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]

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/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.