What’s something that you feel like you should like, but for some reason can’t get into, no matter how many chances you give it?

For me, it’s The Three Body Problem. It should be right up my alley from everything I’ve heard about it (especially the second book, which looks at the Fermi Paradox and the Great Filter!), but for the life of me, I can’t get past the first chapter at all. I even tried reading it in another language to see if it was the translation that kept me from getting into it, and nope.

  • BrerChicken
    5•1 year ago

    I’ve read a few different people sound off on Neal Stephenson in this thread, complaining specifically about how he goes on and on. I friggin LOVE reading him, and it’s because of how he plays with language. His sentences are so wild, and so fun for me to read. They’re not driving the plot–they’re just cool thoughts written in interesting ways that reliably catch me off guard. Maybe it’s because English isn’t my first language, but for whatever reason I just love reading the ridiculous ways he has of saying sometimes very mundane things.

    • @ttmrichter
      4•1 year ago

      I don’t mind people going on and on and on. (I mean I loved Mervyn Peake!) What I hate about Stephenson is how he:

      1. Can’t write people. At all. His “characters” are “concepts with a name attached”. Ugh.
      2. He often goes on and on and on about stuff he’s absolutely wrong about at a fundamental level. (Like his bizarre take on Chinese culture in that one with the nanotech; I’ve forgotten the title. The Diamond Age?)

      One or the other above I can cope with. Both together made me cringe every time I set eye on a page.