
How Could You Like That Book? - lermontov
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2015/nov/10/how-could-you-like-that-book/
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marincounty
"Reading Neuman’s The Traveler of the Century, I appreciate that he is
brilliant, that he effortlessly churns out page after page of complex prose,
but I feel the whole thing is an ambition-driven exercise in literariness.
Same with so many who flaunt their fancy prose."

I'm not a big reader of fiction. I don't mind fancy prose if the author book
is interesting. I know everyone has different interests, but I am tired of
authors who ran out of interesting plots years ago, or never had any to begin
with; but get seem to get by with fancy flowery prose? To budding new writers,
lay off the cigarette imagery. "The room was beyond squalor. The lit cigarette
had burned down to the filter. A blue albuteral inhaler was clenched in his
right hand, like a baby holds a rattle." Please, we got the imagery with "He
had a lit cigarette in the ashtray."

Or maybe, I'm wrong?

I wouldn't take one word out of Nabrakov's Lolita. That said, there's a lot of
modern books I wish were under 200 pages. I just don't see the need for 500
pages of anything. That goes 10 fold for technical books.

I'm a poor reader with most fiction, or the fiction I was forced to read in
college. My reading skills improved greatly when I was given a tight, usually
short story. A Woody Allen story comes to mind. And, I really liked Jack
London's book about freezing in the wilderness. Forget the name of both
stories, but I was astonished London wrote it on a beach in Hawaii, and the
short story Woody wrote was in Playboy. It had nothing to do with sex either.

Since, I'm not a big fiction reader, but I read a lot of non-fiction. My hope
is technical books in the future will get better--shorter--to the point. I
wouldn't mind if technical authors used numbers to list their points? 1. The
idea. 2. The procedure. 3. Problems that might arise.

I wouldn't even mind if author's used numbering like in legal documents. I
love visual technical books, but haven't seen any done really well yet. And I
see nothing wrong with techniclal books that use a comic book form--like some
military manuals are written.

Again, I'm the last person who should comment on a person's writing.

~~~
alasarmas
I think the Jack London story you're thinking of is "To Build a Fire":

[http://www.jacklondons.net/buildafire.html](http://www.jacklondons.net/buildafire.html)

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xuhu
At the point where the author mentions tossing a book after getting halfway
through it, I'm wondering whether reading only the first half of books might
be a good idea for him.

~~~
cafard
From Boswell's _Life of Johnson_ , entry for April 19, 1773:

Mr. Elphinston talked of a new book that was much admired, and asked Dr.
Johnson if he had read it. JOHNSON. 'I have looked into it.' 'What, (said
Elphinston,) have you not read it through?' Johnson, offended at being thus
pressed, and so obliged to own his cursory mode of reading, answered tartly,
'No, Sir, do YOU read books THROUGH?'

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thebear
At the risk of misusing and abusing the term, I find the author's point of
view aspergerish: lack of social or emotional reciprocity. He finds it natural
that there are things that are interesting and worth reading to him, but not
to others. So why would he be stumped by the fact that there are things that
others find interesting and worth reading, while he does not?

