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Most Disappointing Authors?

Those of you who disliked Austen, do you enjoy any of the Bronte sisters novels?

Personally I think Austen is a bit...flakey isn't the right word, but anyway. I like the Bronte sisters' style, which is more dark and I think focused on the growth or destruction of her characters rather than mere romanctic plots.

This is just MHO though. What do Austen fans think?
 
Terry Goodkind

He took an incredibly interesting story and wrote it in such a way that it only serves to make me scream. Characters will at times repeat the same dialogue for two pages, and not only do they repeat the dialogue for two pages in one book but they will repeat it throughout the book and in other volumes. I hate that character descriptions are repeated from book to book. I know who Kahlan is. I know what her power is. I know it all - I don't need it repeated so many times. Many of the characters bounce from being strong and confident one minute to weak and insecure the next - needlessly. These changes end up evolving into another round of endlessly repeated dialogue. And many times while characters are engaged in endlessly unneeded dialogue, someone or some event is just sitting on hold waiting for them to shut up.

I love the story concept, I really hate the way it's written. For as popular as this series is I was horribly disappointed by the writing.
 
Literary Heresy

J.D. Salinger. I was trapped on a bus from Kansas City to Dallas with two options: the copy of 'Catcher in the Rye' I brought along, or the copy of 'Speed' someone brought to put in the bus' VHS player.

Clever movie choice, but I'd seen the film and it's not exactly one I'd repeatedly view.

I also had an early adolescent trauma relating to Herman Melville. Determined to read classics, I read 'Moby Dick' in eight grade. That and the first 20 or 30 pages of 'War and Peace' and it took me 20+ years to return to reading 'classics' if I could get out of it.

For that matter, since I have come back to classics, aside from Salinger, I have to say that Hawthorne needed an editor. Badly. At least the front third of 'Scarlett Letter' needs to go.
 
I'm the reverse to several people here. I didn't like the Hobbit particularly... it took me forever to get past the first few chapters and then, I, um... gave up. I didn't care what happened...
(I normally can't admit that in forums because I'd be seriously harmed...)
But I'm the sort of person who reads LOTR several times a year...
 
clueless said:
I think someone will be outraged and try to kill me for this but here it goes: William Faulkner. I read a couple of his books in translation and found them really boring. I blamed the translator and later tried them again in English. I still found them boring. Now I learnt my lesson and, if I don’t like a book, I will not try another one by the same author.
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Just spotted this post (I am new in these parts...) -- I think the key to Faulkner is perseverence and gritted teeth. Start gently, with something like The Wild Palms (if you can find it.) This book is actually two separate narratives, with chapters alternating. The most visceral story is called "Old Man" - language scorched on to paper, in the same fashion that Hendrix played guitar. It is glorious, and accessible.

Of the tougher novels, Absalom, Absalom! is the peak of Faulkner's achievement. It is not immediately comprehensible to the Faulkner-newcomer, but this doesn't mean that working at it will not pay off dividends. I was fortunate enough to read it whilst sharing an apartment with an English professor in New York, who discussed the novel with me endlessly in the evenings, as I was working through it during the day. I kept reading, then on about page 300, the book fell into place - clicked, revelation-like into complete clarity. The novel makes 100% sense (and its design is frighteningly well thought-through; Faulkner will have walked around with it obsessively in his head - the "grand design".) So, the first reading is a process of gradual, uneasy discovery, but the second reading (which must begin immediately), is much more powerful, because the reader can revel in language and story: the original barriers have been broken down.

Faulkner is one of my favourite authors, but I can understand why he is frustrating to some...
 
I didn't like "The DaVinci Code"...after all the hoopla I decided I should probably read it, and I'm glad I borrowed it rather than shelling out money for it. The story line is somewhat interesting, but the writing itself is prosaic and not very good. Also, the whole premise is far-fetched to say the least, and I just was not able to suspend my disbelief enough to get much out of it. Overall I thought the book was silly and way over-rated. I can't believe that it's still on the best seller list! If you want a book that's a religious mystery, "The Name of the Rose" is far, far better.
 
ladyjune98 said:
Great Expectations. I know, it's a classic, and it's Dickens, but my goodness, I've started it about five times and still haven't ever made it even halfway through. The plot's mildly interesting, but it's so slow!
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I agree. I have tried to start many books by Dickens, but I can't seem to get past the first few chapters. I just find them really boring and I don't really like the style of writing.
 
VTChEwbecca said:
Agatha Christie....I find Poirot and Miss Marple so annoying that its hard to enjoy the mysteries. Additionally, while her mysteries are often ingenious, she isn't a very good storyteller. I much prefer the lesser well-known Dorothy L. Sayers.
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Good Lord! You honestly find Agatha Christie hard to read?! Not only is she the greatest detective story writer in the history of the entire universe, she is also, if you care to read her closely, a much better stylist than most people give her credit for. Anybody who tries to tell me that they guessed any of her endings I dismiss. She is brilliant!!! On the other hand, Dorothy L. Sayers (who is not lesser known but one of the best known detective novelists of all time) is so boring that I'd prefer to read the label on toilet paper to one of her books.
 
