# Authors you weren't looking forward to reading, but were pleasantly surprised (or totally amazed) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 25, 2013, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916 "2013-03-25T14:10:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/21 "2013-03-25T20:37:56Z")
I was not expecting to like “Heart of Darkness.” It was one of the books I had to read for high school English Lit class, which had showered me with nothing but really, really, painfully boring novels. “Mill on the Floss,” … barf. “Moby Dick” … duck! “The Great Gatsby” … just fricking kill me now! But “Heart of Darkness” was great, a gripping jungle yarn, really, only instead of the suspense being provided by lions and tigers and bears oh my, it was the crushing opprobrium of the savagery the protagonist encounters in Belgium’s nasty excuse for a colonial empire. Loved it! And … nothing else. My English teacher actually tried to tell me that “By the Waters of Babylon” was good SF. I had read a lot of it by then, and well … don’t respect English teachers any more … if I ever did. ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/22 "2013-03-25T21:07:42Z")
Quite a bit more low-brow, but I had a fellow soldier trying to get me to read Glen Cook’s _Black Company_ books. I had no interest in the fantasy genre, so resisted. I finally got bored and picked up the first book. And that was that. I also had a hard time getting started on Patrick O’Brian. Just wasn’t interested in that sort of thing. Or so I thought. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/23 "2013-03-25T21:25:15Z")
Salman Rushdie struck me as an obnoxious jerk, and while I greatly sympathized with him while he was being theatened with death by the Ayatollah Khomeini, I had no interest in reading \*\*\*The Satanic Verses \*\*\*or anything els he’s written. But I just recently finished _ **Midnight’s Children** _, and it was a great piece of work (and a lot FUNNIER than I’d anticipated). ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/24 "2013-03-25T22:03:41Z")
I was once stuck in a rural B&B on a very wet afternoon. For the want of anything better to do, I picked up a copy of Helen Fielding’s _Bridget Jones Diary_ from the bookcase in the room. Not my usual thing, being a chap and all that, but what the hell. I loved it - very warm and funny. I ended up buying a copy when I got home so that I could finish it. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2013, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/25 "2013-03-25T23:45:50Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I was not expecting to like “Heart of Darkness.” It was one of the books I had to read for high school English Lit class, which had showered me with nothing but really, really, painfully boring novels. “Mill on the Floss,” … barf. “Moby Dick” … duck! “The Great Gatsby” … just fricking kill me now! > > But “Heart of Darkness” was great, a gripping jungle yarn, really, only instead of the suspense being provided by lions and tigers and bears oh my, it was the crushing opprobrium of the savagery the protagonist encounters in Belgium’s nasty excuse for a colonial empire. Loved it! And … nothing else. My English teacher actually tried to tell me that “By the Waters of Babylon” was good SF. I had read a lot of it by then, and well … don’t respect English teachers any more … if I ever did. Hey, now, I must put in my two cents right here and say it was the EXACT opposite for me! I - and nearly my entire high school class - found “Heart of Darkness” impossible. Impossible to read or understand (the teacher passed out the book and said, here, read this. And that was it, left it to us dummies to make of it what we would. Huh??) I read an excerpt in an anthology from “By The Waters of Babylon” and was so entranced I sought out the book, all on my own. This was decades ago, but I will never forget how I loathed the former and loved the latter. Tastes in reading certainly vary! ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/26 "2013-03-26T00:32:43Z")
Larry McMurtry’s _Lonesome Dove_. I thought Westerns were just a small step above pulp romances until my flatmate dared me to read this. Boy was I wrong, a great, great book that was made into a great miniseries as well. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/27 "2013-03-26T00:38:40Z")
> [@lisiate](#): > > Larry McMurtry’s _Lonesome Dove_. I thought Westerns were just a small step above pulp romances until my flatmate dared me to read this. Boy was I wrong, a great, great book that was made into a great miniseries as well. Agreed. Unfortunately, with the possible exception of _The Last Picture Show_, McMurtry wrote nothing else worth reading. I learned this the hard way. I found it hard to believe (almost literally) that some of those books were written by the author of Lonesome Dove. . ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/28 "2013-03-26T01:04:05Z")
