STOP - please

I finished it over the weekend. I've read all but about 10 of his full length novels. Eventually I'll read them all. I'd put The Shining somewhere in the bottom 25%, maybe even bottom 10%. I think he really shines with books that are heavy on fantasy. Horror books, books that are just trying to be scary with a thin plot, aren't enjoyable for me.

I thought Fairy Tale was fine. Not great, but somewhere solidly in the middle of his catalog. The sex paragraph kind of came out of the blue and didn't fit in very well, but it is what it is. Up until then, I kind of expected the two female prisoners to be lesbians, or if not I thought Charlie might hook up with Jaya since they interacted a lot throughout the story.

you're not really a reader, are you?

I do audiobooks mostly as re-reads. Sometimes if I'm driving I can pay attention enough, but for the most part I can't. So it's often rereads or things I'm not sure I'm going to be interested in in the first place.

OP, Anne Rice might have content you've said you don't want to engage with. I'd read descriptions or download free samples from Kindle to see. She has lots of books so you may or may not find something you'd like.

it's just a book with words and stuff - now one can answer this question except you: pick it up and start reading

>My first was the shining, which i would rate a 8/10. So maybe, King is just not my style and i was lucky with the shining.

I think you could pick any of King's first half-dozen or so books (and all of the initial Richard Bachman novels) and have a pretty good time, rewarding your time and interest. After that, maybe another half-dozen equally strong reads, as long as you avoided the novels veering into fantasy (and I would include the Dark Tower series in this).

Fairy Tale comes in the twilight of a very long career, when most folk would just retire. King can't not write, so he'll continue to be published, but he's written very little of real worth—certainly compared to his heyday—for almost two decades now.

Got the three omnibi on my shelf, worn down by overreading.

I agree that YA novels are too soft, but I blame the conservative pearlclutchers. I mean, have you seen what’s happening in Texas and Florida? Every time I pick up a queer YA book its full of bad jokes and I feel like I’m being preached at. Everyone wants to make sure the childrens’ feelings are never hurt, so they write about an imaginary rainbow fantasyland where nothing ever really goes wrong. And the MCs never struggle for longer than a nanosecond before everything is magically fixed.

Attempt at humor: It lacks any >!abuse, sex, and etc.!< So... yes?

I'm reading that book with a pre-teen right now. We're closing on the end! I've read the second, but haven't read the third yet.

Since he turned into some whinning baby wacko on Twitter I stopped reading his books

Well, I thought the sex scene in IT when Beverly takes each boy in turn was out of the blue and was unnecessary. Oh, and that the two of them had sex when they were adults, and he's a happily married man with a wife he loves.

I’m the same way. I can listen to simple “summer reads” but if I’m going to try to absorb a subject to learn or understand I have to read them or listen while doing almost nothing else. My audiobooks are all books where you could skip a chapter and not really miss it. Stuff to understand is words on paper/iPad and stored next to my stereo.

I also can't listen to audiobooks. I zone out and can't pay attention, let alone remember anything. Give me text any day of the week :)

That’s incredible and I’m so happy you have that connection with your Mom. It’d be so touching to look through their list and read some of what your Mom read, to try and feel the emotions she felt when reading a story.

The reader is supposed to worry for a while that

1. Jane is only being swept away by a strong personality with Mr. Rochester, and
2. her religious beliefs are going to overwhelm her in her grief, and keep her from balance and happiness

Her relationship with St. John shows us that when tested, she’s going to stand up for herself on both fronts. Knowing that makes us feel much better about her returning to Rochester. St. John should have been the perfect thing to break her spirit and he wasn’t. Knowing that she also has money and family to fall back on now and she STILL chooses Rochester show us she’s also not just looking for security.

I agree that the pacing gets a little slow in the third act, but it’s almost all relevant. As for the religious adherence, all I can say is that it was written in another time, when those things were of real concern to most people.

2 robot grandpa's have bitch fight over cube, go to court and cause several accidental genocides.

R/printsf or r/suggestmeabook or r/booksuggestions should be able to help

I think you summed him up pretty well. The only book of his I thought was above average was Recursion. The rest were adequate, but just left me feeling empty at the end.

R/suggestmeabook and r/booksuggestions will likely be able to help

IMO, Recursion is his best work instead of Dark Matter. But yeah, he writes good page-turners. If you go in expecting groundbreaking stuff, you'll be disappointed.

So honestly you should take your request to r/fantasy and r/printsf and r/suggestmeabook.

Publishing is a business and is subject to trends and the demands of the market. There is a wide range and variety of what you are looking for in older books, not all of them in realist settings from other Centuries. Although as a fan of historical adventure in particular, I think you are missing out.

The Deed of Paksenarrion has what you are looking for. I am currently loving the Lions of Al Rassan which has a character who matches your request learning to work with adults. It's an amazing book.

Someone above saying it’s like Munro or Atwood and Atwood is undeniably the best writer alive so I’m like hmmmm? What’s up with Canada ? Can anyone elaborate

I have a few methods;

• Goodreads; I’ve been doing this since 2015 consistently, so keep it up to date. I can see basic stats and track books. I try to review every book.
• Storygraph; Migrated my data last year. They have pretty graphs.
• Notebooks; I have a notebook where I list the books straight for quote taking purposes (noted below), and the other half of the notebook is used for to read book lists.
• Quote taking; Since about… 2006? I’ve taken quotes from books. I now have 17 odd notebooks full of my favourite quotes from every book I’ve ever read. These I will admit are my pride and joy! I’m currently a tad behind, which is why I have my hand written list so I can easily access the next book.
• Book Journal; I haven’t done this in a while but I have a book journal which I fill in for favourite books. I try to draw an image for each book along with the brief review. This is the Moleskine book journal.