Ike says
Vidal is always pissed when he writes but I never knew alcohol was involved.
BTW, Ike, thanks for the steer toward K.C. Constantine. Well, your recommendation wasn’t directed to me but it was just sitting there so I poached it.
In return, let me urge Anthony Oliver on you. He’s a Brit who writes (or wrote) some wickedly funny books about the goings on in a small English village.
Great scene. The first section of GR is a bit tedious, but it explodes into greatness around page 200 or so – especially in the final section.
I just don’t finish books if they don’t interest me. The one that annoyed me the most was Memoirs of an Invisible Man, since the character was such a moron. He consistently did the stupidest things possible. I gave up when he spends an hour watching the police surround his apartment, but doesn’t decide to leave until they have cut off every possible way of escape.
Hiya, rack! I’m embarrassed to say that I’ve never read any of those huge historical novels of his, but his literary reputation mainly rests on those, doesn’t it? I suppose you could pick the period in which you’re most interested (BURR…LINCOLN…1876…) and grab that one. I’m a BIG fan of Vidal’s essays, most collections of which are now out of print. There’s a recently-published omnibus called THE ESSENTIAL GORE VIDAL, which contains excerpts from the big books, the entire MYRA BRECKENRIDGE, and scads of essays. I might get a copy when it comes out in paper.
jcg: Which Oliver would you recommend to start? I see they’re all out of print, so one’s as easy to get as another.
RealityChuck: If you want a really good contemporary Invisible Man novel (and who doesn’t?), get a copy of SMOKE by Donald E. Westlake.
“In Contempt” by Christopher Darden. I only got through about 1/4 of the book before I packaged it up and sent it to the publisher with a note telling them how awful I thought the book was. Enough said!
divemaster: I was a huge Stephen King fan until The Tommyknockers. Bored me to death. Tossed it aside about a third of the way into it, and I haven’t read a single new thing from King since. Yes, I hated it that much.
Missy2U: One of my biggest disappointments was Koontz’s Strangers. I had read most of his early stuff, and loved Watchers, so I was jazzed for Strangers. Maybe a quarter of the way into it, I thought, “Oh, I get it. He’s setting us up to think (X) is happening. But that’s just misdirection; he’s really got something cool up his sleeve.” I kept reading, and it kept looking like he was heading toward (X), and I kept getting excited, thinking, “(X) is so lame, he must really have a good surprise for us.” At the three-quarters mark, I was getting really worried: “He can’t REALLY be headed for (X), can he?” And when he finally shared the big “twist,” I almost threw the book in the trash right then and there. I read a couple of other Koontz books after that, but it was just never the same.
TVeblen: Everybody has their preferences; I loved Name of the Rose. I couldn’t get into The Island of the Day Before or whatever it is, though.
Others: I loved Greg Bear’s Queen of Angels, but I had real trouble getting into the followup, Slant, and as of yet haven’t finished it. Too bad, because I generally love Bear; his Darwin’s Radio is phenomenal.
I also loved Card’s Ender’s Game, and I thought Speaker for the Dead was pretty good, but Xenocide was a slog, and I’ve been avoiding Children of the Mind and Ender’s Shadow.
I had Gerrold’s “Chtorr” series (Matter for Men, Day for Damnation, etc.) recommended strongly to me, so I was pretty excited about reading them. I got through the first book and started the second before I admitted I was forcing myself through them, like doing homework. Put 'em down, and never looked back.
Small tangent, to reverse the question: I tried to read Dune a few times, and never got into it. The first 50 or 60 pages are so dense, so laden with backstory, that I found it tough going, and couldn’t get through it. Then I’d pick it up, try again, and give up again. This happened three times. The fourth time, I decided, goddammit, this is a classic, I’m gonna get through this. And lo and behold, after the first 50 or 60 pages, suddenly, it was like a magical breakthrough, and the story took over from all of the setup details. I blasted through the remainder of the book, and devoured the rest of the series. I ran out of steam at the beginning of Chapterhouse, though, but I’m still glad I decided to bull through the opening.
