# Have Your Standards Changed?



## morantis (May 8, 2012)

I am 41 years old and I grew up on Steven King and later on with Dean Koontz and stuff like that.  I remember reading "Strangers" by D Koontz before anyone else knew who he was and I was very impressed, I think I was about 20 at the time.  I remember seeing the movie "The Sixth Sense" and although I was not surprised at the ending, I was rather impressed by the thought behind it.  I must have been thirty or so when that came out.  Now, I don't know if more current movies and books have raised the bar or I am becoming harder to please, but I just don't get that same "wow" effect from any book or film.  The last movie I remember being impressed by was "Silent Hill."  It was not a great movie, but it used some nice poetic maneuvers that I was impressed with.  It is the same thing with books, I pick up a Dean Koontz book and see the same story line being re-used with a few changes.  I believe that it must be something to do with the overload of media that we have now.  Between my computer, the TV, my cellphone, and ten different devices around, I need a require more input to be satisfied. I recall being 17 or 18 and when I was not out doing something, I would be sitting in the floor at the foot of my bed and reading a book, that was it!  Now, as I am writing this(on the computer, duh), I have the TV on in the background, my laptop to the side where I am developing a new video game, I am getting texts on my phone and I am listening to the radio.  I don't know if it is me that has changed or society at large, but I am just harder to please in literature and everything else it seems.  Your thoughts


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I believe it is called developing taste and discrimination, and is usually considered a good thing! B-) 

I am definitely that way. Some books and movies hold up after many years, but many do not! And I am more picky about new stuff. 

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2


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## charlesatan (May 8, 2012)

Tastes change. No need to feel guilty about it. 

Our experiences shape how we read a text. When I was younger, most of the things I read seemed interesting. Now, after being exposed to a lot, not so much.


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## ChrisWard (Mar 10, 2012)

I think good is still good.  There's a lot more junk around to wade through, but there are still loads of awesome books/movies/albums being made.


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

I'm pretty much the same age as you, and I've also noticed that I'm starting to have more "seen that before" experiences than "wow that's new!" ones    

The flip side of Hooded Claw's point of developing taste, is that it does become a bit harder to lose yourself in a book or movie, to suspend your judgemental mind and to just enjoy.  I mean, I remember being totally blown away by Williard Price's Adventure books when I was about 10 years old.  If I read those now, I would just not see the things I loved at that time, not being able to look past the cliché plots etc.  

So I'm not sure if I'm better off now.  I still find books and movies that I absolutely love, but they are fewer than before.

I have noticed that some people seem to take a positive (not the right word, maybe?) pleasure out of finding what is wrong with a book or movie.  They love taking things down a peg, sniggering over how trite, clichéd, unoriginal etc etc everything is. It's as though denigrating something builds their opinion of themselves.

I dont believe in "if you dont have anything good to say, dont say anything", but you can be honestly critical without being snide.  Sorry - gone a bit off topic there!


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## JBool56 (Feb 22, 2012)

I think styles change too. I was reading one of Ian Fleming's original James Bond novels recently, and you know, I'm not sure he'd get published today. Meanwhile, these days everyone is much more conscious of the 'science of structure', especially in movies. While this undoubtedly stops those 'what was all that about?' moments for the audience, it does tend to make things more predictable. (If the second act ends downbeat you know there's going to be a happy ending and vice versa!)


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## WestofMars (Sep 16, 2009)

I wouldn't say it's my standards have changed so much as life experienced has made it harder to find something that I can engage with the way I did when I was a kid. We lose that innocence as we age ... we all know this... so, of course, what blew our less-experienced minds can't do it again. In some respects, you can't go home again, and this is one of them. Those books we read back then shaped us and set the bar for what's to come.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

I think it's completely normal.  Books I read 20 years ago won't hold my attention now.

Try a new genre.  Explore. 

Read a Boyd Morrissen.  Or a Robert Crais (I recommend The Watchman).  Read "Put a Lid on it" by Donald Westlake.  

