Read too much of one particular author

zesman

Hello everyone, this has recently happened me, wondering if it has occoured to anyone else. A scenario you've read seven or eight novels by a favourite author. You're a big fan. Then you pick up a novel by the same guy and bang, that attraction is gone. You try again and no joy it's just not there. That initial hook no longer catches you, in fact its irritates. This happened to me recently, has it happened to anyone else?

zenmonk

Just this week actually. Charles Bukowski - Post office.
Loved Ham on rye and also read 2 collections of poetry and 2 collections of short stories. His first book - Post Office- I bought and tbh found it tough going and a bit boring.
I do love the guy though and his poetry is deceptively beautiful.

turgon

Well, after reading 1984 and Animal Farm I decided to get the complete novels of George Orwell. After reading the first two (Coming Up For Air, Keep the Aspidistra Flying) I was very under-impressed. Not that my opinion of him lowered, I just felt that the quality of 1984 wasnt even really repeated in these two.

However Burmese Days is a pretty good novel. I like the way some of the characters become symbols for the British Empire, and the defining scene in my mind is when the young police officer leaves the train station leaving two Burmese behind who are owed bags of food. Kind of the way the Empire came and went, leaving a lot of debts on the way.

So yes, its always easy to read a great novel and then be disappointed by other novels from the same author. But writing is like everything, you get some you lose some and practice makes perfect etc etc.

el_tiddlero

turgon wrote: »

Well, after reading 1984 and Animal Farm I decided to get the complete novels of George Orwell. After reading the first two (Coming Up For Air, Keep the Aspidistra Flying) I was very under-impressed. Not that my opinion of him lowered, I just felt that the quality of 1984 wasnt even really repeated in these two.

hmm, i find that funny... Been going back through Orwell myself recently, just finished Coming Up for Air and I really enjoyed it. Towards the end you can see the beginnings of 1984 encroaching on his thoughts, so from that respect it's an important book in his development.
Keep The Aspidistra Flying is up there with my favourites of his work (my love for Down and Out runs deep). I found it a really funny tale as the guy was obsessed with money, yet never had any and was highly motivated to stay that way. I felt it was a delightful description of the masochistic values we can place on ourselves, which we think will make us happy and free us, but instead only serve to trap and sadden us.

Still, different strokes and all that.

In terms of author's i've grown tired of etc, I'm not sure that I do. I like to read the entire works of an author if it's at all possible, and especially I love seeing how the different ideas throughout their work evolve, and in many cases, how they inform the themes in their "best" work. It's like a getting to know you process imo, the more you read of someone the more you come to understand what they're really trying to get at. If they were lucky they probably managed one absolutely spot-on effort: the rest being muddled and clouded. Knowing the author better allows you to see past that confusion to the heart of what they were trying to say.

With some authors, there can be a huge difference in quality between books, and that may account for a sudden disinterest or distaste for their writing. It's always useful to find out if a book was written quickly under pressure for publishing, or if something cropped up in their life that hindered their work, at least that way you can cut them some slack and won't be as turned off trying other works.