Ike
Try The Pew Group. While Oliver’s books stand alone they are more or less sequential.
Yep. Usually, these aren’t bad books, but they disappoint me because people keep telling me how great they are and they turn out to be so-so.
I finished A Wrinkle in Time today, and it wasn’t that great. I know it was meant for a younger audience (I tried to hide the hot pink cover as well as I could) but usually good children’s books are still good books.
Other books I thought were overrated:
Brave New World - The characters were flat, lifeless and disposable, and I didn’t like Huxley’s style…
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad - I don’t remember why this is on my overrated list, but the book itself wasn’t very memorable either…
Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand - The characters seemed either superhuman or subhuman, and the plots were unrealistic. I love Rand’s style, though, which she develops best in Anthem…
Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat’s Cradle - These disappointed me because I enjoyed Vonnegut’s short stories in Welcome to the Monkey House, but I couldn’t get into these novels…
The Trial by Franz Kafka - Same. Kafka’s my favourite short story writer, but The Trial was tedious… it’s one of the few books I never finished reading.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Some say it has a depth that needs several readings to uncover. I didn’t bother after the first reading…
I’m going to tackle Ulysses as soon as school’s over, and I’m afraid that will disappoint me too…
I liked Dune and The Name of the Rose and Catcher in the Rye, though…
Dropzone – I have read 2 books by hemmingway – hes 1 for 2. “A Farewell to Arms” was actually not too bad. It was atleast an enjoyable read
Then there was “The Sun Also Rises” – that book sucked. It was about one perpetual romp across Europe, not my kind of book
I picked up Toni Morrison’s Paradise as soon as it was in the store, barely managed to finish and then gave it to the local library. Who’s she writing for these days? Obviously not the readers who loved Song of Solomon and Beloved.
I’ve since seen it on bargain tables, and although that’s not an indicator of a “bad” book, doesn’t it mean that it didn’t sell as expected?
Geez, I’m probably the only person who didn’t “get it”.
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Try Timeline by Michael Crichton. Awesome book about time travel with the aid of quantum computers. They go back to midieval France so there’s sword fights and jousting too. Fun book.
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xekul-- I tried to read Ulysses. I was an English major, and after I graduated one of my professors pretty much made me take home a copy of it. Hated it. Didn’t get very far in at all. And I do like Joyce’s short stories, I just don’t get the whole wondrous Ulysses thing. If anyone here does, no sarcasm whatsoever intended, I would love to hear why. I’d go back and try again given the incentive.
Hanabal. I read “silence of the lambs” and could not wait to read the next book.
I read 2/3s of hanabal and it was great, then bastard boy left the room at let some romance writer take over then ending. I burned the book in the back yard.If you know me that should give you a hint on how bad it sucked.
Osip
Let me preface this by saying I can read almost anything. And I will read anything in a tight spot.
Hell, I read ‘In search of the double helix’ and wasn’t interested in the topic, but I was in South America and could not find an english language book for less that $27 US for a paperback.
That said, I used to really love to read Stephen King. Then, while on holiday, I read ‘The Gunslinger’ (I could be wrong about the title I tried to block it from my memory), it was horrible. It went along nicely until the ending. Oh, wait, there was no freaking ending. I pitched it across the bungalow and swore never to buy another of his titles. It was trash and I was disgusted that a popular and prolific author would put out such a piece of crap.
Now that I think of it, ‘Painted Bird’ by Jerzy Kozinsky (sp?) sucked salmon.
Hey, elbows,
As you probably know, The Gunslinger was the first of a series of fantasy novels Stephen King is working on. It was originally published in chapter form in various issues of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. So, if it seemed a little disjointed and without a clear resolution, it is because the story is just beginning.
