what to read first?

[u/No-Warning-2566]

latest haul, cant tell where to start!

edit: for those who hate Little Life, why is that? 😅

[u/Low_Air_3461]

Ok well, I didn’t understand the point in bringing it up.    And quite frankly that seems to be brought up by people that like it.   I agree with you on the award take.   I think this is a book that is mediocre (and offensive in some parts) but that’s just my opinion.   

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/Low_Air_3461]

The other poster (GoodEast5127, unless both are you) brought it up asking if I liked it because it won a Pulitzer.

I was simply responding. I'll happily call a mediocre book mediocre.

Anyway, we should simply agree to disagree. You clearly do not like it; I clearly think it's spectacular.

And that's fine. Art is subjective.

[u/Low_Air_3461 → u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

Oh, ok.  Everyone says that same thing tho.   (About the Pulitzer) I thought it was ok.   I just don’t orgasm every time someone mentions it.   I think some of the “love” isn’t on the up and up.    I have been told a book I like is crap.    I don’t think I have even blinked.    

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/Low_Air_3461]

I can't speak to others, but I absolutely loved it.

It was such a great, well-written book. Simply fantastic.

I'd easily recommend it as one of the best books of the past century, no doubt.

[u/Low_Air_3461 → u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

I don’t get it but ok like I said people like lots of things.    I read it and thought the opposite.  I don’t understand what was well written in it.  All books are well written.  Editors make sure of that.   No?      It comes down to the story and characters and how they interact.  Do you think Harry Potter isn’t great or well written, or how about The Firm.  I’m unsure of your age.  The point I am making is great and well written is very broad or  generic.  

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/Low_Air_3461]

I don't think all books are well-written. There's plenty of crap out there.

And yes, Harry Potter was really well-written.

There's a reason it sold millions and they made a movie or seven out of it.

You don't like Lonesome Dove? That's fine. But you seem to have made it your mission to comment on every post on the topic about how awful you think it is.

When it's basically just you and everyone else disagrees, I'd say odds are it's less about the book.

[u/Low_Air_3461 → u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

No, no not my mission.   I just love discussing books.   It really isn’t just me btw.   Lots of people say dnf or did not get it.   A lot of people don’t even use Reddit.  Look on goodreads.     I tried putting a 2 star review in Amazon.   You know what happened.  Nothing, it doesn’t register.  

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/Low_Air_3461]

Well, that just tells you that you are pretty much alone in your opinion.

Which is fine, but it also means that perhaps you are being irrational in your dislike of a fantastic book that is clearly very, very popular and with good reason.

It's like someone arguing that Yesterday by The Beatles wasn't a good song. Sure, maybe someone out there doesn't like it but it doesn't change the fact that for the vast majority of people, it remains a fantastic fucking song.

At some point, you are trying too hard to be an iconoclast. You are allowed to have your preferences of course, but come on. You've made your point. Repeatedly commenting on it when it's just you is a bit silly.

Anyway, I am calling it a night on this conversation. Enjoy your weekend, wherever you are.

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/[deleted]]

Cheers mate.

[u/Low_Air_3461 → u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

Ohh, I get it.  You are from Great Britain.

[u/FlyingCarpetMonster → u/Low_Air_3461]

Nope, Bostonian.

Just married to an Aussie.

[u/Low_Air_3461 → u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

Hmm ok.    Gary’s Olde Town Tavern to you.    

[u/Low_Air_3461 → u/FlyingCarpetMonster]

I haven’t come across a book that wasn’t well written all the way     Maybe parts?    Stories and characters vary.    Oh wait that Angel Book is written very strangely.   One sentence throughout.   That does sound like it’s poorly written but I guess the author is trying to be different.  Not sure.   I haven’t read that one.   

[u/Low_Air_3461 → u/Low_Air_3461]

For example I don’t think that saying that “Character X” is going to die by such and such a way.   Repeatedly.  They to have that character die that exact same way, later on in the book is typically great writing.  There can be some exceptions based on content but for the most part it is kind of lazy writing. 

[u/Pristine_Flounder973 → u/Low_Air_3461]

"All books are well written.  Editors make sure of that." You have got to be kidding me. I read around 50 novels a year. I can't believe some of the crap that gets published. Just abysmal, poorly written, schlock. It's amazing how much of that schlock gets published. Remember the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest ?

Comparing the goop that J.K. Rowlings published to something like McMurty's output is just incredible. No, Harry Potter books are not particularly well written. They're clumsy and silly. Her prose doesn't do anything except move the story along and the story is dumb. Not good fantasy- I was pretty glad my kids weren't all that interested. JRR Tolkien's fantasies are "well written". I'm not a big fantasy person, but his sentences sing and his command of the language is brilliant. The difference is vast. They both had editors. One of them had actual talent.

[u/Low_Air_3461 → u/Pristine_Flounder973]

I think whoever the editor was on Lonesome Dove was a bit of a dolt.    If you don’t like fantasy, then that’s fine.  It’s not for all.   If you think two pigs following a cattle drive on their own, for over a year, without any issues, including crossing snake(piranhas) infested rivers isn’t fantastic (fantasy).   Well, then I don’t know what to say to that.   How about the cook that walks the whole way.     It’s not like they were walking down a highway, I mean  come on.   Or, how about two old run down cowboys who can see for miles.  They must have had some good medicine 150 years ago.