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Authors You Once Loved But Now Have No Time For

Started by Small Man Big Horse, October 04, 2017, 11:13:21 PM

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Small Man Big Horse

It's Douglas Coupland for me, I used to be a huge fan, mainly for All Familes Are Psychotic which made me realise it's okay to hate your own family, especially if they're seriously mentally ill. I was also really fond of J-Pod (and the excellent Canadian tv series that sadly only lasted one season) along with Miss Wyoming. But then I was enormously disappointed by The Gum Thief, thought Generation A was largely pointless, and after reading the description to Worst Person Ever I decided I could no longer be arsed with the man. Which is a shame really, and maybe one day he will write something that will intrigue me again, but I'd be surprised, I can tell you.

spamwangler

those Spot The Dog books dont seem to have the same visceral transgressive quality that they did in my mid twenties

BJBMK2

Stephen King, it must be said. His epic paperweights are the best thing ever when your 14 and getting into "proper" books. But the last time I gave him a proper go was Under The Dome, and I...just couldn't do it. I couldn't muster the energy, it wasn't doing anything for me.

mothman

Another vote for King. I couldn't even finish the Dark Tower series, and it was that - and the links to it in his other books - that first got me hooked on him in the first place.

Rev

Quote from: BJBMK2 on October 04, 2017, 11:24:44 PM
Stephen King, it must be said. His epic paperweights are the best thing ever when your 14 and getting into "proper" books. But the last time I gave him a proper go was Under The Dome, and I...just couldn't do it. I couldn't muster the energy, it wasn't doing anything for me.

Pretty much at the top of the list for anyone who has ever read him, I'd imagine.  I'm a big defender of him on a technical level, but you have a very brief phase of dipping into his stuff - anyone who remains a 'constant reader' after about half a dozen novels is weirder than any character he's ever created.

Prez

Quote from: Rev on October 04, 2017, 11:35:03 PM
Pretty much at the top of the list for anyone who has ever read him, I'd imagine.  I'm a big defender of him on a technical level, but you have a very brief phase of dipping into his stuff - anyone who remains a 'constant reader' after about half a dozen novels is weirder than any character he's ever created.

My Dad's read nearly all of King's books. As far as I'm aware, he doesn't live in a storm drain preying on children.

Sebastian Cobb

Whilst it basically created cyberpunk and explored good ideas, re-reading Neuromancer just makes me think it's atrociously written.

manticore

Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I was intoxicated with One Hundred Years of Solitude when I first read it, but after trying to read Allende's The House of the Spirits it dawned on me that magical realism is a trick with smoke and mirrors that can only impress once and then loses its aura. It was something of a blow realising this, as I had thought I had discovered a whole new world.

And I hated Love in a Time of Cholera.

Rev

Quote from: Prez on October 04, 2017, 11:39:53 PM
My Dad's read nearly all of King's books. As far as I'm aware, he doesn't live in a storm drain preying on children.


Squink

The beats. Fantastic when you're young. Not so much when you're not 20 years old anymore.

Shay Chaise

Quote from: manticore on October 04, 2017, 11:57:36 PM
Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I was intoxicated with One Hundred Years of Solitude when I first read it, but after trying to read Allende's The House of the Spirits it dawned on me that magical realism is a trick with smoke and mirrors that can only impress once and then loses its aura. It was something of a blow realising this, as I had thought I had discovered a whole new world.

And I hated Love in a Time of Cholera.

The magical realist reading of GGM is quite superficial, and describing it as a trick is - in my opinion - an insult. Allende is also a very pale imitation, pleb tier, which is part of the problem there, if you're equating the two.

I recommend No one Writes To The Colonel and Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

What did you 'hate' about LITOC?

DukeDeMondo

The obvious one for me is Will Self. I read and enjoyed everything up to and including The Book Of Dave, but one afternoon a few years ago I woke up to the realisation that I couldn't fucking stand the man any more, and that was that. His stuff used to delight me, and now it makes me sick to my stomach. I'm not 100% sure what happened, but whatever happened, I can't imagine giving anything he puts out of him the time of day any more.

