Ironically, just the other day I was pronouncing John McPhee's two-part essay on coal trains in the New Yorker kinda boring, because, I just don't care about coal trains. But the topic was boring, and, considering I was reading about coal trains, the writing was pretty good.
Oh, is that only a two-part? Thank goodness. I actually read all of the first part without really meaning to, because it kept me just interested enough to keep reading. But I sort of resented it, because I don't give that much of a rat's ass (1/16 of an ass, if you're wondering) and I didn't even gain interesting factoids.
Also, really couldn't get into the Covenant books. The rape didn't help, but I also think it takes a lighter hand to do an anti-hero effectively. Actually, I don't know what it takes, but something other than what he had. If I remember correctly, I found the main character alternately whiny and, er... dissociated? Disaffected? Distanced?
Calli, thank you, I thought I remembered reading something else by him but couldn't remember what. I'm not sure I liked the Mirror Books, but I was at least able to read them. I still felt like something was missing, but it may just be that I'm too attached to liking main characters and wanting at least some good things to happen to them.
I was depressed yet fascinated by the Covenant books when I read them 12 years ago because they were so unlike anything I'd read before. I'm not sure how they'd hold up now with practically my entire adult reading experience behind me (including much, much more fantasy--at the time I'd only ever read Narnia and the Belgariad).
I liked the Mordant's Need series (aka the Mirror Books), but I've been afraid to reread them for a while now, in case I discover that I had no taste as a teenager.
No, that's never happened to me before, why do you ask?
No, that's never happened to me before, why do you ask?
C'mon now. Didn't we all read Xanth?
No, that's never happened to me before, why do you ask?
Hee. I'm afraid to try any of the historical fiction I adored growing up (an eclectic assortment--Pearl Buck, Belva Plain, Eugenia Price, Alexandra Ripley, Herman Wouk, John Jakes, Taylor Caldwell) for fear of discovering the exact same thing.
Yes, fine, I admit it, there was an unspoken "Piers Anthony" in that sentence.
What would teenagers read if it weren't for Piers Anthony?
