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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest&nbsp; 85555" data-source="post: 9604136">I am sure some of it is we are just old and our tastes have set to a certain extent (when I was a kid, I loved extreme music like death metal, but there was no way on earth my father would have been equipped to appreciate that after building his taste around things like The Doors and Fleetwood Mac; and my grandfather listened to Italian opera and music from the 40s). Some of this is just natural generational stuff that happens, and I can admit, within the past ten years or so, I have found myself, like  a lot of gamers my age to be in old man territory (our tastes went pretty quickly from being cool to being old fashioned). Some people keep up more with change in media, others don't as muchI find though a big part of what is going on is really more about the sheer volume of stuff available now, and how boutique it can be. If you like books about very specific things, chances are high you can find a whole subgenre dedicated to that and if you google it or search on amazon, you might be overwhelmed by the selection. It can be really hard to know what is good, or where to beginFor me my tastes have both shifted and at times stayed the same. When it comes to fantasy and science fiction, I do find I just have more of a reaction to earlier material these days. Sometimes I will encounter something new that stands out to me or fits my taste, but a lot of it probably reads to me the way death metal sounded to my dad. With horror I must admit I just like classics more than contemporary. Even in the 80s and 90s, while I read a lot of contemporary horror, I never enjoyed it as much as stuff like Poe, Stoker, Shelley, Lovecraft, etc. Something about the classics in that genre for me. These days I am more inclined when I spend time reading for pleasure, to read something that is either a bit more classic or translations of wuxia literature. A lot of the time though I am probably reading history books more than anything else. I read the first 30 pages or so of Legends and Lattes. I was just curious after it became the subject of conversation. It is definitely not my cup of tea but I will say, to bring it back to my comment about Howard's prose, the prose is quite good in my view (at least it is the sort of prose I enjoy when I am reading a book). The writer clearly is good at the craft. To me the issue was more about style and focus not appealing to me than the book not being well written. I do think there is a difference between something being badly written and simply not appealing to my tastes or sensibilities. And I think a lot of times people get so caught up in the conversations around cultural issues they can't put that aside and look at the work to genuinely judge the writing. Legends and Lattes is a case in point where I can't fault that writer after reading the prose because I'd give my pinky to be able to write that way. I just didn't like the focus, but that is personal taste, not about the writing or quality of the work. Star Wars Aftermath, I found harder to enjoy because the prose itself was difficult (I did finish Aftermath but my interest in the rest of the series was kind of done in by the writing style).</blockquote>

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