When I first heard about Harry Potter I didn't really think I would like it, and I wasn't particularly interested in trying it, but I was visiting my brother and he had just finished (and loved) the first book so I picked it up, and I was 100% hooked before I'd finished the first chapter. Some authors can create a world, and characters, who grab your interest even before you know what the story is going to be.
It is a funny thing about 'popular' books, I don't always assume I'm going to love them, in fact I expect my taste to differ.... I'll admit that I read DaVinci Code with enjoyment, I felt that the writer presented his bogus 'proofs' and theories in a way I could buy for the length of the book, and he had a nice romance developing (I DIDN'T find the movie to be as good, or at all good, because there was no attempt to make the 'evidence' believable and the romance didn't work at all in spite of settings that should have been romantic). But I didn't like it enough to try any of his other books, like Mitchner and Grisham who I can tolerate if I am stranded with nothing better to read, I don't seek them out!
I have loved romances, when they are by Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer (Stephen Fry recently said that he is addicted to Heyer's Regency Romances so now I'm no longer embarrassed to love them!), but the vast majority that get published now days are unreadable (I did try Cartland but they are the same bad plots with the same insipid characters, I can't understand anyone actually enjoying her). But basically I don't think the genre is really for me, I need the sci-fi, fantasy, and/or mystery hook to really give a damn.
As a child I really loved Louisa May Alcott, and I find that she holds up for a reread... but not that many authors do. Are her books romances? I guess most of them must be, certainly 'An Old Fashioned Girl' is mostly about young people growing up and getting married....
I'm rambling... Anyway, thanks for the review! I will be skipping 'Twilight'!
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-08-11 02:01 am (UTC)It is a funny thing about 'popular' books, I don't always assume I'm going to love them, in fact I expect my taste to differ.... I'll admit that I read DaVinci Code with enjoyment, I felt that the writer presented his bogus 'proofs' and theories in a way I could buy for the length of the book, and he had a nice romance developing (I DIDN'T find the movie to be as good, or at all good, because there was no attempt to make the 'evidence' believable and the romance didn't work at all in spite of settings that should have been romantic). But I didn't like it enough to try any of his other books, like Mitchner and Grisham who I can tolerate if I am stranded with nothing better to read, I don't seek them out!
I have loved romances, when they are by Jane Austen or Georgette Heyer (Stephen Fry recently said that he is addicted to Heyer's Regency Romances so now I'm no longer embarrassed to love them!), but the vast majority that get published now days are unreadable (I did try Cartland but they are the same bad plots with the same insipid characters, I can't understand anyone actually enjoying her). But basically I don't think the genre is really for me, I need the sci-fi, fantasy, and/or mystery hook to really give a damn.
As a child I really loved Louisa May Alcott, and I find that she holds up for a reread... but not that many authors do. Are her books romances? I guess most of them must be, certainly 'An Old Fashioned Girl' is mostly about young people growing up and getting married....
I'm rambling... Anyway, thanks for the review! I will be skipping 'Twilight'!