Does anyone have any difficulty going back and forth between one and the other? I love Moby Dick, Crime and Punishment, Madame Bovary, Lolita, Bleak House, and Sherlock Holmes to name a few. I feel as if so few readers are reading the classics nowadays and I would like to converse about the modern books with fellow readers, as well as expose myself to something different.
The last several modern fiction novels I have read I have been sorely disappointed. Some of these include Station Eleven by Mandel, and Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. These among others have been award winning books, but at best I am only mildly entertained. These books are much shorter and the writing is not challenging at all. These are too short for any real character development and the plots are just weak. One of the other books in my To Be Read Pile include Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, but after Piranesi I am super reluctant to pick this up. I do have Pillars of the Earth, which maybe I will find more rewarding.
Do other readers here have a strategy going back and forth, or do they stick mostly to a certain genre? I will say that some modern authors I do enjoy immensely (haven’t read in may years though) are Michael Crichton and Tom Clancy. While these are not books that stay with me forever, I have a lot of fun reading them, which I cannot say for Piranesi.
Thanks for listening and weighing in!
by jcoffin1981