I really like, such as Gaiman and Borges and Wolfe, say they’re very influenced by this guy and I was looking to reading some of his books. After chewing my way through _The Man Who Was Thursday_ and a couple of Father Brown collections, I have to just… err… emote: 😕 . Chesterton is a smug, preachy little conservative and his characters are likewise. How can such great authors gain inspiration from this? Still, that’s just me. What authors do you hate to hate, because you wanted to like them? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/2 "2003-01-10T22:35:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fiat Lux \* > \*\* Chesterton is a smug, preachy little conservative and his characters are likewise. How can such great authors gain inspiration from this? > > \*\* Conservative? Now, THERE’S an adjective I bet the unabashed socialist Chesterton never expected to be tarred with! ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/3 "2003-01-10T23:30:03Z")
Thomas Pynchon. It’s not that I think he’s a BAD writer. It’s just that I don’t LIKE his stuff. I can admire his work aesthetically and appreciate his intellect . . . but somehow that’s the problem. Everything he writes screams out, “This book was written by Thomas Pynchon! He is very smart, that Thomas Pynchon guy who wrote this book!” In other words, the presence of the author is inescapable. This can work in short story form (ah, R. A. Lafferty!), but gets tedious when stretched to novel-length. ---
**Author:** ![GoldenGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8edcca/32.png) [@GoldenGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GoldenGael)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2003, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/4 "2003-01-10T23:50:31Z")
For me, it’s **Henry James**. I think I am just not in sync with the majority opinion that he is one of the masters of English prose, and of the very novel form itself. He probably is, but I don’t think I can read another word of his. He is probably too subtle for me, and I can’t understand what he is getting at most of the time. I have read _Turn of the Screw_ four times, and I still don’t get what is going on – I still don’t understand what happens the the end of the story. I have _The Portrait of a Lady_, and I still don’t understand what went on between the Lady and her husband that was so monstrous. I have read _The Ambassadors_, but I still don’t get what exactly happened, and I’ll be damned if I understand why the main character of the novel left that juicy American woman in Paris to go home when he really had nothing to go home to. I just can’t get started on _The Golden Bowl_. It’s funny. Several excellent films have been made from James’s novels, but even after viewing them, I still can’t follow the novels. Several of his short pieces are gems, though. I have given up. ---
**Author:** ![fizgig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f04885/32.png) [@fizgig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fizgig)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/5 "2003-01-11T00:01:44Z")
Faulkner, Hemingway, and Henry James. I’m so ashamed. Wait. No I’m not. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/6 "2003-01-11T00:41:40Z")
Clive Barker. I tried to read his stuff only to slam the book shut after three chapters. ---
**Author:** ![raygirvan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac91a4/32.png) [@raygirvan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raygirvan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/7 "2003-01-11T02:05:10Z")
Colin Dexter. I hoped the books would contain some element of the superb atmosphere and characterisation of the _Inspector Morse_ television adaptations … but they don’t. All power to whoever saw the TV potential in some of most dull and pompous detective fiction I’ve ever read. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/8 "2003-01-11T02:53:01Z")
Totally ditto the Henry James; to me he’s one of the most obnoxiously pretentious and wordy authors to come along between Flaubert and Anne Rice. James Michener- his works inspired some great movies and mini-series (Hawaii, Centennial, South Pacific), but he’s the rare case of the film being much better than the book. I’m convinced he couldn’t give directions to the nearest 7-11 without starting with a volcano explosion, his characters are never developed and seem to exist only to connect their underveloped ancestors to the underdeveloped descendants, and just when you start to find something remotely interesting he skips ahead 200 years. Gore Vidal- I think he’s one of the greatest essayists of the 20th century (though not the 21st- his recent stuff is so much bitter old man “America is evil and the rest of the world is superior” crap from a faded provocateur), but his fiction, which won critical raves and public acceptance, is some of the most lifeless I’ve ever read. I’m convinced the man knows nothing about human emotion and that his hatred for Truman Capote is roughly akin to Salieri’s for Mozart in the play Amadeus. Less classically and more currently, Lemony Snicket came heavily recommended. I read the first two books and couldn’t stand either one of them. Hermann Melville- I think I might have come to like Moby Dick if it hadn’t been ruined for me by a lit professor who sees symbolism and depth in everything from the ISBN to the numerology of the page numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Gadarene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/9 "2003-01-11T03:11:13Z")