There's good stuff out there.  You just have to explore.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Having been reading now for several years more than the OP (  ), I am definitely less patient with poor technique (grammar, spelling, pacing, imagery, plotting, etc.) as well as unoriginal stories and characters. While it's true that the e-book medium makes it possible for there to be a lot more chaff out there to wade through, it does at least make it easy to sample books without paying anything up front.


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## Geemont (Nov 18, 2008)

I think might be odd _not_ to have evolving tastes.

In the early and mid 80s Stephen King was my favorite author bar none, but somewhere along the years he slipped out of my preview, having lost all interested in what he writes. I've moved on as he would have said.

I also used to be happier reading fantasy, supernatural horror, or action stories, but now I'm more likely to be skeptical of magic, implausible scenarios, and relentless plot where my younger self might have been thrilled. Nowadays I have almost no tolerance for fast plots, goofy action, predictability, repetition, or what I like to call the "novelization of the movie in the author's head" technique.


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## Alpha72 (May 9, 2012)

To be honest, it feels like I'm getting hard to please as well. Granted, I'm still in my twenties, but I go to some movies and the audience loves them, but I just can't get caught up in the story. Plot holes and organizational flaws just make me want to throw up.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

My tastes change constantly.  My taste in literature changes, my taste in food.  My taste in music is very dramatic in the way it changes.  It's part of living.  I cannot fathom anyone who would be happy staying the same and static for their entire lives.  There's so much in the world to try.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

I'm in my fifties, but I have no idea if I am typical  (probably not) but....

When I was in my late thirties and forties I was hard to please, but I blamed Barnes and Noble for killing the midlist.  They just didn't stock books I liked any more.  And even though I still liked the oldies, I found some of them paled in comparison to my memory of them.

And because of that, I let the world become distracting.

But over the past couple of years, I've found my taste for everything is rebounding.  I credit Kindle, and also the fact that a lot of my favorites are coming back into print.  But I also credit the fact that I have gotten rid of cable TV.  I still watch quite a lot of movies and TV, but only ones I pick out, when I pick them out.

I don't allow anything to come into my attention range uninvited. I don't do texts, for instance.  I choose when I do social media.  I choose the TV shows I watch and when and how I watch them.  Same with movies.  I enjoy everything MUCH more when it is not fed to me.

But I enjoy books the way I did when I was a kid now. 

So if I am any model for the rest of you, thing will get better in a few years.


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## Ty Johnston (Jun 19, 2009)

In my 40s now, yes, my tastes have also changed over the years. Some of it has been for the better, some not. I'm much harder to make happy about my entertainment nowadays, though I'm also much more tolerant of what I consider lesser material than I used to be. I might not like something, but I usually don't go out of my way to bash it.

On the plus side, in the last few years I have had some fortune when it comes to reading. For one, I've stumbled upon a few newer writers who I have enjoyed, even one or two who have actually impressed me. And I've gone back and read some older books I bypassed when younger, many of which I've come to love. Some of those older books I'm glad I didn't read until my 40s because I probably would not have appreciated them as a younger man, but on the flip side of that there are a number of books I read when younger which now I can't find any interest in.

For example, and I hope I don't get burnt at the stake for this, but I no longer enjoy Tolkien. I don't think he's a bad writer or anything like that, but I just don't enjoy his work the way I used to.

An opposite example would be Ed McBain, who I started reading just a few years ago. He's been around for more than half a century (at least until his passing a couple of years back), and I've come to love his police procedurals. I don't think I would have enjoyed McBain as much when I was in my 20s, and maybe not even in my 30s.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Masha du Toit said:


> The flip side of Hooded Claw's point of developing taste, is that it does become a bit harder to lose yourself in a book or movie, to suspend your judgemental mind and to just enjoy.  I mean, I remember being totally blown away by Williard Price's Adventure books when I was about 10 years old. If I read those now, I would just not see the things I loved at that time, not being able to look past the cliché plots etc.


