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Bismuth posted:I never actually read these books because as a kid I hated the dragon's big goofy horse lips. I know that was a dumb reason not to read a book but I dont regret it at all. They were bad enough that i stopped reading the first one, literally throwing it across the room. Surprise surprise it was written by a 19 year old weirdo
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Aug 25, 2020 03:52
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bagual posted:
never read these and hated the covers because the dragons look stupid as hell made the right choice
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Aug 25, 2020 03:56
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Aug 25, 2020 04:04
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Aug 25, 2020 04:06
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Shageletic posted:They were bad enough that i stopped reading the first one, literally throwing it across the room. Surprise surprise it was written by a 19 year old weirdo Yeah, I tried reading it when I was 12 and I honestly thought that the prose was too dumb for me to read, even at a preteen age.
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Aug 25, 2020 04:10
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cynic posted:I don't know why this one causes issues, but it did. A long time ago. I recognize the kender, but I can’t figure out who the other two are supposed to be. The barmaid turned fighter and the half-sister once she went full Darth Vader? Bismuth posted:I never actually read these books because as a kid I hated the dragon's big goofy horse lips. I know that was a dumb reason not to read a book but I dont regret it at all. Jumping on this bandwagon. Nice to know several other had the same reaction.
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Aug 25, 2020 04:12
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when you think about it dragon scale mail like that makes no sense since you'd need to use REALLY small scales like the ones found near the toes to have it fit right for a human suit, otherwise you should be using one massive scale chunked up more like dragon plate armor which is hardcore
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Aug 25, 2020 04:16
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This sexy blue dragon reminds me of a tattoo I saw somewhere...
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Aug 25, 2020 04:21
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I really found the death of Sturm impactful as a youngling and I still think it is
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Aug 25, 2020 04:26
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One More Fat Nerd posted:Wheel of Time I tried reading the first book briefly before tossing it in the bin. Just painfully boring.
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Aug 25, 2020 04:29
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Shageletic posted:They were bad enough that i stopped reading the first one, literally throwing it across the room. Surprise surprise it was written by a 19 year old weirdo Ugh, that was another reason I didnt read it. All the teachers would go on and on about how the author was ONLY A TEENAGER and he got his book PUBLISHED and was now SO RICH AND POPULAR and if we just worked hard and paid attention in school we'd be just like him. That only made me more annoyed and less interested in reading it out of spite. Wasnt the truth that the kid's parents were publishers or something and published it for him and pushed the book a bunch and thats how it got into the mainstream? I dont remember exactly but I do recall it turned out he didnt just pull himself up by his teenage bootstraps like the teachers tried to push
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Aug 25, 2020 04:39
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I was about done being a teenager when those books were out and I heard what they said about him being so young, and I thought, as a kid who has been writing since I was like 10, thought "no way my stuff is NOT book-good at all, his stuff cannot be worth it"
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Aug 25, 2020 04:46
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Bismuth posted:Ugh, that was another reason I didnt read it. All the teachers would go on and on about how the author was ONLY A TEENAGER and he got his book PUBLISHED and was now SO RICH AND POPULAR and if we just worked hard and paid attention in school we'd be just like him. That only made me more annoyed and less interested in reading it out of spite. I never really considered that angle but even as a teen who read a bunch of fan fiction I couldn’t get past the low quality writing of the first book. Same thing turned me off Harry Potter tbh, though it was farther down the line because the first book did come out when I was quite young. Perhaps that was by design though. Though in its own way campy fantasy novels can be endearing. I remember some books in the mtg timeline keeping me up at night while tackling such complex issues as could the phyrexian sleeper cell learn humanity by falling in love? Quality writing no, but it did give me a high score on my SATs. ArbitraryC fucked around with this message at 04:50 on Aug 25, 2020 |
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Aug 25, 2020 04:47
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Never figured out which way Raistlin , Caramon, and Kitiara were pronounced. Years later I find out the pronunciations in my head were all wrong. And the books skipped over most of the plot of the modules. Not mad just something else to add the list of grievances about the series.
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Aug 25, 2020 04:49
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Automatic Slim posted:Never figured out which way Raistlin , Caramon, and Kitiara were pronounced. Years later I find out the pronunciations in my head were all wrong. Is there a guide to their pronunciation?
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Aug 25, 2020 04:53
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To all the people saying they didn't read Eragon because the dragons looked dumb and it was the right choice, you are absolutely correct. Those books sucked rear end, a bunch of boring horsepiss. And the tie-in game was even worse.
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Aug 25, 2020 04:54
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:Is there a guide to their pronunciation? Not in the books I had.
