I have nothing against contemporary authors and in fact admire several of them, like V .S. Naipaul and Coetzee very much. What I dislike is trendy contemporary junk like David Foster Wallace, Rick Moody, Jonathan Franzen, and Martin Amis. I suggest that it's much better to read the classics than 95% of contemporary literature.
That's kind of how it goes, though, isn't it? Any given classic was probably within the top 5% of the literature of that time...
What I love beyond all else is reading something contemporary that has not already been canonized, and being blown away without expecting to be.
I think we've gone over this before, but for me there are many kinds of nourishment to be drawn from books, and the most pure, Quality literature is just one type of nourishment. I don't deny that filet mignon is really, really delicious, but I like to eat a variety of foods in my everyday life, including the occasional Snickers bar. I'll never say that the Snickers bar and the filet mignon are equivalent when it comes to excellence or value, but each have a place.
Dorothy Dunnet - I've talked about her on other threads - a really satisfying literary style, brilliant research, racing story line, wealth of characters, politics. adventure it has the lot!
The Game of Kings is the first (very thick book) of a series of 6
My Life--The Autobiography of Cassanova.
Over 3,000 pages. I gave up after about two hundred pages. Hope you have better luck than that.
I'm with Sozobe.
Kicky, I think I saw a film version of that not too long ago. I don't think I'd be brave enough to try the book.
Yeah, it was a tough one. I actually gave up on War and Peace too. Those are probably the only two books I've ever given up on. I usually love a good long book, but I guess they were set in places and times that were just too alien to me, and I couldn't relate to it.
Oh, I just remembered another great long book. Dickens--David Copperfield. I think it's about 800 pages, and it's such a good book. The characters are amazing.
I remember reading David Copperfield when I was seventeen over one intense-read weekend - I couldn't put it down.
I know. All women love Dickens.
<snickers and runs from the room>
Yes, but it's true nonetheless.
I had a male friend who read all of Dickens..
hmm, maybe we should do a Dickens poll.
<chasing after Kicky>
I think there's already one of those in General.
Sozobe, the person who posted this topic was asking for a GOOD long book. I was responding about what I thought was good and what wasn't. If you want to read junk, by all means do so, but that wasn't what the topic was asking for. And by the way, a diet that includes Snickers bars may amuse you, but it doesn't nourish you. Junk is junk in all forms--dietary or literary--and it isn't healthy in any of them.