Thanks for mentioning this series! I adored the Willard Price books when I was a child, but haven't seen them in decades, despite an attempt to find them in the early days of Amazon (I couldn't remember the author's name, and "amazon adventure" just pulled up too many books on a search. I see that they are available on Kindle fairly cheaply, and I have ordered a sample. We'll see if I'm able to look past the cliched plots (which I'm sure you are correct about), etc. If the sample is readable, I will probably snag at least one of the Kindle volumes and re-read it after all these years. I still occasionally enjoy my DVD of the Jonny Quest television series, which is essentially the same thing, so I have hope!


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

The Hooded Claw said:


> Thanks for mentioning this series! I adored the Willard Price books when I was a child, but haven't seen them in decades, despite an attempt to find them in the early days of Amazon. I see that they are available on Kindle fairly cheaply, and I have ordered a sample. We'll see if I'm able to look past the cliched plots (which I'm sure you are correct about), etc. If the sample is readable, I will probably snag at least one of the Kindle volumes and re-read it after all these years. I still occasionally enjoy my DVD of the Jonny Quest television series, which is essentially the same thing, so I have hope!


Oh. They are available on Kindle? I'm very tempted to try some of them again.  I think there was an "Undersea Adventure" that I particularly enjoyed.


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

Hey! Thanks for the tip, Hooded Claw  Am about to dive in


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Ty Johnston said:


> An opposite example would be Ed McBain, who I started reading just a few years ago. He's been around for more than half a century (at least until his passing a couple of years back), and I've come to love his police procedurals. I don't think I would have enjoyed McBain as much when I was in my 20s, and maybe not even in my 30s.


For me it's John Le Carre. I tried to read him in grad school, and I could tell I would like him, but the book was much too dense to read casually, so I kept putting it aside for later.

Now, after having lived life for a while, WOW, the difference is amazing. I understood it all intellectually before, but his books are a whole different thing now that I've worked in a tense, paranoid, hostile and yet smooth on the surface work environment. Now they have a layer of meaning that hits me on the visceral level. I might have understood that layer before, but I would never have _felt_ it.

Camille


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## Sarah Peters (May 12, 2012)

I also think that today's writing styles have changed considerably over the years. Most of today's new, young writers are getting published when they do not know whet they are doing. Some just do not have experience in writing enough to be outstanding. They (some, not all) write the same type of story , sure a little mix up here and there but there is no more originality. Also I realized it is harder and harder to connect with the characters on a level where you feel drawn to them. I don't know what it is with resent writers but I find myself not finishing there books more and more often.


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## Todd Young (May 2, 2011)

There is some theory about how new media is changing attention spans. I think I give up on books a lot more than I used to. I get sidetracked and don't go back to them. I don't think they're worse than they used to be. They simply take a lot of time.


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## JBool56 (Feb 22, 2012)

> They (some, not all) write the same type of story , sure a little mix up here and there but there is no more originality.


But is this the writer's fault, or the publishers who want to be assurred of a commercially successful formula? My theory is that when any creative industry reaches a certain size, all the product gravitates to a certain mean average standard. Gone are the real stinkers, but so too the occasional flashes of truly original brilliance. (Just look at the music industry)


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## smallblondehippy (Jan 20, 2012)

I remember being wowed by a lot of books when I was younger. I even remember sending my friends home so I could finish a Terry Brooks novel (yes, I'm a geek!). But now? I still love books but don't discover so many wow books anymore. I think, like a lot of people have pointed out, it's becuase I've been exposed to so much. A lot of what I read now is kind of 'been there, done that already.' Having said that, when I do discover a wow book it makes it extra special. Steven Erikson's Malazan series was one such. Any of you epic fantasy fans? Give it a whirl. Definitely worth a wow.


