Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was so thrilled this past weekend--after months of being overly busy, I finally got to sit down and enjoy a novel and had just picked up The Ladies of Missalonghi from the Goodwill so I settled in to read it. I enjoyed it very much and as I often do when I like a book, I looked it up on Amazon to see what others are saying about it. One of the reviewers mentioned that it was a complete rip-off of a book formerly written by L.M. Montgomery called The Blue Castle. I went ahead and ordered that one for my Kindle and read it right away, so I read the two back-to-back and I have to agree--it was a total rip-off. It was so close that it felt like she had to have had the book there with her to consult with for details! The only difference is that one is set in Australia and the other in Canada and fortunately, I liked Montgomery's version better. I remember how much I loved reading The Thorn Birds years ago, so this was a real disappointment.
I won't go into on this post, but I was also disappointed with The Education of Little Tree, though for different reasons. Anyone else ever lost faith in a beloved book or author?
Stephen King. I loved his early books and I was always so excited when a new one came out. I hardly ever purchased hardcover books, but I would go out and buy his books in hardcover right away.
And then came The Tommyknockers. I started it off with that same feeling of tingly anticipation I had experienced each time, and for a while I tried to feel the same enthusiasm as before, but after several hundred pages I had to admit that this book seemed different, and not in a good way.
Somewhere along the line, he changed. The violence increased exponentially, and the lovingly detailed descriptions of everyday life and objects faded away. I kept reading his books for several years more, but for me, none came close to his earlier works, such as The Shining, The Stand and The Dead Zone.
If you've read more than two or three books by Anne Rivers Siddons, you'll find she occasionally uses the same supporting characters, the same historical events, the same plots, subplots and sub-subplots, and in one instance in particular -- a scene in an Atlanta night club in both Peachtree Road and Downtown -- the same collection of paragraphs of description and dialogue, changing only the characters' names. I guess it's OK if you're plagiarizing yourself?
I enjoy some of her books for their soapy, Southern Gothic goodness, but after I read Downtown and recognized pages of dialogue from the earlier book, I started reading her stuff more for writing flaws than for the story itself.
Quote:
Originally Posted by irootoo
Stephen King. I loved his early books and I was always so excited when a new one came out. I hardly ever purchased hardcover books, but I would go out and buy his books in hardcover right away.
Stephen King. I loved his early books and I was always so excited when a new one came out. I hardly ever purchased hardcover books, but I would go out and buy his books in hardcover right away.
And then came The Tommyknockers. I started it off with that same feeling of tingly anticipation I had experienced each time, and for a while I tried to feel the same enthusiasm as before, but after several hundred pages I had to admit that this book seemed different, and not in a good way.
Somewhere along the line, he changed. The violence increased exponentially, and the lovingly detailed descriptions of everyday life and objects faded away. I kept reading his books for several years more, but for me, none came close to his earlier works, such as The Shining, The Stand and The Dead Zone.
Yes I used to read his books too and can't for the life of me remember what turned me off but something similar no doubt. Tried to read another later but his language was so harsh.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81
If you've read more than two or three books by Anne Rivers Siddons, you'll find she occasionally uses the same supporting characters, the same historical events, the same plots, subplots and sub-subplots, and in one instance in particular -- a scene in an Atlanta night club in both Peachtree Road and Downtown -- the same collection of paragraphs of description and dialogue, changing only the characters' names. I guess it's OK if you're plagiarizing yourself?
I enjoy some of her books for their soapy, Southern Gothic goodness, but after I read Downtown and recognized pages of dialogue from the earlier book, I started reading her stuff more for writing flaws than for the story itself.
LOL, I was kind of thinking that it's OK if you plagiarize yourself but it does show quite a lot of laziness and she should realize that her fans are going to be reading very closely.
And fans are big--that's what got Colleen McCullough in trouble with her book--she hadn't counted on the many loyal fans of L.M. Montgomery who were searching far and wide to read every last one of her books. I'm wondering if LMM had sunk into near obscurity when CM wrote her book?
I just looked her up on wiki. She wrote Thorn Birds in 1977 and Ladies of Miss in 1987, so obviously she was a successful writer and LMM was not obscure at that time, though the book was. She def failed to take the fans into account. She died in January of this year at 77.
fans are big--that's what got Colleen McCullough in trouble with her book--she hadn't counted on the many loyal fans of L.M. Montgomery who were searching far and wide to read every last one of her books.
Did you read 11/22/63? That's the only one of King's I've ever read, but it was one of the most fascinating books I've read in a long time.
Yes, it's funny, I loved the first part, thinking "OMG, it's the old Stephen King, the author I loved," and then the last part of the book just didn't have that same feel. And then I read that he said he had written the first part years earlier and then finished it at a later time. So something really changed in his style for me between the old stuff and the new.
Janet Evanovich. We are 22 books in and it's the same book over and over. The characters never grow, I seriously think she has the first book on her computer and does a search to change out a few things. Sadly, it took me buying the first 18 books before I realized this. Now I get them at the library. They are easy, fun reads, just predictable carbon copies of her other books.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