MonkeyCatcher said:
Good Lord! You honestly find Agatha Christie hard to read?! Not only is she the greatest detective story writer in the history of the entire universe, she is also, if you care to read her closely, a much better stylist than most people give her credit for. Anybody who tries to tell me that they guessed any of her endings I dismiss. She is brilliant!!! On the other hand, Dorothy L. Sayers (who is not lesser known but one of the best known detective novelists of all time) is so boring that I'd prefer to read the label on toilet paper to one of her books.
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I think her mysteries are brilliant...I do not like her writing. To me it feels as if she's simply laying out clues rather than writing a story...its almost like "Here are the facts without much else." Its too orderly, not that I don't think the solutions to her mysteries are great, I'm just not impressed by the writing.
 
Hi!
I'm new here. I just found you yesterday.

I find James Joyce's inside humor, dark allusions, and wierd references distracting and self-indulgent. He may be a "genious," but he's very hard to read.

Sandy
 
Well, I can start my list with James Michner. At first I thought it was my fault I couldnt finish Centennial when I was in the 8th grade. Then I tried Alaska a few years later, and I think I picked up Texas too..then I realized the blame lay with the author..

I also am stuck in the middle of Robert Jordan's series..I have most of the rest of the books in the basement, but I just can't seem to get motivated.

Louis L'Amour is another huge dissapointment..I was so thrilled to learn he was writing a book about the Anasazi, and was dying to see his take on the cause of their dissappearance. Then when I finally read The Haunted Mesa, I was so mad! It was one of those moments where I thought I could have written a better story, and wished I had.
 
abecedarian said:
Louis L'Amour is another huge dissapointment..I was so thrilled to learn he was writing a book about the Anasazi, and was dying to see his take on the cause of their dissappearance. Then when I finally read The Haunted Mesa, I was so mad! It was one of those moments where I thought I could have written a better story, and wished I had.
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abecedarian,
Collapse by Jared Diamond, non-fiction, has a chapter on the disappearance of the Anasazi -- as well as other peoples, e.g. Easter Islanders, Greenland Vikings and so on. But it is a monster tome if your are just interested in the Anasazi. Good one to get from the library.
Peder
 
Peder said:
abecedarian,
Collapse by Jared Diamond, non-fiction, has a chapter on the disappearance of the Anasazi -- as well as other peoples, e.g. Easter Islanders, Greenland Vikings and so on. But it is a monster tome if your are just interested in the Anasazi. Good one to get from the library.
Peder
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Thanks Peder! A couple of years ago I found a mystery series by the Gears, which starts The Visitant, and between that series and the other huge series by them( The People series), they gave as good an explanation as any I've seen, even though they mix some supernatural jumbo into it just to keep their story lively. I believe Kathleen O'Neal Gear is an archaelogist, so she's done some study into the subjects they write about.
Why is Jared Diamond's name so familiar? What else has he written? As if I don't have a list as long as my street already...;)
 
abecedarian said:
Well, I can start my list with James Michner. At first I thought it was my fault I couldnt finish Centennial when I was in the 8th grade. Then I tried Alaska a few years later, and I think I picked up Texas too..then I realized the blame lay with the author..
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:eek: Really?! I've read Hawaii and Journey and enjoyed both very much. Alaska sits on my bookshelf waiting to be read and I'm looking forward to it.

As for a disappointing author I guess I'll say Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby was pretty damn boring.
 
I agree about Fitzgerald! We read The Great Gatsby in high school, and I thought it was so dull and depressing. I've never cared to see the movie either.

I also hate the Hemingway pieces we read in English Composition when I was a senior. Talk about depressing! Seems like everything we read that semester was like that. The most "happy" thing we read was The Sea Wolf by Jack London. We also had to read Babbit by Sinclair Lewis, and a short story called "The Shelf" (I think). That story was absolutely the most morbid piece of junk I've ever read. A boy, his dad, and a dog went fishing out on an ice flow and the boy neglected to anchor their boat correctly, and the boat pulled away, leaving them all stranded, and waiting to die when the tide came in. It didn't help that I was sick a lot that semester, and lost 4 family members in three months..
 
abecedarian said:
Why is Jared Diamond's name so familiar? What else has he written? As if I don't have a list as long as my street already...;)
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abc
You have probably heard his name in connection with ihs previous book, Guns, Germs and Steel, and he also seems to have a third one that I have not seen, The Third Chimpanzee if I remember correctly.
Peder
 
abecedarian said:
Why is Jared Diamond's name so familiar? What else has he written? As if I don't have a list as long as my street already...;)
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abc
You have probably heard his name in connection with his previous book, Guns, Germs and Steel. He also has a third one that I have not seen, The Third Chimpanzee if I remember correctly.
Peder
 
!@#$u%^&*()_))(*&^%$#@

Sorry for the dup.
Sometimes technology gets the better of me. :eek::
Peder
 
sandymae2000 said:
I find James Joyce's inside humor, dark allusions, and wierd references distracting and self-indulgent. He may be a "genious," but he's very hard to read.
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Distracting? Yes. Self-indulgent? Yes. Joyce is guilty of all the charges you mention. That's partly why I find his books so masterful. He can do whatever he wants to you with language. One chapter in Ulysses is written in a deliberately awful style, full of cliches and lazy thought, to signal the sleepiness of the main characters at that point in the day. The point is it's hilariously awful. A lot of the weirdness is a consequence of Joyce having the largest vocabulary possessed by any writer and a highly developed Irish sense of humour...
 
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