This is easily the best article I have read on the novel

I read GR 3 times and I still have this feeling some things are to be discovered.

Before starting, I was intimidated by the length, the long sentences, and the general difficulty. However, having come into the experience (I’m almost finished with vol 1)ready for the challenge, I found that this book heavily rewards a careful reader. Look up any word that is new to you, any painting the book refers to, almost anything at all that is not readily understood. Reread the sentences that don’t make sense if you have to. At least for me, the book has proven to you to be an extremely vivid experience, and captivating experience. That being said if I had to read this book for a class 5+ years ago on a time crunch I may not have enjoyed it very much.

I’m just hoping the rest of the volumes are this good!

You are reading an old(er) version of the language, that's why it sounds bad.

But the ideas are great. You just have to go through the language.

Try Silmarillion. It's about the making of the old world and the fight against the first Dark Lord, Sauron's master. The storyline is even better ... and the language even older-fashioned.

I dm a lot of authors. Sometimes they respond! I love authors who are active on Instagram or Twitter

Ive started reading it too, but I actually love it so far and find it very immersive. If its not for you though, you shouldnt feel obligated to complete it.

I heard of it from a Lincoln Child book Utopia there was a hit man in the book who was obsessed with the novels. I got the first one for Christmas but it’s been sitting unread in my room for years.

Those emails are catharsis for me sometimes when I'm feeling low. Great comment.

I have a "minimum" stack and my "maximum" stack. I'll explain.

The minimum stack is the bare minimum of books I want to complete this year. This is usually around 20 books, esteemed classics or books I'm desperate to read that no matter what, this year, will be read.

The maximum stack is books I'm interested in, happen to own, or are tangentially related to the minimum stack. This usually expands the tbr to around 50. Books come, books go, if I take one off the maximum stack its no big deal. It usually gets replaced in a week by something else that piques my interest.

UK: It's definitely American values, which is still interesting. I felt I didn't really get it (read when my sister was studying it), because it all seemed too obvious, money, all awful vulgar people, hypocrisy, Ok, which has often been how I feel about American writers with the exception of Henry James. We read Death of a Salesman in school which is perhaps a tad more nuanced but to me similarly puzzling, I don't have a lot of sympathy for either 'tragic hero', to me both simply behave badly to inexplicable ends. My sister does like American lit...but has always been materialistic and is working on moving to the US! What I don't really get is it tends not to feel like the pursuit of these values is questioned enough, Gatsby is far from really outside them himself. It is low class here to be seen to throw money around, but our aristos have tended to be considered particular cheapskates even next to continental European equivalents (France emphasises money used to show artistic/aesthetic good taste more).

I did get a lot more out of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth, which shows the emergence of new, American values, and whose heroine while a monster of materialism in a lot of ways is shown to have been influenced by her upbringing and have better impulses, and there's a more critical lower class perspective. My new little rabbit is named Lily for her heroine and Trollope's Lily Dale (Wharton's bad girl Lily turns out to suit her best). Do think it shows that Wharton would go on to have a strong connection to France, though (FSL speaker myself - consider French values to have remained closer to those we're losing through Americanisation). Lily's aesthetic desire for the beautiful and very expensive may even make more sense in that context than it would in an English one, you only have to compare our palaces to Versailles (Wharton was interested in interior design. I do think Americans still care much more than us about it).

Thank you for posting this excellent article. It makes me want to read Gravity’s Rainbow again.

Definitely.

Wuthering heights is my favorite

I once read a fascinating book on the history of the diamond industry called Brilliance and Fire and found the author on IG and messaged her to let her know how much I loved the book and it made her day so I say go for it! But I also wouldn’t expect a response depending on how well known or popular the writer is.

Insomnia has been in my collection for years. I really enjoyed it. I think I have read it three times, maybe four. I especially love the concept of the auras and the little doctors. (It made me wonder what my own aura would look like). The characters are so interesting and I have a soft spot for Ralph and Lois (? Please remind me if I'm misremembering her name).

I read this long before I read the Dark Tower series and was happy to have some blanks filled in later on. If you are a Stephen King fan, this will not be the last that you hear of several characters.

Someone else in the thread recommended Needful Things. It's a great book, too, and quite a ride!

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Pangobooks

Yes! I teach college English and I once had a student email the author of an essay I taught in the class and she emailed him back! This same author didn’t reply to me but did to my student, which is even better. Go for it, nothing to lose.

I was disappointed when I read it, not because I disliked it, but because it didn't live up to my expectations based on what people said about it. I think it depicts American values well, though I don't know if my opinion is valid as I'm not American. The plot was decent but the book itself could have been way better. I think some scenes could and should have had more emotional impact, but they didn't. I didn't feel any emotion reading it and that's why the book didn't impact me at all. Decent book, but definitely not the best book of American literature.

Currently I'm finishing The Return of the King (huge fan of the movies too). I do sometimes find the prose lackluster but not in a literary sense - more like it's not in alignment with my expectations of fiction in the context of current times. I want to dive deeper into characters' psyche and emotions etc. But you have to read it with knowledge of it's original release date.

Also, because you have seen the movies, you know how expansive and immersive this world is. Now try writing about this amazing world, encapsulating one specific story within it. Or try writing about our world and capture all of its intricacies. Wouldn't be easy, right? I'm just happy Tolkien managed to somehow describe it, maybe not in the most easily available or modern way (for obvious reasons), but he put this world in our heads, where it kept expanding further on. That's another reason why it seems to lack something - seeing the movies, we have let our imagination run wild as if we already lived in this world. So when the author doesn't describe this exact feeling/ connection that we have with it, something seems off.

Also, I would argue that Tolkien's old-school grand/ melodic writing is the actual source of the Middle Earth's atmosphere and it was written like this completely on purpose. What you have seen in the movies, is the vision that Tolkien showed to it's producers, through these exact words. Author took his world seriously and so did the reader.

100%

I only email authors who made a big error in their literary work. Only one has replied so far but they weren’t very happy lol

This is pretty horrifying. I've said it for years that we would be so much better off if we eliminated the senate all together. It is an inherently undemocratic institution. This country is built on some pretty authoritarian ideals

Librarians don't push an agenda. They respect the people who ask for information by giving them the information they ask for. Part of the ethical training is to provide what patrons ask for. They also curate a collection based on their community needs. It is sad that politicians are trying to limit what people can research so they can make a name for themselves. It is pathetic.

This is an excellent point. Though I wouldn't say the transition would be as jarring, but it would certainly be an absolute difference.

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Edited to modify good to excellent