I have to confess I haven’t read anything else by McMurtry. Another one from the same flatmate - Pat Conroy’s _Prince of Tides_ Me: “It got made into a Barbra Streisand movie, it must be crap.” Her: “Read it and see” [Some days later] Me: “Thanks for the great read got any more?” ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/29 "2013-03-26T01:28:53Z")
I read _The Old Man and The Sea_ and did not enjoy it at all, so I wrote off Hemingway. I know, I know. A great friend who _loves_ Hemingway sent me **The Sun Also Rises** for my birthday last year, I really enjoyed it a lot! ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/30 "2013-03-26T02:29:35Z")
Ninja’d by **Poysyn** and like her (him?) I suffered through _Old Man and the Sea_. In junior high! Worse, I spent my teenage hippiehood thinking ‘boring, monosyllabic, macho, gun-loving asshole.’ :rolleyes: About 10 years ago, while reading everything I could find about the Great War, I picked up _A Farewell to Arms_ and absolutely loved it. I read just about everything else he wrote that summer and now he’s among my favorite authors. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/31 "2013-03-26T04:39:22Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > I was once stuck in a rural B&B on a very wet afternoon. For the want of anything better to do, I picked up a copy of Helen Fielding’s _Bridget Jones Diary_ from the bookcase in the room. Not my usual thing, being a chap and all that, but what the hell. I was pretty much the same with Olivia Goldsmith: I picked up a copy of \*Flavour of the Month \* on holiday in a beach house where there was literally nothing else to read. I was only expecting trashy chick-lit, but found instead something smart, funny and satirical as hell. The lady could write. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/32 "2013-03-26T14:57:46Z")
> [@koeeoaddi](#): > > Ninja’d by **Poysyn** and like her (him?) I suffered through _Old Man and the Sea_. In junior high! Worse, I spent my teenage hippiehood thinking ‘boring, monosyllabic, macho, gun-loving asshole.’ :rolleyes: > > About 10 years ago, while reading everything I could find about the Great War, I picked up _A Farewell to Arms_ and absolutely loved it. I read just about everything else he wrote that summer and now he’s among my favorite authors. Starting _A Farewell to Arms_ 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/33 "2013-03-26T18:32:52Z")
In a moment of douchey-ness I assumed the Harry Potter books would be utter garbage because they were so popular but I found that I really enjoyed them. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/34 "2013-03-26T20:50:33Z")
Yeah, I remember thinking Hemingway was something I should read to expand my horizons, but was pretty sure I wouldn’t like. I was wrong, of course - I’ve read most of his novels now. Same with Willa Cather - out of ignorance, the only thing I had to judge _O! Pioneers_ and _My Antonía_ on were the titles - the titles sound (to me, at least) like stuffy, almost Victorian novels. Really. Spelling “Oh” as “O” and putting an exclamation point after it? Antonía with the little thingie over the i? Sounded dusty and moldy. But I bravely picked up _My Antonía_, and _wow!_ - what I had been missing! I’ve read most of her canon now, too. If you’re as clueless about Willa Cather as I was, do yourself a favor and read something by her - my favorite horseback butch on the prairie. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916/35 "2013-03-26T21:03:03Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > An ex- of mine gifted me with _The Master and Margarita_ on some occasion or another, and it sat on my shelf gathering dust for a couple years, as Russian literature and I never really got along. Czech and Polish and other Eastern European lit I loved, but I just never could get into the Russians I’ve read. And then, one day, on a long train trip, I decided to take it with me and at least try to get through the first chapter. Long story short, I couldn’t stop reading it and now it’s up there with _Lolita_ as my two favorite works of literature. Oh yes, _The Master and Margarita_ for sure. My experience is almost identical. I had a friend who was very fond of Russian literature - he raved at me about this book, finally bought a copy for me - and it sat on the shelf, gathering dust. I just figured it had to be boring despite the raves, and could not bring myself to read it - particularly being practically forced to. 😃 The description I got gave me the impression it was about some religious revival in Russia. Big deal. Not interested. One day I was bored, and picked it up - wow, what a Sam-I-am, Green-eggs-and-ham moment. 😉 I had to admit to my friend he’d been right all along - it’s now one of my favorite books. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/authors-you-werent-looking-forward-to-reading-but-were-pleasantly-surprised-or-totally-amazed/653916.md?page=1)