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## Darlene Jones (Nov 1, 2011)

Yes, but I don't think it's because of being surrounded by multi media. I think our tastes change as we mature and look for more depth and insight in the books we read. They change because of what we've read in the past. For example, I read a lot of historical fiction in the past and romance and now I feel that I've had my fill so look for other subject matter. Also, through my work demands and my own writing I've had to become a critical reader so now I am more exacting in wanting to read "good" writing. I enjoy books like Alphabet by Kathy Page and Sacre Bleu - by Christopher Moore - books I definitely wouldn't have had the patience or maturity for when I was younger.


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## Steverino (Jan 5, 2011)

I think I'm unique here, but I read self-published works on my Kindle for a while, and then for a literature class, doubled back to modern hardcovers (ie., traditional) for a semester.  And I couldn't believe how bad they were!  Amateur-hour writing and terrible formatting errors.  It reset my meter with respect to the quality of new indie authors.  I think they are beginning to compensate for their "self-published" stigma -- they are stepping up.


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## Karl Jones (May 13, 2012)

I'm not so sure it's my standards that have changed, so much as the standards, or perhaps style, of some authors I used to consider my fall back reads.

When I first started reading David Eddings was a big love of mine, I enjoyed reading his stuff so much that I bought The Redemption of Althalus in hardback the moment it came out, but with his last series or so, it just seems as if he's gotten a bit lazy with his writing. It didn't engender the same joy of reading that his earlier work had. 
Even Anne McCaffrey, who I love, seemed at times towards the end that she was pumping out books without taking the time to make them good. The sequel to one of my favourite books, The City Who Fought, turned out to be very weak, and I think it was written more because the fans loved the characters and wanted more, than because Anne had a solid storyline she wanted to work on.


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

Karl - Anne McCaffrey is a great example.  I also love many of her books - but there are many that I've not even opened because I get a strong feeling they are just rushed out.  Especially the ones she co-wrote with other authors.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Not really.  I mean since I was a kid, sure.  But I'm 33 and still more or less read the same types of books, enjoy the same types of movies, and listen to the same type of music (and many of the same groups) that I did in my teens and early 20s.


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## morantis (May 8, 2012)

I think it comes down to the fact that there are only so many combinations of elements that can be used to make a story line.  As time goes by, new ideas are becoming harder and harder to find.  I could be wrong, but it feels like every book I read makes the standards for the next book a little higher, or my disappointment factor a little more sensitive.


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## Guest (May 16, 2012)

Karl Jones said:


> Even Anne McCaffrey, who I love, seemed at times towards the end that she was pumping out books without taking the time to make them good. The sequel to one of my favourite books, The City Who Fought, turned out to be very weak, and I think it was written more because the fans loved the characters and wanted more, than because Anne had a solid storyline she wanted to work on.


I think this is what happens when a book goes from being a "story" to a "franchise." It happens in movies all the time. I'm a huge fan of the original Halloween, Friday the 13th, and Nightmare on Elm Street, for example. But as the stories became "franchises" the plots became weaker and they lost some of their wonder. We see this with authors.

I adored Laurel Hamilton's Anita Blake series for the first six or so books. Then she just got lazy and started writing paranormal porn. Loved R.A. Salvatore's early books featuring Drizzt, but damnit all now if I have to read one more book with that whiny dark elf I will strangle someone. There comes a point when you want to see the characters EVOLVE, not remain stagnant or worse, devolve into something unrecognizable from what they were. And I think what happens at a certain point is that authors start writing just for the sake of keeping a franchise alive than to actually engage in storytelling.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

Sometimes a series falters when it becomes a franchise, but sometimes it transforms into something new that you like.  Of course, when it does, usually the people who didn't like the first books love the later ones, and those who did like the first books, hate the later ones.

I think both Archer Mayor and Robert Crais had points in their long running series where they seemed to be straining and struggling, and then came back better than ever.  While I don't dislike the early Tony Hillermans, I find the later ones more memorable.

Heck, even on TV, House MD jumped the shark a few seasons ago, but they finally shook things up enough that I think this is the best season ever.

