What author did you read a book by and didn’t like, but gave them another chance and loved it?
I’m so glad I gave Edith Wharton another chance. I read Ethan Frome and thought it was fine. On a whim I picked up The Age of Innocence and fell in love. Now I’m buying anything I can by her. I recently read The House of Mirth, and can confirm she is one of my favorite authors now. Anybody have a similar experience with an author?
Mystery author Lisa Gardner. Her D.D. Warren series was fun but nothing special. When she spun off side character Frankie Elkin into her own series starting with Before She Disappeared, the books got really compelling!
Sylvia Plath
We had to do one of her short stories for an essay and I didn’t quite like it. However I read the Bell Jar a few months after and it was incredible.
Have you read her other works? I read bell jar but don’t know what to pick up next?
Haruki Murakami. I read The Wild Sheep Chase and didn’t really enjoy it that much but I wanted to try another book and see if I liked that more. So I read Norwegian Wood and loved it. I’ve also read South Of The Border, West Of The Sun now and loved that as well. I’m considering getting 1Q84 next.
I personally loved 1Q84 as well
1Q84 is the most bizarre love story and I love Kafka on the Shore too
Sarah J Maas. I quit ACOTAR on chapter one because it felt so weird and juvenile. But I gave it a second chance and now I’ve read 2 of her series, eager to start Throne of Glass. I still have my gripes about her writing but the character dynamics always bring me back.
William Shakespeare. We were assigned some of his works in high school, and almost without exception, he was taught poorly. I reread a couple in college and WOW! What a difference! The humor, the drama, the pathos. His use of language and meter. Just gorgeous! High school kids should NOT be taught the classics. They don’t care and, with some exceptions, can’t grasp the complexities.
I love Edith Wharton.
I don’t actually choose books by author (maybe except Joe Abercrombie). And somehow i don’t have any books written by a woman…
Andy Weir. Somehow The Martian didn’t click with me, but everyone kept raving about Project Hail Mary, so I caved. I’m really glad I did, I loved everything about it. What bugs me is that I can’t even objectively say what’s so different about PHM to change my opinion about his writing.
This is the first time I’m hearing someone else not liking The Martian. Hmmm, maybe I should actually try Hail Mary.
There are dozens of us!
I really liked his Artemis book set on the moon. I wish he’d continued it.
Oh yes I loved the age of innocence and also loved the movie with DD Lewis and michelle pffier . Wow what performances and all those heavy clothes . I will always wonder how those people did not heat to death LOL . Yes she is one of my fave authors .
Ottessa Moshfegh. I really didn’t “get” My Year of Rest and Relaxation, but holy shit did I ever enjoy Lapvona. And the latter helped me understand the former. I now chase her books like a desperate puppy.
Lawrence Watt-Evans. I tried reading The Lure of the Basilisk several times and just could not get into it. Eventually picked up The Cyborg and the Sorcerers and loved it.
Brandon Sanderson. I was about 1/3 through Way of Kings and couldn’t take how boring it was. I ended up trying to read it again like 6 months later. I’m glad I did. I loved the 2nd half of the book. Now I read his other books.
Dostoevsky. I first read crime and punishment and wasn’t particularly taken by it, then I read The Brothers Karamazov and thought it was quite good, currently reading The Idiot and I’m loving it
Brandon Sanderson
I liked the Mistborn trilogy, mostly the magic system, but didn’t much care for the fact that the two main characters were young adults (I’m not much of a fan of stories with teen protagonists unless it’s done reeeeally well), though I did find the prophecies to be fun. To me, I didn’t get why it was so popular in the fantasy space. A nice read, but it didn’t blow me away, which was what I was expecting due to its popularity. I had no desire to read Sanderson again.
I had a buddy say that his Stormlight Archive was loads better and that if I got through the first book and felt the same as I did with Mistborn, then the rest of the series will be an utter slog. I came in not having high hopes that the series would be great, but that it would be as mid as Mistborn.
Well, The Way of Kings was absolutely and utterly spectacular. I jammed through the four released books in two months. Each of the four books had me up till 3am to read their climaxes in one sitting. No book before or since has done that to me. It’s right up there in my top 3 all time books series, regardless of genre, and Book 5 is my most anticipated read for next year.
I haven’t read the second trilogy of Mistborn, though my buddy says it’s a completely different cast and vibe.
Yeah, I think mistborn has some amazing ideas but it’s clearly an early series from him, the writing improves as he goes and takes a leap forward in the Stormlight Archives.
The first Mistborn novel was so bad, it put me off the genre entirely. It’s been about 12 years and I still can’t bring myself to pick up a fantasy novel from a writer I don’t already know.
I picked up Alastair Reynolds’s Revelation Space and put it down for a while.
I am a pretty avid reader and sci-fi fan but it weirdly took me a while to get into this book.
So glad I did. One of my favorites now.
Ever read House of Suns? If you haven’t, read it
Revelation.Space is very much a first novel. It’s promising but clunky and rough around the edges where Reynolds spends too many pages building up.characters who aren’t particularly interesting. It’s the product if a very accomplished writer of short fiction coming to grips with writing at novel length.
His second Chasm City is a lot more polished.
For that reason I usually recommend that people start with one of his standalone novels or his short fiction (like I did).