I agree that the first installment (the one you read) is not much more than a bare-bones framework of a story. It wasn’t one of my favorites, either, given the deep and engaging characters King usually develops.
But. Read the next three Gunslinger books. I promise that you will not be disappointed. The second one is much better (though not great). The third one is where the characters really start coming to life, and the story begins to flesh out. It’s a rocking good adventure to boot.
Then, the 4th installment. Wizard and Glass. I have rarely felt as emotionally moved by a story as when I read this book. I cared so much about the characters. The only comparison would be to the character development evident in The Stand. If you read and enjoyed The Stand, you owe it to yourself to read the rest of this series. By far the best thing he has written since Misery.
I can’t wait for the fifth installment to come out.
Read Connie Willis: Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. I promise, promise, that you won’t be disappointed.
Gore Vidal has been drunk since 1925?
I know this is a slight divergence, but I find Gore Vidal to be a major disappointment as a writer. He supposedly has this great writing style and his followers are fairly fanatic, but his books read like wet toilet paper - clingy and cloying.
Don’t even get me started on Hemingway, though I did love Dave McBrid’es comment last year: “I don’t see why I should celebrate Hemingway’s 100 birthday, as it’s obvious he didn’t want to.”
Joseph
“Mostly Harmless” the final book in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series was a horrible, unfunny letdown. It was very obvious that Doug Adams the author was desperately tired of the series and the only purpose this book served was to kill off all the main characters so as to ensure he would not have to write another sequel.
The most overrated book of all time is “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand. Numerous people recommended this book to me, all of them gushing about how good it was. But all I could see in it was a bunch of one-dimensional cartoon characters spouting elitist,unrealistic bullshit, and a literary style that seemed on par with a harlequin romance book.
“Snow Falling on Cedars”
This book was a bestseller, got rave reviews, and they made a movie out of it. I understand the movie was really good, couldn’t bear to go through it again.
It was set in the Pacific NW, from which I come. Reason enough to read it, and then the reviews were so good-
Now, I read like a fiend. I am a voracious reader, and I read REALLY fast. So I almost never find a book too slow, I read fast enough that it is (almost) never a problem.
I spent the whole book waiting for SOMETHING to happen, and then when something did, it took forever to get through it. I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t in the right mood to enjoy it. OTOH, maybe it was just a bad book.
I vote for the latter.
Scotti
Fat Angel – Yes, but the people who recommend Ayn Rand are typically elitist, unrealistic, one-dimensional cartoon characters spouting bullshit. She knew her audience.
reality Chuck – Then Pynchon needed a better editor for Gravity’s Rainbow. A reader shouldn’t have to slog through a quarter of a book to get to the good stuff.
Everybody – I HATE STEPHEN KING! HE CAN’T WRITE AND TRIES TO MAKE UP FOR A LACK OF QUALITY WITH PRODIGIOUS VOLUME!!! HIS BOOKS ARE LIKE GIANT BAGS OF DOG FOOD–SURE, YOU GET A LOT FOR YOUR MONEY, BUT YOU DON’T REALLY WANT TO EAT IT!
<aside> Was I shouting? </aside>
Dropzone, none of those qualities you described to Fat Angel apply to me, and I WOULD recommend SOME Ayn Rand, if only to understand her philosophy. [btw, i’m thinking of majoring in philosophy here in college and it never hurts to know the enemy.] Yes, her longer novels are self-promoting and obnoxiously evangelical [in the sense of trying to convince] in many places. Yes, many people who take her philosophy to heart usually do so to justify exrememly selfish behavior. But I digress. Apologies.
The most recent book i was disappointed with was Vonnegut’s Timequake. Premise: the universe decides to stop expanding and starts contracting and time reverses and runs backwards. However, the universe changes its mind after 10 backward years have passed and starts expanding again. Everything happens exactly as it did the first time. I guess I expected something more that his typical strange vingettes about people’s lives. After the opening chapter, there was nothing about the universe’s change of mind of anything. got bored and put it down.