Community Chat

[insomniac]

I enjoy books with somewhat quirky characters who are not stereotypes. But more is needed.

Right now I'm struggling to finish The Cat's Table (by the man who wrote that dreadful English Patient book) for a meeting this afternoon. The characters in this book are quirky, but I have almost no interest in anything they're doing.

I'd thought I was done with that author before, but now I know I am.

P.S. I LOVED Les Miserables: the extraordinary details enriched my pleasure.

[brewhaha]

The genre. Mystery, suspense & crime thrillers keeps my interest in a book.

[nagrom]

I love a book rich in character development that weaves all the details in a web that comes together at the end. For me it's Toni Morrison. I read the Song of Solomon and fell in love with all Ms. Morrison's books.

[LilacTree]

Writing and well formed characters. The storyline has to be interesting, but not necessarily suspenseful. I cannot read a poorly written book, which is why I could not read "Fifty Shades of Gray." I read the first part of the book that Amazon forwarded to me on my Kindle, and never ordered the book because the writing was hideous.

I also read a couple of Belva Plain's books many years ago and enjoyed them. But mostly, I have read the classics, like the Bronte sisters' "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights, " In fact I read Jane Eyre to my mom every day when she was dying, as that was her favorite book, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

I read two of Ayn Rand's books, "We the Living" and "Atlas Shrugged" while on the beach before I got married, I read "Dr. Zhivago," and many of James Michener's books, including his best "Hawaii," I loved his style, as he brought the land he was writing about up from prehistoric days. I read "War and Peace" on a dare because no one else I knew could get through it. "Of Human Bondage" by W. Somerset Maugham (sp?) was the best written, but saddest book I ever read.

More recently I had read almost all of John Grisham's books because they are a fast read, not because he is a particularly good writer and once he began to plagiarize his own novels, I lost interest, as it was clear he was writing just to make money.

Over the years, I've probably read a thousand books, many of which these days are nonfiction, philosophically-based books. I've read self help books, books about the beginnings of the universe which fascinate me. I love biographies, and my favorite is "Brando" by Peter Manzo. What a complicated and almost psychotic man Brando was. A genius on the one hand, which he could not have cared less about (acting), and a total nut on the other. He had a very dissatisfied and tragic life.

I could go on and on, but I have probably bored you to death already.

[FlowershopGirl]

What LindersBack wrote really expresses what I like, as well as what nagrom and Ford said as well.

Its important that the characters be interesting and fleshed out. I just read "The Winter People" and while the story itself was slowly chilling and creepy, the characters were so one-dimensional, at best, that the book was an epic failure to me. I loved the story but the writer definitely needed to work on her characters. I think many authors, like Grisham, Robin Cook, too many to mention here, now write with a screenplay in mind and sadly, the characters and often the story line suffer.

[MoJoV]

I can't bear books that give so much information just because they can. Just the facts, I love bare bones writing. Clean,brief sentences get me every time.

[Sooner]

The writing. The pictures, thoughts and feelings the words convey. I don't care so much about the plot. I want something that is beautifully worded, uses language in ways I would never have thought of to evoke emotions and put you in a place, time and situation. I want a book that makes me think, and maybe even one that might not answer all the questions or lay out the entire story with a conclusion that ties up all loose ends.

[sunala]

On 6/22/2014 insomniac said:

Ah, Ladder of Years: loved that book!

insomniac, ME TOO!!