Popular authors or books you don't read or like

[Radrook]

Although I have read his stories, I find Isaac Asimov very hard to read due to his use of extensive conversations and frequent digressions into meticulous narrative explanations which make the stories pause for too long. I enjoyed reading Hemingway's, For whom the Bell Tolls.
For Whom the Bell Tolls - Wikipedia

But I could never get past a few pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby.

I enjoy many of Shakespeare's sonnets but can't tolerate his plays for some reason.

 

[Radrook]

I had liked King until I read one that scared me so much, I never picked up another. Wish I could remember which it was... and I still think of Christine when I see car lights in the middle of the night. I also vowed never to read a Clive Barker (and I haven't!) from the moment I heard Stephen King say that Barker is the only writer who could scare HIM. That's saying a lot!

Reminds me of how I wrote a short story that scared me so much that I vowed never to write in the style again. I refrain from reading it as well. LOL!

 

[Rakaia]

Stephen King.

 

[Lavinia]

I’m interested. Name a couple non-fiction books you’ve enjoyed. I’ve started a couple but lost interest because I thought the person writing was a little bias.

Are you interested in historical people or present day people?

I enjoy books which have an historical background. Some time ago, I bought a set of books which were made into a tv drama.....'The White Queen'. I didn't watch the series because of the current pcness, which means the actors don't always fit their parts. I have only just started reading the books.
Stephen Lawhead is one of my favourite authors and I've just re-read his series on the Crusades. He has obviously done a great deal of research in order to get the story as accurate as possible.

 

[Lavinia]

I've just realised that I didn't actually answer the question.
I don't like Catherine Cookson. A lot of her stories have been televised but, for me, they lack authenticity. . Anyone who writes period dramas needs to get their facts right. Too many authors think that life in the past was the same as today, which obviously it wasn't.

 

[Rakaia]

Stephen King.

I went straight to posting without reading the thread, so it's quite apparent Stephen King only appeals to his select and limited audience.
I believe that he's a good bloke and has ridden a motorcycle through some remote parts of Western Australia, that deserves respect.

 

[George1959]

I don't read most of the contemporary novelists. It's as with matured meat. The authors have to be dead before I read their books . There are only very few exceptions.

This is not valid for non fiction books (science, history, etc.).

The former question why men read authors like the Brontë sisters or Jane Austen, in my opinion is only a question of style. If people like it, and there are men and women, they read it. Even male authors as Thomas Hardy had heroines as in "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" or "Far from the Madding Crowd", novels which I like also.

I even read erotic stories from women, but - for heaven's sake - not from Erika Leonard (E. L. James). No "Fifty Shades of Gray". Instead I like the stories of Anaïs Nin in "Delta of Venus".

 

[Pepper]

Shakespeare is one of the Greatest of All Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[George1959]

Shakespeare is one of the Greatest of All Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is possible. But you must read Shakespeare in English, since most translations are purged of his allusions to se.ual content. One of my professors gave me this advice. He is right.

By the way: James Joyce named the three greatest authors in the history of literature: "Daunty, Gouty and Shopkeeper" (Dante, Goethe and Shakespeare; from "Finnegans Wake")

 

[Pepper]

This is possible. But you must read Shakespeare in English, since most translations are purged of his allusions to se.ual content. One of my professors gave me this advice. He is right.

By the way: James Joyce named the three greatest authors in the history of literature: "Daunty, Gouty and Shopkeeper" (Dante, Goethe and Shakespeare; from "Finnegans Wake")

I approve his mighty choices!

And, of course I read Shakespeare in English!

 

[Muskrat]

Stephen king has several great books. I could never get past Christine, Kujo snd the likes. But “the stand” is one of my all time favorite fiction books.

 

[Victor]

Yeah, some novels should have indexes and glossaries!
I agree about Shakespeare--so archaic, except I like Julius Caesar
for some reason. You know his plays were meant to be seen, not read as such.
Re Jane Austen and Bronte: They are praised, partly because they are Victorians,
few women novelists then and English profs teach them.