I'm okay on Hemingway but not overly enthusiastic. I had to read Henry James in college -- he put me to sleep. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed Theodore Dreiser. An American Tragedy turned out to be just the sort of thing I could get lost in.

I'm probably more character-driven than anything else, but I'm not too picky about the hook that grabs me. In shorter works, I'll sometimes get fascinated by the world that the author builds in the first few chapters, then feel disappointed that things happen to change that world.

In fact, there are times when I fear that Pete will eventually read Something Wicked This Way Comes or From Dust Returned and HATE them. And then I'd be horrified and sad.

I can't imagine Pete not liking From the Dust Returned Jilli. It's so you that I think appreciating the one would have to translate to appreciating the other.

Now that I'm older, I can appreciate Hemingway, like I can appreciate that some people like bleu cheese the way I like brie, but I can't stand the taste of it. Which is miles better than my stance on Hemingway when I was younger, which was basically STAB STAB STAB.

Like JZ, I generally groove on the baroque, but I can appreciate terse and laconic (some Duras, e.g.) but generally, I want plot AND characterization AND language.

Tolkien: when I was younger, I read every single word (including the Simarillion and footnotes) but this was also in my "read every encyclopedia of mythology like it's a novel" phase. I skimmed more when I re-read when the movies came out.

I'd rather read Woolf's biographies and diaries than her works, again. Isn't that sad? Not that her work isn't fine, but I find I'm more fascinated with how her life, time and culture affected her work. But I had a Woolf-ite prof so I read a TON of Woolf, and I just don't feel compelled to re-read Mrs. Dalloway or To The Lighthouse for pleasure.

I DO love to watch movies based on her work, though. I think it's really interesting to see what directors and actors do with it.

I can't think of Hemingway without thinking of...

Romantic? Hemingway? He was an abusive, alcoholic misogynist who squandered half of his life hanging around Picasso trying to nail his leftovers. /10 Things I Hate About You

I can't imagine Pete not liking From the Dust Returned Jilli. It's so you that I think appreciating the one would have to translate to appreciating the other.

Awww, thank you, that means a lot to me.

My worry is that I still don't have a good notion of how florid of language Pete prefers to read, so I have no idea if the lushness of Bradbury's prose would set his teeth on edge.

In random news, I'm just reading American Gods for the first time, and why did it never occur to me that Wotan = Woden = Odin??

I've never read any Vonnegut, ever. I don't know how I missed him, but I did.Should I read him now, or is he one of those authors you find and love at sixteen, if you're going to? I intend to read "A Moveable Feast" sometime.

I think you could love Vonnegut at any age. Try Slaughterhouse-Five. There are no happy endings, but I can't imagine that putting you off. He can be quite funny, though.

My wife loves him, at least slaughterhouse and she is certainly not 16. She did read him for the first time then, though, in a high school class. Despite my dislike, I must admit that her high school books were way cooler than mine.

My high school reading was pretty pedestrian -- Tess, some Shakespeare, Heart of Darkness, etc. -- but junior year I got to write a research paper on On the Road, and senior year we read The Color Purple.

It's amazing how little else I remember, though.