Camille


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## Alexandra Sokoloff (Sep 21, 2009)

Films are definitely not as good as they were 10 years ago. The business model in Hollywood has changed and all the good screenwriters have fled to TV, where writers have more power (especially in cable), although that's eroding as well.  And it shows.  I think the last film that knocked me out was Slumdog Millionaire.

But I am RIVETED by shows like Mad Men, The Wire, Deadwood (okay, a while ago!) - I find myself holding my breath sometimes, the writing, acting and production design is so good.


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## John Daulton (Feb 28, 2012)

I don't know so much about how it works in films, but I think for books, this is why some become classics and endure while others wash out over time. I keep two lists of books to read, the new stuff I want to try and the old-school "great" works that I have heard about over and over and never got to. Sometimes they are just dry, dusty old things and I can barely get through them, but sometimes they are freaking amazing and I can't believe I waited so long to read them.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

Sarah Peters said:


> I also think that today's writing styles have changed considerably over the years. Most of today's new, young writers are getting published when they do not know whet they are doing. Some just do not have experience in writing enough to be outstanding. They (some, not all) write the same type of story , sure a little mix up here and there but there is no more originality. Also I realized it is harder and harder to connect with the characters on a level where you feel drawn to them. I don't know what it is with resent writers but I find myself not finishing there books more and more often.


I've found the same thing in my reading, and I blame it on the publishers who are antsy to capitalize on the next big thing (the rash of YA paranormal romances following Twilight's success, for instance) instead of investing in originality. Originality is a risk most corporations aren't willing to take--they want a sure thing. The problem with a sure thing is it's designed to appeal to breadth of audience rather than depth of audience. Having been a corporate wage slave for the last seven years, it amazes me that anything original and interesting ever gets published, frankly, and the fact that it does speaks to the vision of individual acquisitions editors working as best they can in a system that is deeply flawed when it comes to discovering anything of value.

Speaking to the thread topic and to paraphrase a quote about friendship, I've found that some books come into my life for a reason, and I only need to read them once to grasp the message they have for me. Some books come into my life for a season, and after that season has passed, I find that book and I have gone in different directions. And then some books have an impact throughout my life, the books that I read over and over again, like Anne Tyler's _Saint Maybe_, and I discover a new message or insight every time I read them that's pertinent to me at that point in my life. So I wouldn't say that my tastes have gotten more persnickety exactly, merely that they have evolved as I've gotten older.


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

purplepen79 said:


> Speaking to the thread topic and to paraphrase a quote about friendship, I've found that some books come into my life for a reason, and I only need to read them once to grasp the message they have for me. Some books come into my life for a season, and after that season has passed, I find that book and I have gone in different directions. And then some books have an impact throughout my life, the books that I read over and over again, like Anne Tyler's _Saint Maybe_, and I discover a new message or insight every time I read them that's pertinent to me at that point in my life. So I wouldn't say that my tastes have gotten more persnickety exactly, merely that they have evolved as I've gotten older.


I've experienced this as well, and this is one of the reasons I love re-reading.


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Agree with Ms. Sokoloff about movies in general, the great work is happening on cable TV these days. I rarely re-read novels, but my daughter and I read Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree aloud to each other every October. It never grows old.


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## joyceharmon (May 21, 2012)

I think the authors change over time as well. I liked the early Charlotte MacLeod mysteries - they were 'whimsical'. But as time went on, her books became more and more whimsical until they were almost unbearable (to me, at least). It was like taking a flavoring and making it the primary ingredient. I liked the early Dean Koontz, but he went through a phase that I can only describe as paranoid - I don't know if he ever snapped out of it, because I stopped reading him.


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## mooshie78 (Jul 15, 2010)

Disagree about movies getting worse.  Maybe there's been a drop in the quality of blockbuster Hollywood films (but even that I'd disagree on with stuff like The Dark Knight, Inception, The Avengers etc), but I still enjoy most of the Oscar nominated films, and there are lots of great indie and foreign films each year.


