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- Thread starter Stephen
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StillILearn
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jay said:
Give us a few of your suggestions, Jay?
(King's a great story-teller. That counts. And there are lots of worse writers out there.)
StillILearn said:
You want contemporary writers? (just to name a few that come to mind)
Haruki Murakami
Jose Saramago
Amy Hempel
Ann Beattie
Joy Williams
Anne Carson
A.M. Homes
T.C. Boyle
Clive Clevenger
William Christopher Baer
Etc etc etc
To each their own, I still *harshly* disagree.
Any and all of King’s stories can be told, and told better, in a quarter of the pages.
Many of them have already been told, and told better.
Yes, good ideas *can* ‘count for something’, like for example Chuck Palahniuk, who’s had some really brilliant ideas, he just can’t write. [that said, he simply tries too hard, desperately wanting to be in the “minimalist” group]
As for worse writers, as in the craft, no, not really. Bad writing is bad writing; if it gets too bad, and editor will step in.
StillILearn
New Member
To each their own, I still *harshly* disagree.
Thank you
Thank you
StillILearn said:Thank you
Nothing personal, and clearly I'm in the minority here.
Clint Eastwood is a great "director"; Tom Hanks is a great "actor"; Stephen King is a great "writer"; U2 are great "musicians".
This is the world as we know it. Mediocrity is the norm.
Some of us just get a bit sad when it's celebrated.
StillILearn
New Member
Well, I, for one, am here to learn. Please don't dumb things down for me!
starchild42
New Member
jay said:
Can we add Margaret Atwood to that list?
Well, I'm going to, anyway
Which ties in nicely with my Currently Reading - "Surfacing" by the very same.
Delta_doh!
New Member
My Sister's Keeper - Jodi Picoult
So far very good
So far very good
mehastings
Active Member
I just started The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
StillILearn
New Member
jay said:
Jay, I believe my last reply to you may have appeared to be sarcastic in tone -- believe me, I didn't intend it that way!
The only author among those you mentioned with whom I'm even remotely familiar is the man who wrote "The Tortilla Curtain", and although I haven't read that book yet, I certainly will add it to my TBR list.
I truly am here to learn.
Thank you for those recommendations, and please overlook the flippancy of my previous post?
StillILearn
New Member
starchild42 said:
How is this one, starchild? I would think that Atwood would rank up there with the "excellent" writers on anyone's list! I don't remember reading
"Surfacing", though...
sanyuja
New Member
I completely agree! I finished 'Bag of Bones' and I didnt like it very much. I wasnt too impressed with Sk's writing style and as you said, the story could have been told in lesser number of pages. And to be honest, I never felt that I was reading a horror book.jay said:
To continue with the topic of the thread - I started 'Memoirs of a geisha' - Arthur Golden. Read the first few pages, like it so far.
mehastings
Active Member
Flatland by Edwin A Abbott This is a reread. I read it back in high school as extra credit for a calc class.
Libra6Poe
New Member
I really liked Dreamcatcher. Although it appears to be a long book it goes by really fast (like most Stephen King novels).sanyuja said:I started reading my first Stephen King book 'Bag of Bones.'
I dont know whether I did a good thing by choosing this book as my first SK book. I had a choice of Dreamcatcher and Bag of Bones.
I chose the latter because it was smaller in size
I was disappointed a bit with the book initially, the story became more interesting after 100+ pages. Does the book have to be so long? Well....
StillILearn said:
Not at all. Don’t worry about it.
TC Boyle, in my opinion, *was* a great short story writer.
His newer shorts are…ok, but his older stuff (_Greasy Lake_, _If the River Was Whisky_, Without a Hero_, _Decent of Man_), essentially up to/around the time many of those were collected in _Stories_ (although the ordering is not chronological in there, so I can’t recommend it on that basis, plus it’s BIG).
I’ve never thought of him as a strong novelist, and (not including his newest), the last 3 or 4 I’ve tried I’ve put down unfinished.
Not sure where you live but he’s a pretty active reader on the tour scene, and he’s a good reader and nice chap, so check him out.
Yes, Margaret Atwood should certainly have been on my made _very_ quickly list of good writers currently working, as well as Paul Auster.
One of my countless problems with S King is that people put him in the “well, at least people are reading” category.
I’ve never seen the “good” in this and liken it even less-so to walking into a bar and patting the alcoholic who likes a splash of orange juice in his double-vodkas and saying, “well, at least you’re getting your vitamins.”
One _could_ even pick up a non-fiction book by the beloved S King (_Danse Macabre_) and get a long list of other writers to check out; Gerald Kersh, Harlan Ellison, Donald Roberston, et al), but instead of the legions of King worshipers checking these people out -for most (if not all) of these writers are OUT OF PRINT- they just want to “wait for the next King”.
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