Quote:
Originally Posted by ficbot
I like mystery and suspense novels, and recently have read a spate of best-sellers which have been disappointing. They weren't terrible, per se. Just...average. They were fine. They were adequate. But they didn't blow my mind, and as they were bestseller-DRMd, I had to liberate them and in a few cases, the formatting was a little rough.
I am running out of space on my Sony so I decided my next reads would be some of the bigger files, many of which happen to be classics because they are either a) available here as some kind of mega-anthology like the Sherlock Holmes stories or b) if not available here, available at Feedbooks, in which case, it's a PDF and hence a bigger file. I am enjoying these so much more! They just seem like more substantial books, higher-quality books. They have stood the test of time. It just feels like the reading I am doing is higher-quality, more substantial stuff. The writing is better. The atmosphere is more elegantly conveyed. It's like switching to artisan bread after years of wonder bread sandwiches.
I'm so excited. I do still have a fair stash of disposable modern reads to get through. But I think I am going to institute a holding period on these where I will wait a month when I see one in case it shows up on Overdrive for free at my library. While I wait, I will read these superior classics and enjoy the plethora of freebies which are nicer looking and of much better quality.
Some of the ones I have enjoyed so far:
Sherlock Holmes omnibus (almost done!)
Jacques Futrelle omnibus (I like the 'locked room' genre)
Edgar Allan Poe (short stories)
H.G. Wells (almost finished War of the Worlds)
On my to-read list:
Mary Roberts Rinehart
Raymond Chandler
Sax Rohmer
Dashiell Hammett
Dorothy Sayers
Earl Derr Biggers
Ernest Bramah
Raffles Series
Arsene Lupin Series
Wilkie Collins
Anna Katharine Green
Scarlet Pimpernel Series
G.K. Chesterton (Father Brown)
Augusta Groner
Anyone want to suggest any others I am missing? I feel like I could go for years just on what's in the library here! Back to the no-buying challenge for me!
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You'll find, especially in the mystery genre, that modern novels are lukewarm compared to the originators. As of yet nobody has approached the style, wit and beauty of a Chandler novel. Nobody has the pacing of Hammett, and there'll never be anyone as two-fisted and pulpy as Sax Rohmer.
I had a lecturer who said you should never read your contemporaries in any fictional field. He said it was like drinking water spat out of someone else's mouth.
