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Comment by Kon5ole

12 hours ago

This used to be true because most published books were well written. I don't think that's true anymore. Too much noise and too little signal so to speak.

I feel a growing trend where books read like the author's main inspiration is TV shows, down to villains surprising the main character by jumping out from "behind the camera" and dialogue that reads like the book has no ability to convey thoughts and emotions except by having the characters explain them to another character.

Maybe I've just gotten more picky with age but I have a hard time finding anything readable lately. Sure there's the literary prize winners, but they tend to be dull and slow - I want solid pageturner pulp! :)

4 comments

Kon5ole

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amunozo  11 hours ago

There are more written books that a regular person can read in their entire life. Even if what you say is true, no need to only read modern books.

  • Kon5ole  6 hours ago

    You are correct but there must surely be good modern books too. Problem is finding them.

    Could also be an unavoidable effect from reading many books I guess, the more you read the harder the competition is for the next book.

shiandow  10 hours ago

A sense of which writing is better is the very thing that reading lots of books helps you discover.

And I don't think only reading "quality" literature is necessary, you just need to not mindlessly read the same thing over and over again.

I've found my enjoyment of all media improved massively when I stopped trying to find what made it bad and started to look for what made it good.

Though some techniques start to feel cheap, like how fast food makes everything palatable by being crunchy salt and sweet.