David Sedaris. I know, I know–he’s made every one of my literate, funny friends scream with laughter. And he seems just the sort of author I’d like; sarcastic, satirical, intelligent. But…meh. Too affected. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/10 "2003-01-11T04:42:55Z")
I very much want to like Kurt Vonnegut. Everybody I know does. He spoke at my college graduation. And I can _appreciate_ his books. I get it, you know. But I just don’t like them. There’s a quality in there that sits so wrong with me, some part of tone or reasoning that irritates me but that I can’t put my finger on. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/11 "2003-01-11T04:58:33Z")
[mini-rant]Of course, what drives me nuts is when I say “I don’t like X’s books”, and the person I’m telling this begins trying to explicate them. I DIDN’T SAY I DON’T FREAKING “GET” HIS BOOKS, I SAID I DON’T LIKE THEM![/mini-rant] ---
**Author:** ![Triss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Triss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triss)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/12 "2003-01-11T05:36:58Z")
Dean Koontz Thomas Pynchon (if he’s the one that wrote House of the Seven Gables) Clive Barker (except for one story: The Yattering, from his Books of Blood) Anne Rice (except for the first three installments of the Vampire Chronicles) ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/13 "2003-01-11T05:54:51Z")
Neil Gaiman’s prose. I loved _The Sandman_, and _Good Omens_ is one of my top 5 favorite books. And I briefly corresponded with him over e-mail several years ago, and he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. And I like his ideas, and the amount of research he puts into his work. But _Neverwhere_ did nothing for me. I bought one of his books of short stories, and it couldn’t even keep my attention span long enough to finish that. And I started _American Gods_; it wasn’t that I lost interest as much as I felt it was actually physically repelling me. At this point I feel like I’m just buying the guy’s books to help support him and as a sign of support for that kind of book to get published. I’m not getting anything out of the transaction. ---
**Author:** ![BrightEyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/2acd7d/32.png) [@BrightEyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightEyes)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/14 "2003-01-11T06:04:57Z")
Douglas Adams. I enjoy his books in the inetresting kind of story way. Just it’s his jokes I think that stink. ::Ducks: ---
**Author:** ![Nightime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e9c0ed/32.png) [@Nightime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nightime)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/15 "2003-01-11T06:21:34Z")
Chesterton is one of my favorite authors. Especially for “The Man Who Was Thursday.” I also liked “Good Omens”, which is dedicated to Chesterton, but it was boring at times and I wouldn’t want to read it again. I just read “The Cat Who Walks Through Walls” by Heinlein, and didn’t like it at all, despite wanting to like it. ---
**Author:** ![MissTake](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misstake/32/3189_2.png) [@MissTake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MissTake)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/16 "2003-01-11T06:30:36Z")
John Grisham. Never could stand his books. **yawn** James Michener, also. ---
**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/17 "2003-01-11T06:32:11Z")
Henry James for me too…I can’t make it past page five of _Wings of the Dove_ without wanting to use my bookmark to gouge out my own eyes. I hate Nathaniel Hawthorne. I just can’t seem to idolize Tolkien as much as everyone else seems to. I like his plots, I like the characters, the conflict…but there’s something missing for me, and I can’t honestly say I like him. I don’t really like Hemmingway, either. Ick. ---
**Author:** ![Orange\_Skinner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3be4f8/32.png) [@Orange\_Skinner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Orange_Skinner)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/18 "2003-01-11T06:36:30Z")
Oh…and Victor Hugo. _shudder_ I tried, though. Really, I did. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/19 "2003-01-11T06:41:47Z")
I never cared much for Joseph Conrad. I tried Anne Rice, I really really tried, but it didn’t work out. ---
**Author:** ![HeatMiser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ecd19e/32.png) [@HeatMiser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeatMiser)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831/20 "2003-01-11T06:43:21Z")
William Burroughs for me. It’s stylistically interesting, sure, but I can’t find the genius in his paranoid, dope-addled prattlings about mirrors and tape recorders. Maybe I need to read more, I haven’t given him much of a shot. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-really-want-to-like-but-dont/147831.md?page=2)