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Aug 25, 2020 04:54
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I remember Raistlin because a girl in my high school class was obsessed with him, and I think he had a twin brother? I think I read one Dragonlance book, then dropped them all for Discworld. I had a single Xanth book too. I remember it being called something about colored panties? I mostly remember Piers Anthony from a horror book he did called Firefly or Dragonfly, about some Proteus-like creature that absorbed people and and in the middle of the book there was a horribly graphic pedo scene that was written so the dude doing it was not so bad because the girl's family was already abusing her. I came close to throwing that library book away and paying a fine because I didn't want anyone else to read it. I can't remember which I read first, the Anne Rice Sleeping Beauty poo poo or that Piers Anthony one. Either way they both kinda deadened any kind of sexual feelings I had for a long rear end time.
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Aug 25, 2020 05:01
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Automatic Slim posted:Never figured out which way Raistlin , Caramon, and Kitiara were pronounced. Years later I find out the pronunciations in my head were all wrong. Let's see. I was "Rast-lin", "Cara-mon" like a cara-mel dig-mon, and "Kit-eh-are-uh" like a model kit
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Aug 25, 2020 05:24
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Caesar Saladin posted:I read the Belgariad books when I was a kid and they were kinda entertaining but goofy, but then he wrote a second set of books with the same characters which were exactly the same books pretty much. And then he tried tried to pass it off by the characters going "Wow we are in some kind of cosmic loop" at one point. The cosmic loop was actually the whole point of the second series though. Like David Eddings absolutely was a lazy writer who reused the same plots for his first four series' of fantasy books, but at least with the Mallorean that was intentional. And if he hadn't done it again he would probably be remembered a lot more fondly. But the Elenium was the Belgariad set in a different universe with a middle aged main character, and the Tamuli was the sequel to the Elenium but was also a redo of the Mallorean, but without any of the cosmic destiny stuff that made the Mallorean palatable. To be fair, I actually like the Elenium, the setting is different enough that I can forgive it having the exact same story as the Belgariad. The Tamuli is just unforgiveably bad. The Belgarath the Sorcerer prequel to the Belgariad was funny, because it is mostly Belgarath bitching about how every historical figure in this universe was an idiot.
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Aug 25, 2020 05:34
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ArbitraryC posted:I never really considered that angle but even as a teen who read a bunch of fan fiction I couldn’t get past the low quality writing of the first book. Same thing turned me off Harry Potter tbh, though it was farther down the line because the first book did come out when I was quite young. Perhaps that was by design though. The harry potter books actually got worse over time. I think JKR got george lucas syndrome where in the beginning there were other people sort of quality-controlling the books but by the end she was so popular as an author they just let her do whatever and it came out reeeeally bad. I was still in HS when the last 2 or 3 came out and I couldnt finish them, despite being a huge fan as a kid. I re-read the older ones too and they are really much better than the later. You can see it in the movies too, the first few are warm and whimsical and fun for kids but the last few are like a completely different series that just sucks huge rear end. At least all the trashy fantasy from the 70s and 80s were pretty consistently horrid with no quality control whatsoever so if you could stand the first book you could usually slog through the rest.
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Aug 25, 2020 05:36
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Yo how did this thread escape book barn? I'm unreasonably mad that book barn is 99% discussion of nerd trash books
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Aug 25, 2020 05:42
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KrunkMcGrunk posted:Yo how did this thread escape book barn? Im glad it escaped  
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Aug 25, 2020 05:47
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Definitely got around to reading quite a bit of Dragonlance just before the age where you put on airs and think you're too good for that kind of thing. I probably bailed on it sometime during the 2nd trilogy with Raistlin and his brother, total snoozefest IIRC. I think I also remember a character had an ex-girlfriend who was the ice queen ball buster type who was working for the bad guys but when she finally entered the story it was also not nearly as cool as it should have been. However apparently I liked those enough to also read the first Death Gate book which was by the same authors. I remember really liking that one at least as far as schlock goes, it was fairly fun and creative, are the rest any good?
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Aug 25, 2020 06:16
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Schlock or not I’d encourage kids to read this stuff. I’ve tutored for over a decade now and I’ve constantly had students and parents ask me what I did to study for the reading/writing portion of entrance related exams and none of them believe me when I said say I played a lot of grognard games and read trashy fantasy but it’s true, that’s the only studying I did for it. I was in all sorts of advanced stem classes but lit wise I was a completely normal student that just grew up with my nose in lovely books. I can’t count how many words I could recognize on sight but had no idea how to pronounce when I was 17, I recall my mom making fun of me for saying eh peh tomb.
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Aug 25, 2020 06:30
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The Bible posted:I read some of the Shadowrun novels once. I have a Shadowrun novel I haven't read called Striper Assassin (because she's a tiger person you see) and people have an understandably hard time reading the title.