Nick Hornby, I suppose, also. I loved Fever Pitch and High Fidelity and About A Boy as much as the next man, but I only made it halfway through How To Be Good and I ditched A Long Way Down about 20 pages in. Not for me. I haven't bothered with anything he's published since.

Wet Blanket

I gorged on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels as a teen, but couldn't get even a couple of pages into one now, and am even faintly embarrassed to have read them in the first place.

Read a load of Chuck Palahniuk's novels until it became apparent he was just going to write the same book over.
And over.
Again.

gloria

Quote from: DukeDeMondo on October 05, 2017, 02:24:59 PM
The obvious one for me is Will Self. I read and enjoyed everything up to and including The Book Of Dave, but one afternoon a few years ago I woke up to the realisation that I couldn't fucking stand the man any more, and that was that. His stuff used to delight me, and now it makes me sick to my stomach. I'm not 100% sure what happened, but whatever happened, I can't imagine giving anything he puts out of him the time of day any more.

His short stories still entertain but I've never enjoyed the novels, with the exception of My Idea of Fun. Self is about language and ideas, not creating plots or lovable characters that make you want to turn the pages, and I can't muster the commitment.

popcorn

Quote from: Wet Blanket on October 05, 2017, 03:04:14 PM
I gorged on Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels as a teen, but couldn't get even a couple of pages into one now, and am even faintly embarrassed to have read them in the first place.

I loved Pratchett. Read and reread all of them. Then around the time of Monstrous Regiment, when I was, I dunno, about 18, it was like I blinked and suddenly found it all trite and predictable.

I retain an enormous affection for the man, his ideas and what he achieved, but I can't enjoy Discworld at all. It's all so... naff.

Quote
Read a load of Chuck Palahniuk's novels until it became apparent he was just going to write the same book over.
And over.
Again.

Yep, I read four of five as a teen and came to the same conclusion. I remember being particularly bothered by the fact that they all seemed to involve a third-act roadtrip.

Phil_A

Quote from: popcorn on October 05, 2017, 04:47:10 PM
I loved Pratchett. Read and reread all of them. Then around the time of Monstrous Regiment, when I was, I dunno, about 18, it was like I blinked and suddenly found it all trite and predictable.

I retain an enormous affection for the man, his ideas and what he achieved, but I can't enjoy Discworld at all. It's all so... naff.

Yep, I read four of five as a teen and came to the same conclusion.

There's definitely the kind of thing that has a cut-off point for most people. I started to lose interest in the books when I realised Carpe Jugulum had just recycled the plot from the earlier Lords and Ladies but swapped elves for vampires. Then I read The Fifth Elephant after that and didn't enjoy it at all, so that was pretty much it for me and Discworld. I occasionally think about going back and revisiting the ones I have fond memories of, but there's far too much else to read to be honest.

Sebastian Cobb

I've only read Choke by Palahniuk, well that and the guts short story that was all over the web. Never really felt the urge to read anything else.

I think I preferred the film, possibly because I really like both Sam Rockwell and Kelly MacDonald.

the ouch cube

I was actually just going to write "Chuck Palahniuk thread"...

Or, "let's slag off our 18-year-old selves thread".


manticore

Quote from: Shay Chaise on October 05, 2017, 06:08:25 AM
What did you 'hate' about LITOC?

It's so fucking lush and rich and full of itself and isn't life wonderful.

Panbaams

Quote from: BJBMK2 on October 04, 2017, 11:24:44 PM
Stephen King, it must be said. His epic paperweights are the best thing ever when your 14 and getting into "proper" books. But the last time I gave him a proper go was Under The Dome, and I...just couldn't do it. I couldn't muster the energy, it wasn't doing anything for me.

I had something similar – I read anything of his I could get my hands on for a couple of years or so when I was a teenager, as did a few people in my year at school. But when I tried Gerald's Game I thought "Nah, not for me" after the first few pages, and then gave it up and didn't read anything of his for about 20 years. I read 11.22.63 a few years back, and since then I've read Joyland, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and Mr Mercedes, I've re-read Misery, and I'm currently near the end of Finders Keepers. He definitely benefits from being read once in a while rather bingeing!

