Back when I was a teenager I read a fair few Stephen King, James Herbert, Dean Koontz and Richard Laymon books.
I enjoyed all but Richard Laymon always stuck with me as a good horror writer and I’ve recommended him to lots of people… but I’d not read any of his books since I was a teen.
Until this week.
I can’t have read Island when younger because wtf have I just read?! It’s horrific. Almost DNF’d several times and skipped quite a lot of the repetitive ogling over womens bodies/assault scenes.
I’m now regretting recommending him because what if the one book someone chose was Island… they’re going to think I’m all kinds of messed up!
Anyone done anything similar?
by Kapatapus
7 Comments
I adored laymon as an older teen. I still.own all the books but i guess ive grown out of him now ( im 44). Still remember the stories fondly but probably wont ever read again.
I was talking 20th century philosophy with a colleague and he said he was looking for something truly profound! Off the beaten path and I recommend Ram Dass.. turns out that was a little too far into the weeds for him. I think I lost his respect with that recommendation because we’ve never talked books again.
Ram Dass has to be something you’re ready for.
Fun house, darkness tell us and the beast house trilogy were among my faves if i recall correctly
Art of the adept series by Michael G. Manning. Somewhat flawed but entertaining books. Final book of the initial run was a complete shitshow of the author forcing a square peg into a round hole.
Cast behaving wildly out of character. Really stupid and improbable behaviors. In setting elements which had been established and leaned on heavily in previous books were ignored.
And it was clearly all so the author could set up the sequel series with the factors he wanted. Square peg, round hole. I regret recommending the series to a friend and warned him about the last book being so bad.
Yes. I used to recommend Marion Zimmer Bradley and David Eddings before I learned of their history of child abuse.
Sometimes I’ve had people take a conversation about a book or author as a recommendation or endorsement, when I didn’t mean it that way at all. Then we they read something and come back to tell me how much they disliked it they’re surprised that I’m not surprised. Now I’m more careful to say “I’m reminded of… but it wasn’t really a great book” or “I don’t know that you’d enjoy ______, but I really like how they treated this topic.”
Recommendations are funny and definitely reflect back on you as the one making the recommendation. And that’s not to say I’m afraid of making recommendations, I’ll gladly do it, but I like having a degree of confidence that a book and a friend are going to be a good match before I set them up on a blind date.
I tried reading two Richard laymon books: night in the lonesome October and no exit. Former I put down after 150 pages. The lead up was that narrator was broken up with, hated his ex a lot, started creeping on women, had a crush on a blonde girl with really nice boobs but got together with her friend who was a brunette with really nice boobs, they fucked under a bridge, got attacked by vagrants where the girl was almost raped boobily , then promptly went back to narrators apartment and they were in the middle of discussing the finer points of eating cheez whiz on crackers when I stopped reading. I saw I had 300 pages of that nonsense left and couldn’t be bothered. The narrator, who we were supposed to sympathize with, is a genuine piece of shit and I loathed his existence. For the latter, I got 50 pages in, saw there were 400 to go and decided I couldn’t be asked.
I genuinely don’t understand how laymon became a cult horror writer. I’ve seen him described as “he writes fun trashy thrill rides” and if his books were like 250-300 pages I could at least see the justification for how boobily he writes. As it is, the books I chose by him were way too fucking long and I’m amazed anyone has managed to get through them.
On topic, can’t think of any authors I’ve regretted recommending