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Original poster

Which authors' success is a complete mystery to you?

503 replies

emkana · 13/01/2008 19:15

Tony Parsons

Jodi Picoult

OP posts:
MaryAnnSingleton · 14/01/2008 11:56

please God, don't let someone choose Dan Brown for book group - I'd have to object

Kewcumber · 14/01/2008 11:53

I read London fields and must confess I just thought - "how very ordinary, what was all teh fuss about". At that point really had no views on him personally. He just underwhlems me (perhaps hot needles was a little strong)

redadmiral · 14/01/2008 11:49

at the 'hot needles'.

You have to be more specific... What don't you like - his writing style or his personality as it comes across in print and in the media? (Or his looks? )

quickdrawmcgraw · 14/01/2008 11:48

Just stumbled across this...

Dan Brown
Daisy Meadows
Jk Rowling

re. Dan Brown..I did a cartoon a while back that someone else did the caption for that I thought was funny (see my profile)

MaryAnnSingleton · 14/01/2008 11:40

arf ! I will confess ! but I will have to say something sensible

Kewcumber · 14/01/2008 11:39

pmsl at the idea of using Mumsnet to cheat at your book club!

MaryAnnSingleton · 14/01/2008 11:37

Unquiet - a male friend recently read WH (in his mid thirties) - he said it was intense and vivid and surprisingly twisted but couldn't see what all the fuss was about really.
Can you elaborate on the structural bits so that I could lob that in at book group to make up for not finishing the damn thing ?

UnquietDad · 14/01/2008 11:29

I'm having Hobbit (the computer game) nostalgia on Facebook right now!

paulaplumpbottom · 14/01/2008 11:28

I read the Hobbit and the Trilogy when I was 14 and I loved it. I will certainly be recommending it to my dd. I don't know if I would enjoy it as much now though. I think you do need to read it young

Kewcumber · 14/01/2008 11:26

I thought Lord of the rings was only read by pre-pubescent boys!

UnquietDad · 14/01/2008 11:21

Agree that you have to read "Wuthering Heights" and "Jane Eyre" when a teenager - reading them as a cynical adult just doesn't have the same effect. And WH has serious structural issues!

Same is true of Tolkien - ideal age to read "The Hobbit" is pretty much as soon as you can read stuff without too many pictures, and "Lord of the Rings" maybe 11-14. That way they stay as cherished books all your life and you don't have to cope with them as a cynical adult, after people have banged on about them enough to put you off for life.

Kewcumber · 14/01/2008 11:17

not wanting to be confrontational but I'd rather poke hot needles in my eyes than read martin Amis's autobiography...

redadmiral · 14/01/2008 11:15

Mind you, not quite sure what's going on with his current dealings with Islam - haven't really been following it though.

redadmiral · 14/01/2008 11:14

Kewcumber. Have you tried his autobiography? (Amis). I love his writing but not always the sentiment behind it, but was 100% won over by the autobiography.

Kewcumber · 14/01/2008 11:06

Dean Koontz books give me the creeps - not in a nice way.

On an aside - I used to work with James Patterson.

Kewcumber · 14/01/2008 11:05

would fight to the death defending Jane Eyre though...

paulaplumpbottom · 14/01/2008 11:04

Dean Koontz. He just writes the same book over and over and over again.

MaryAnnSingleton · 14/01/2008 11:04

oh,they aren't intellectual or snobby in the least ! I just feel I'm being difficult in not wanting to carry on...

Kewcumber · 14/01/2008 11:04

oh yes Wuthering Heights is bollocks too. Rarely give up on a book but lost the will to live during WH

Kewcumber · 14/01/2008 11:03

can I say Martin Amis again? Because he really is very rubbish and deserves several mentions...

TheDuchessOfNorksBride · 14/01/2008 10:52

ms - well it does improve the further you get. But the opening few chapters are hard work - certainly not light bedtime reading. The question is, how judgemental and intellectually-snobby is your book group?

MaryAnnSingleton · 14/01/2008 10:47

would I be very bad if I threw in the towel with WH -? seems to me that life is too short to be dismally plodding through a book I don't care for - I only get to read at bedtime and then for a short time and usually look forward to those precious minutes - would much rather be reading something else. If it wasn't for book group I'd have abandonned it at first few pages - in fact,I wouldn't have bothered with it full stop.

TheDuchessOfNorksBride · 14/01/2008 10:21

Wuthering Heights was OK. But it took 6 run-ups before I could finally read it all the way through. Would have been v. early 20s.

Michael Ondaate - vaguely repeating the same line several times really doesn't make things more poignant for me.

alicefairfax · 14/01/2008 10:18

Poalo Coelho- I thought the Alchamist was rubbish.

alicefairfax · 14/01/2008 10:17

I have heard people say that you need to read WH as a teenager to get it properly. I must have been too jaded when I read it.