KennyMonster

I read every single Colin Bateman book after seeing Divorcing Jack in the cinema and then at some point I just stopped, I can't really remember why, can't remember finding any of his books bad at the time, I just think I wanted to read tons of other books and his seemed to be a bit too 'pulpy'? all of a sudden.

Serge

Quote from: Squink on October 05, 2017, 03:39:50 AM
The beats. Fantastic when you're young. Not so much when you're not 20 years old anymore.

I read 'On The Road' when I was in my teens and loved it. Tried it again when I was 35 and could barely get through ten pages. I had tried some of his other books in between, but never managed to get into any of them. The only Beat writer I like - depending on whether you include Richard Brautigan as 'beat' - is Burroughs. I think they're one of those groups of people who are more interesting to read about than to actually read.

Quote from: DukeDeMondo on October 05, 2017, 02:24:59 PMNick Hornby, I suppose, also. I loved Fever Pitch and High Fidelity and About A Boy as much as the next man, but I only made it halfway through How To Be Good and I ditched A Long Way Down about 20 pages in. Not for me. I haven't bothered with anything he's published since.

Yeah, this was about my cut-off point, though I did make it to the end of 'How To Be Good'. Don't remember a damn thing about it, though. I did read his two collections of book reviews, which aren't bad, but not essential.

I could never hate Will Self, though am several books behind with him, and may never catch up at this rate....

Quote from: KennyMonster on October 05, 2017, 06:33:07 PM
I read every single Colin Bateman book after seeing Divorcing Jack in the cinema and then at some point I just stopped, I can't really remember why, can't remember finding any of his books bad at the time, I just think I wanted to read tons of other books and his seemed to be a bit too 'pulpy'? all of a sudden.

I read about four, but he did get most of his best jokes out of the way in the first two. Though 'Empire State' has a fantastic ending, it's just that I remember it was padded out to hell. He's written dozens of books by this point, hasn't he? I remember seeing a row of his books in the Manchester Waterstones and not recognising a single title.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Panbaams on October 05, 2017, 05:26:51 PM
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

I fucking hate that book so much. About eight years ago or so I was in hospital with a nasty chest infection and my Sister bought me a copy, and as there was no tv or other form of entertainment I stuck with it despite despising every second of it, I thought the ending might redeem it, but no, if anything that was the worst bloody part!

Icehaven

I clicked on this to post Douglas Coupland. He just didn't grow up, did he?

mothman

Quote from: popcorn on October 05, 2017, 04:47:10 PM
I loved Pratchett. Read and reread all of them. Then around the time of Monstrous Regiment, when I was, I dunno, about 18, it was like I blinked and suddenly found it all trite and predictable.

Since I wasn't enjoying then that much myself anymore, I tried looking back through the series to identify when, I guess, the Golden Age Of Pratchett was, and when it ended. I went back through the books, in reverse order, and kept going, and kept going... I came to the conclusion that if there even was a truly great period, it was very brief (it probably ended with Guards! Guards! ... in 1989!) - and that perhaps he hadn't changed, but I had.

Rev

Guards Guards was the last one I read, I think, as it seemed like something had shifted.  The weight of the possible money underneath it all having become apparent, possibly, but perhaps it's just an idea that was never as fertile as he thought.  Up until Mort they're cracking, everything after that is an easy Christmas present.

Shay Chaise

Quote from: manticore on October 05, 2017, 05:15:48 PM
It's so fucking lush and rich and full of itself and isn't life wonderful.

Hahaha. The quintessential contemporary CaB comment, unfortunately.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: icehaven on October 05, 2017, 10:52:05 PM
I clicked on this to post Douglas Coupland. He just didn't grow up, did he?

Does feel that way. And the characters no longer feel real, and the dialogue is all a bit forced, which is a shame as he did have a big effect on my life at one point.


buttgammon

I agree with the people who have said Will Self. I really liked his stuff in my teens and am still of the opinion that he is a very good short story writer (not that I've read anything of his for years), but his novels are futile exercises in trying to seem clever.

gilbertharding

Yes - Will Self. He lost me at The Butt.

I might re-read the old favourites though, one day. So many books, though.

I was going to say Martin Amis, but I never really loved him in the first place.