Authors you SHOULD like, but just can't stand?

[Khephra]

Terry Pratchett (I LOVE satire...except when it's not funny)

Dan Brown (Robert Langdon did this...Robert Langdon did that.... stilted writing about subjects I love)

[GCP]

1. Hemingway - never did get why he's so revered eom

[smirkymonkey]

4. I second that.

His pomposity just oozes off the pages. His ego completely overpowers his writing, almost like he is competing with his characters in some way.

[RoyGBiv]

18. Third it ...

Just can't tolerate his style.

[da_chimperor]

2. Cicero

He's the only person ever to have written something I could not stand to read.

[amber dog democrat]

3. Michner, James Michner - I can't take him seriously.

also Thomas Pynchon. Read Gravity's Rainbow 2 X. The Crying of lot 49 and just gave up on V.

Dean Koontz - refuse to read ANYthing by him and ...

Clive Kussler. There are more but this will do for now.

[BlueHandDuo]

5. H P Lovecraft

Too many adjectives!

[RandomKoolzip]

6. Shakespeare.

Come on, can we just admit he's a crashing bore?

[dietdpfan]

7. Channeling Billy Bob Thornton, are we?

He echoed those sentiments just a few days ago--saying he would never be in a Shakespeare play.

[RandomKoolzip]

10. I dislike WS and BBT equally.

I'd never heard of his remarks before.

Also, Jane Austen bores the pants off me. I've never been able to stand her prissy output.

[montana_hazeleyes]

14. I agree

never could stand trying to read him.

[Khephra]

15. Shakespear, like the Bible and other historical texts fiction and non-fict

have to be taught in context--line by frigging line.

Worth the effort, but if you're going to teach a Shakespeare play in two weeks and expect anyone to understand it...well, fuck that. You might as well not read it.

[RandomKoolzip]

20. I took three different courses on Shakespeare in college....

Attended gazillions of local productions, and tried reading the stuff on my own; the only Shakespeare-related item I enjoyed was "Henry V," and then only for the speech at Agincourt. The rest left me cooold.

[RoyGBiv]

21. Shakespeare ....

One problem with Shakespeare, for most people I think, is that his plays are not meant to be read. They're forced on us in school, and we end up hating the excercise you describe so much that it's hard to get past that mindset later. Think of the most brilliant plot and/or character driven movie you've ever seen, then find the screenplay and read that. Then read it a couple dozen more times. Then take tests on it. Then have someone tell you you're not interpreting it correctly. When you're all done, the movie won't come across as so brilliant.

Another problem is the language, which is ironic. Shakespearean pendants insist on purity when it comes to presenting the plays. It must be done as Shakespeare wrote it ... Well, that's funny. Shakespeare himself played with the language so much and broke so many "rules" that one could say he created his own style of language and in fact did simply make up an large number of words. I think he'd find it bizarre that people centuries later would insist on using that very same style as he wrote it, even though the language itself has continued to evolve.

Shakespeare can be done well, but it takes a producer/director with a little imagination, like the bard himself.

Of course there is his poetry, which puts me to sleep.

[ismnotwasm]

8. Tom Robbins

[Bunny]

9. Umberto Eco.

Ugh.

[Rowdyboy]

11. William Faulkner (I'm from Mississippi so its doubly evil)

[Khephra]

12. Faulkner!

I shouldn't like him. I DO hate his work, though.

[asthmaticeog]

13. T.C. Boyle

I just got through his latest short story collection and it was all I could do not to hurl the damn book at the wall; motherfucker telegraphs his endings so clearly it's ludicrous. I hear his novels are better, so I might try one or two of them before I give up on him altogether.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. I read one of his novels

and it wasn't much better, actually.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

24. He's a Repug

Hard to believe, but yes. He always spews anti-immigrant crap on talk shows and claims it's pro-immigrant.

His work is repetitive and overly clever IMO.

[NashVegas]

17. Umberto Eco

DUDE! Get to the fucking point already!

And I don't think you should like Dan Brown anyway, Kheph.

Oh yes - and John Kennedy Toole

[T Town Jake]

19. Jonathan Franzen. n/t

[ReadTomPaine]

22. Anthony Burgess <n/t>

[CBHagman]

23. Alan Furst

I once heard him do a reading and found him delightful. After that I bought a copy of "The Kingdom of Shadows," which has a Hungarian hero and, I thought, would be a great political thriller.

Well, I knew I was in trouble when I had more empathy for a minor character who got bumped off than I did for the hero's mistress or, come to think of it, the hero. I still haven't finished the book.