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Aug 25, 2020 06:35
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ArbitraryC posted:Schlock or not I’d encourage kids to read this stuff. I’ve tutored for over a decade now and I’ve constantly had students and parents ask me what I did to study for the reading/writing portion of entrance related exams and none of them believe me when I said say I played a lot of grognard games and read trashy fantasy but it’s true, that’s the only studying I did for it. I'd maybe skip out on the ones with pedophilia and rape though
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Aug 25, 2020 06:36
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ArbitraryC posted:Schlock or not I’d encourage kids to read this stuff. I do not agree I would be extremely choosy about the 'stuff'
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Aug 25, 2020 06:38
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Just give a healthy perspective of content I guess? Like you wouldn’t slap a Superman toy out of a kids hand cause it’s a male power fantasy? There’s gotta be some balance between the interest of reading and criticism of the content, if you do it right you don’t need to ban lovely books the kid will just naturally not wanna read them as they mature. I stumbled across those dragon books written by a teen when I was myself a teen and passed on it after the first one. I had read enough cheap fantasy to recognize it. I mean it’s better than adults who seemingly never read a book outside school requirements in their life getting into twilight fanfiction.
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Aug 25, 2020 06:45
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I'd rather kids read than not read, even if they're reading garbage. If you get into the habit of reading books maybe you'll end up reading good books! You've got at least a better chance than if you hadn't developed the habit of regular reading.
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Aug 25, 2020 06:49
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:I'd rather kids read than not read
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Aug 25, 2020 06:59
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Black August posted:I was about done being a teenager when those books were out and I heard what they said about him being so young, and I thought, as a kid who has been writing since I was like 10, thought "no way my stuff is NOT book-good at all, his stuff cannot be worth it" Every time this series is mentioned all I can think of is some online wit saying at the time “Pretty good for a teenager isn’t very good at all god drat it.” They should print that on the back of every copy.
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Aug 25, 2020 07:05
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I keep forgetting it was really just mom-and-dad sanctioned publishing of ideas and I shrug because yeah he was just a kid and that was an unfair thing to say yes about, just let it be what it was and hope his career improves
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Aug 25, 2020 07:07
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bagual posted:
Eragon is such a blatent rip off of Star Wars IV: A New Hope, that it's hilarious. It begins with the Princess fleeing from the emperor's Right Hand Man, carrying a Secret that is the Emperor's weakness. She gets caught, but at the last minute, she sends it away to the Mentor she once knew. But it doesn't quite get there and instead it's found by a bored farm boy living with his uncle... And then he is taught magic and swordfighting and Mentor dies and they save Princess. It's not subtle
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Aug 25, 2020 07:25
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What good is kids reading anyways? They are going to get all sorts of weird ideas, better not.
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Aug 25, 2020 12:18
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Cowslips Warren posted:I remember Raistlin because a girl in my high school class was obsessed with him, and I think he had a twin brother? I think I read one Dragonlance book, then dropped them all for Discworld. Steven Brust is the first fantasy writer I've read outside of Tolkien I can look back on reading without shame. Well, the Black Cauldron probably wasn't that bad. The Deathgate Chronicles definitely were.
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Aug 25, 2020 13:33
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My buddy who liked Dragonlance basically didn't read anything outside of fantasy novels. It definitely got him reading, and I think that's valuable.
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Aug 25, 2020 14:19
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Bell_ posted:God, I wish I had experienced Pratchett books when I was young. The thing was, the first Discworld book I got was Eric. Which kinda stands alone, but it got me interested at least. I ended up finding the rest of the books, starting with The Colour of Magic, and working my way through. I distinctly remember seeing Lords and Ladies in a used book store and saving my allowance to get it. I remember also getting some of the Pern books, and liking most of them. But the whole 'dragons mate so their riders have to gently caress' kinda stuck me as super weird. Also, I felt bad for the riders who didn't get a queen or bronze dragon because despite being dragonriders, they were treated kinda lovely.
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Aug 25, 2020 14:33
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Cowslips Warren posted:The thing was, the first Discworld book I got was Eric. Which kinda stands alone, but it got me interested at least. I ended up finding the rest of the books, starting with The Colour of Magic, and working my way through. I distinctly remember seeing Lords and Ladies in a used book store and saving my allowance to get it. Discworld is kind of a series you don't want to start at the beginning. I would say the best first Discworld book is either Guards! Guards!, Mort, or Wyrd Sisters. A lot of the earlier books are kind of weird and half-formed, like the series and the setting just isn't quite sure what it's doing yet. With those three, you don't need to know anything that came before, you get a solid story, and if you want, you can get direct follow-ups that remain completely consistent. Choosing the right one out of those three depends on the person in question and what they already know and like. Parody works best if you're already familiar with whatever is being parodied.
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Aug 25, 2020 14:43
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ArbitraryC posted:
Lol the only thing reading lovely books gave me. Not good grades per se, but the only way a lazy kid would ever learn the word bivouac, sure.
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Aug 25, 2020 15:15
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