Quote:
Originally Posted by Katsunami
Frodo is 33/34 at the time the quest starts out in the LotR movies. That's no young hero; IMHO, it's a good age. I often feel the urge to burn a book if it becomes apparatent that the "hero" is a 15 to 17-year old boy (or girl) again. It's overdone.
|
Though I agree with you about the tween/teen protagonists, 33 is young for the long-lived Hobbit race, so I thought the apparent youth of the hobbit characters to be appropriate.
I read Atlas Shrugged when I was very young and frankly do not remember it. I read it about the time I read 1984, Brave New World and Animal Farm and sort of lumped it in with them. However, I read The Fountainhead as a young adult (22) and enjoyed it - unusual because almost all of my recreational reading is in the Fantasy and Science Fiction genres. I also do not agree with Rand's politics, but it was well written and kept my interest.
I usually read every book I start because I am cheap and am going to read anything I buy to the (sometimes) bitter end. Where I do go off the rails is in a couple of book series that I started and never finished. Chief among which is the Thomas Covenant series by Stephen R. Donaldson. I read the first two trilogies to the bitter end, thinking that somewhere Covenant was actually going to become a hero, or at least show some concern for others than himself. At the end of the second series I actually felt like physically throwing the book as far away from myself as I could. I never considered reading the third trilogy. I hesitate to say I hate anything/anyone, but that character comes as close to drawing hatred out of me than any real person possibly could.
I did start the Gormenghast books after a friend recommended them to me, but I just lost interest in the first book and never continued that series either.
I did read the entire Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind and by the fourth book I felt like I was slogging through muck. I am not overly critical of writers, but that was the worst written series of books I've ever read.
Catch-22 was one of my favorite books back in the day. I also read all of the M.A.S.H. books. Maybe one had to be of a certain generation to have related to Catch-22, I don't know, but I enjoyed every page. When I became a soldier it resonated even deeper with me. Major Major Major - I could see that happening.