So I'm a 26 y.o. dude who's been reading sci-fi/fantasy my whole life. I decided about 2 years ago that I wanted to be a writer, but I knew that to be a good writer you have to read a lot and widely so I started reading more broadly. I started with 100 years of solitude since it was magical realism and I loved it. I also read George Luis Borges and Franz Kafka. Now I've made my way through tons of classic authors and I'm reading war and peace at the moment. I did try to pick up a fantasy book I had my eyes on, but I noticed how clunky the writing is compared to a lot of literary fiction stuff. That said I did enjoy Gene Wolfe and Kurt Vonnegut, though I don't know if you guys would consider them literary since they mainly did sci-fi stuff.
As I said I've noticed how clunky a lot of the writing in sci-fi/fantasy really is now. I feel like Neo form the matrix but for literature if that makes sense. A lot of the time the writing bores me and all the writers have is worldbuilding that quiet frankly, isn't very good. I'll always be nostalgic for series like His Dark Materials, LOTR, ASOIAF, Dune, and Narnia, but overall I think I'm beginning to move on from it. I wonder if anyone else has experienced anything similar throughout their reading lives.
[link] [comments]