# Well known authors you can't get into (for whatever reason) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 24, 2007, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336 "2007-05-24T11:50:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/1 "2007-05-24T11:50:17Z")
I’ve tried a few Phillip K Dick books over the past year or so. I can never get into them. I get as far as about a tenth of the way into the book before I give up and pick up something else. As far as I can tell the reason is that I can’t understand what’s going on. It’s like I’ve been thrown into a world without any background-setting (any preperation for my mind) Every other author I’ve read (Asimov, Heinlein, Pratchett, Mitchell, Gaiman, Rowling, Pullman to name the main ones) I’ve had no trouble constructing the world they describe in my head. But with Phillip, I just can’t fathom what the hell is going on. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/2 "2007-05-24T12:10:05Z")
Moved from IMHO to CS. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/3 "2007-05-24T12:10:45Z")
[QUOTE=Frank] Moved from IMHO to CS. [/QUOTE] Thanks. I wasn’t sure where it belonged. ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/4 "2007-05-24T12:15:14Z")
Philip K Dick I love. I plough through his books. I can’t get into William Gibson, though. I should like _Neuromancer_, but I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/5 "2007-05-24T12:21:16Z")
For the life of me, I couldn’t get into Jane Austen. I had to read her for a college course, and it was pure torture. I’m not sure why. I also hate Henry James, but in his case I know why. The cman never met a subordinate clause he didn’t love. his sentences run on forever, and things move with glacial slowness in his books. I had to read him in high school as well as college. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/6 "2007-05-24T12:21:57Z")
I have a VDSC in my family - Voracious Danielle Steele Consumer - and I once picked up one of her more recent works, and I couldn’t get through the first chapter. {{{Shudder}}} ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/7 "2007-05-24T12:38:41Z")
Shelby Foote. His Civil War series had rave reviews, but I found it almost unreadable. I’ll try again sometime but it reading it was more work than pleasure. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/8 "2007-05-24T12:39:29Z")
I’ll commit Straight Dope heresy and say I cannot get into Terry Pratchett at all. I’ve read (with great effort) two of his works and I keep thinking that Douglas Adams did this already, and much better, so why am I bothering? ---
**Author:** ![Heloise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e36b37/32.png) [@Heloise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heloise)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/9 "2007-05-24T12:55:27Z")
For a long time, mine was Spider Robinson. I couldn’t stand the fact that he always seemed to make you like a character, then kill him/her off in what seemed an arbitrary fashion. Sometimes as an almost side note. Not always, but often enough to annoy me. That and the fact that he seemed to have this fantasy of very young girls being knowledgeable/mature enough to have sex. Come to that, I had a similar problem with Piers Anthony over the sex thing, too. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/10 "2007-05-24T12:56:25Z")
[QUOTE=BwanaBob] I’ll commit Straight Dope heresy and say I cannot get into Terry Pratchett at all. I’ve read (with great effort) two of his works and I keep thinking that Douglas Adams did this already, and much better, so why am I bothering? [/QUOTE] Just out of interest, which two books have you read? Because IOM Pratchett can vary greatly in the quality/readability of his books. As an author he just keeps getting better ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/11 "2007-05-24T13:17:31Z")
Stephen King. I’ve read several of his books, including the first few Dark Tower books when they were initially released, but none of them made me want to read any more of them, though I kept trying. I enjoyed his shorter (Richard Bachman) stories better than his novels, but even then that wasn’t enough to make me like him. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/12 "2007-05-24T13:22:35Z")
There this Tolkein guy who can be a bit verbose… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/13 "2007-05-24T13:33:23Z")
