I’m facing a frustrating problem. There are many books I’m excited to read, only to find I can’t stand their writing style.
Most recently, I picked up The Birthday of the World and Other Stories by Ursula Le Guin, whose work I’ve wanted to try for a long time now.
But in just the first couple of pages, I’m finding the writing an immense chore to go through. It contains so many names and capitalized nouns and is so filled with commas that I can barely focus. Add to it that I don’t know what’s going on and it becomes outright frustrating. I’m already unsure if I should continue.
But Ursula Le Guin is just one example. There are countless books I heard great things about (A Fire Upon the Deep, Hyperion, All Systems Red) and wanted to read… but couldn’t stand the writing, to the point where I had to drop them so I don’t burn out on reading altogether.
The worst part is I can’t even identify which writing styles I’m into because they vary so much from author to author. I loved “Never Let Me Go,” “Children of Time,” “Demon Copperhead,” “Anna Karenina,” the short story “Bloodchild” and some Stephen King. I don’t see the common thread in my writing preferences.
Is there a good way to become better at expanding my writing style preferences? And how do those of you with similarly narrow preferences decide which books and authors to get?
by man-with-a-name-33
10 Comments
Read more and the problem will solve itself.
You may want to pick up some short story collections. I have also disliked a couple titles you have listed but really loved Never Let Me Go and I adore Stephen King. It’s all hit and miss. Dont approach it as a failure that you dont like whats popular or highly regarded. Everybody has their own individual tastes.
Why don’t you try other books by the same author? Kazuo Ishiguro has written a number of novels (and I think you would like Klara and the Sun), as have Barbara Kingsolver and obviously Tolstoy. Have you tried anything by Ian McEwan?
Practice. The more familiar you are with a certain style, the easier it becomes and the more enjoyable it is.
read books by the same authors. and then try books that inspired those authors. here’s a good website to find some recs: https://www.literature-map.com/
just type in the name of an author you like. the website recommends similar authors!
there’s nothing wrong with trying books and then realizing the style doesn’t work for you. that’s life. it might just be me, but even if you dnf a book, you still read it—you just didn’t COMPLETE it. 2 different things.
Hyperion leans heavily on older source materials, like classical literature, the Canterbury Tales, the bible, and more. Becoming familiar with some older writing may help.
Also, Ursula K LeGuin is not that good of a writer in my opinion. Her concepts are great, but her prose is difficult.
Yeah. It’s easy. Read. Get a library card so you’re not paying out the nose for stuff you’re trying. If you don’t like something 50 pages in, don’t keep reading it.
Sounds trite but that’s what you’re after. You’ll eventually settle into a happy place (for example, if you like Kingsolver, you’ll probably like Ann Patchett and Richard Powers and more. If you like George Martin you’re gonna like Robert Jordan and the whole Expanse series and Red Rising).
Read more. Didn’t like Hyperion? Try Zelazny, Asimov, Bradbury, Kim Stanley Robinson, or Varley. Then try Hyperion again. It took me 4 attempts over 20 years to read Dhalgren and even longer to read Ulysses. Sometimes you’re not ready for a book. That doesn’t make you or the book bad.
>Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.
–Rainer Maria Rilke
Find a SFF magazine and start reading more short stories (I find [this archive](https://www.trollbreath.com/sff-magazine-subscriptions/) is up to date with current releases) to get more varied and see if you spot a pattern.
I find that authors that are good writers but whose style challenge my focus (my issue, not saying it’s yours) are more enjoyable as audiobooks. Sometimes I get into a book as audio and then switch to reading once I k ow how it should ‘sound’ in my head while I’m reading.