Now, in Harmony's defense, I've inadvertently read some really terrible stuff myself in the hope that surely it must get better the further you get in to it (ie: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Android Karenina, to name a couple). However, I did manage to put down the first Twilight book about 3/4ths of the way in. And to think I really had such high hopes for a book that was getting such a large portion of today's adolescents to read. I've given up on trusting the reading masses to guide me in choosing fiction even if the authors are normally decent writers. I guess you could say that every writer has to write a stinker now and then, but come on, its not a mandatory requirement. However, I find even the authors of supposedly 'classic' literature are often impossible to read. I mean, does anyone actually enjoy Thomas Hardy, Joseph Conrad or Emily Bronte, or are they being read just to satisfy some college curriculum or for someone to be able to sound uber-intelligent at some cocktail party? Yes, sad to say, but I'm one of those people who actually HATES Hemingway, but I simply adore Flannery O'Connor. Go figure.
Harmony gets a pass (you do know I was teasing, right Harmony?) - I completely understand the curiosity that would drive someone to try and figure out why these books are so popular . . . I'll also give absolute credit to her steeliness of mind, since she has obviously gone into the pit and emerged sane!
There is plenty of classic literature I despise (Tess of the D'urbervilles, for one. blech. I did like Hardy's Jude the Obscure, but that may be because it was considered obscene by the Victorians . . .) and with the exception of Jane Eyre, I don't care for the Bronte's at all - not even Wuthering Heights. Conrad is hit and miss - I liked Heart of Darkness, though interestingly, not until after I read Lord Jim. Not sure why.
Overall, I loathe the Russian novelists - bleak and filled with tortured morality. I like some of Kafka - he had the decency to keep his odd meanderings fairly short. I like some Hemingway, do not care for O'Connor, and - oddly - actually enjoy some of the 18th century English authors.
Depends on my mood, I guess. I've been reading the Trench poets and writers lately - leavened with Raphael Sabatini for fun. I did finally read "She" (Henry Rider Haggard), which was interesting in a strange way. Almost funny, almost touching . . . very weird.
We all have some little eclectic taste about something. I agree with you on the classics. We have all read what literary experts say are great authors and true classics which would never be read by us if it were not part of the class. And once read most of these books and authors were never reread. But I will admit loving Henrik Ibsen after being forced to read Hedda Gabler in college. Yes I think I read everything he wrote. So go figure is right.
Thanks for the links Lightly. You are right. I shouldn't waste gas for this $#%&. However since I live in Boulder I would have ridden my bike.
Oh, you Birkenstock wearing hippies in Boulder!! (I miss that place - lived in Denver for 20-odd years . . . used to go see Dan Fogelberg play half-house in Boulder all the time - and there was a great used book store . . . can't recall the name . . .) :)