[QUOTE=kidchameleon] There this Tolkein [sic] guy who can be a bit verbose… [/QUOTE] Blasphemy! BLASPHEMY! Smite the unbeliever! 😉 My collegiate brushes with the works of Dickens, Melville, Steinbeck and Faulkner left me cold. YMMV, of course, but I found them all turgid and impenetrable. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/14 "2007-05-24T13:52:52Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] I also hate Henry James, but in his case I know why. The cman never met a subordinate clause he didn’t love. his sentences run on forever, and things move with glacial slowness in his books. I had to read him in high school as well as college. [/QUOTE] I agree with James, though his earlier work (e.g., **Daisy Miller** ) is much better. At a certain point he started dictating his work, so he tended to ramble, his mouth running on with clause and metaphor, and never quite getting to the point, but dancing around it as though actually saying what he meant would have caused his instantaneous death. Also, he had an aversion to anything actually _happening_ in his books. I can’t get into Piers Anthony because he is such a jerk IRL. Also, his Apprentice Adept books are sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo boring – almost as bad as the sequels to **Dune** , where Herbert couldn’t have a scene without people spending pages lecturing to each other. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/15 "2007-05-24T13:59:30Z")
Tolkein, Dick, Gibson, Adams, Rowling…all are a blur to me. I’ve read substantial portions of their output, and I can’t remember a thing about any of them. Whereas I can quote Heinlein, Pratchett and numerous others by the page-full. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/16 "2007-05-24T16:04:12Z")
Hemingway. I kept wanting to shake him, to get on with the story already. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/17 "2007-05-24T18:13:11Z")
[QUOTE=BwanaBob] I’ll commit Straight Dope heresy and say I cannot get into Terry Pratchett at all. I’ve read (with great effort) two of his works and I keep thinking that Douglas Adams did this already, and much better, so why am I bothering? [/QUOTE] _high-pitched girly shriek, keels over_ (Seriously, I second what **Lobsang** said; the earlier books up until roughly _Guards! Guards!_–if you exclude Mort–are not Pratchett’s best work. The series really hits its stride with the City Watch, and _Reaper Man_ further on.) My own nomination: I keep trying and trying and trying, but I can’t get into Tolstoy or Kafka–I slogged valiantly through _The Trial_ and _The Metamorphosis_, and _War and Peace_ earlier on, but my eyes kept glazing over each time. ---
**Author:** ![cormac262](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/18 "2007-05-24T18:18:34Z")
[QUOTE=Lobsang] I’ve tried a few Phillip K Dick books over the past year or so. I can never get into them. I get as far as about a tenth of the way into the book before I give up and pick up something else. As far as I can tell the reason is that I can’t understand what’s going on. It’s like I’ve been thrown into a world without any background-setting (any preperation for my mind) Every other author I’ve read (Asimov, Heinlein, Pratchett, Mitchell, Gaiman, Rowling, Pullman to name the main ones) I’ve had no trouble constructing the world they describe in my head. But with Phillip, I just can’t fathom what the hell is going on. [/QUOTE] A couple years ago (okay, maybe more than a couple), they put out a 5 volume series of “Collected Stories of Phillip K. Dick”. And I loved them. You might try these as opposed to the full-on novels. Most of the stories were like reading a good “Outer Limits” or “Twilight Zone” episode - a lot of fun. They’re a bit dated, so you kind of have to put yourself as a reader in the 50’s. But I thoroughly enjoyed these. As to the OP: another vote for Tolkien. Easily the most recommended author to me, but I just…get…bored. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/19 "2007-05-24T18:19:37Z")
Sue Grafton. I find her books totally unreadable. ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2007, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336/20 "2007-05-24T18:26:51Z")
[QUOTE=cormac262] A couple years ago (okay, maybe more than a couple), they put out a 5 volume series of “Collected Stories of Phillip K. Dick”. And I loved them. You might try these as opposed to the full-on novels. [/QUOTE] They have re-released these books recently without the numbering and added at least two more books. I love this series and am determined to read them all. I can’t get into Stephen King horror. I liked the Gunslinger series (what I read of it) and The Eyes of the Dragon, but otherwise, blech. I much more enjoy to watch TV and movie adaptations of his work. And…Mark Twain. I HATED that stupid Huckleberry Finn book. I hated Tom Sawyer. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/well-known-authors-you-cant-get-into-for-whatever-reason/405336.md?page=2)