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

Seeing the different reasons you all ascribe to your changing tastes is interesting. I'm considerably older than the OP. I've put my increasing fussiness and tendency to abandon books the moment my interest flags down to age and "been there, read that."

However, I think the mere existence of the Kindle has also contributed these last years. I live far enough in the country that before Kindle getting a new book to read wasn't just a walk down the block. I did a lot of rereading of favorites when stuck for something to read. Now a great percentage of the book world is always at my fingertips. The minute something isn't making me happy I can abandon it and try for something better.


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## Tangerine (May 13, 2012)

I too, believe we evolve, or our tastes naturally morph into something else. I used to take things so seriously, and my reading reflected it. I read all the "right" serious stuff. Now I just want a good read.

I want sympathetic, interesting, and well-developed characters, I want a plot line that isn't too full of pain and sorrow, and I want a satisfying ending. Additionally, I want correct grammar and punctuation and vocabulary that is evocative without making me run for the dictionary.

I'm in my 40s, and thanks to Kindle, I am reading genres I never thought I would pick up. It is a most satisfying journey.


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## tahliaN (Nov 6, 2011)

Movies have become a lot more sophisticated and so have the audiences. Look at the James Bond movies for example, they were very popular in their time, but now they just look silly. As for books, there's always been good and bad ones, but as we get older our tastes do change and hopefully we do become more discerning.


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## HarryK (Oct 20, 2011)

I notice the following things about myself as I've gotten older:

1. I'm much more easily distracted, and I prefer shorter works/series.

2. I'm much less excited (for lack of a better word) by stories that feature a lot of graphic sex and violence. As a kid, I think I saw those things as "edgy" or "mature" and gravitated towards them for those reasons.


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## Colin Taber (Apr 4, 2011)

My tastes have changed over the years, too.

When I was a teenager I loved Tolkien, in particular, The Hobbit. I think I reread that book a dozen times and the chapter where Bilbo sneaks down the tunnel maybe a hundred times. In those same years I read Lord of the Rings once, skimming some of it, as it just didn't grip me like Bilbo could.

The Hobbit was all adventure and discovery where as Lord of the Rings was heavy with politics and (slightly) more complicated plotting. 

Twenty years later... okay, perhaps closer to thirty years later, while I'm not rereading any book a dozen times these days I did reread Lord of the Rings a year or so ago and absolutely enjoyed it. I followed the read with a revisit to The Hobbit only to find my enthusiasm had all but evaporated for it. So, yeah, tastes change.


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

Sometimes it can be just that you are in a different place in your life, or a different mood.

I remember most vividly trying to read "Autumn of the Patriarch" and not being able to even go past page one.  A couple of months later I tried again - and loved it.


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## daringnovelist (Apr 3, 2010)

tahliaN said:


> Look at the James Bond movies for example, they were very popular in their time, but now they just look silly.


LOL, I would use the Bond movies as an example of the opposite. More of a "what goes around, comes around."

They were intense and popular, then they got silly and trivial, and now they are back to arguably the best they've ever been. (Which is saying something.)

I think that's true of anything long running. A series can go up and down... and back up. It can appeal to one audience and then change to appeal to a different one.

And there are two factors that change: one is the author's enthusiasm and skill (an author can burn out, or get better), the other is the audience. A series can maintain its quality, but if it doesn't ever change, people become less excited about it. It becomes old hat. (A comfortable and liked old hat, but nothing to write home about.)

Hollywood has one advantage in the "author burnout" category: it can hire new authors and directors and actors. (This is also a disadvantage.) I think Bond shows how well a reboot can work.

Camille


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## RSHunter88 (Jan 17, 2012)

I find that I'm much less patient with books now than I was in the past. Before I used to hate not finishing books, but now with all the stuff available for my Kindle, if a book isn't grabbing me or if there are too many grammatical mistakes, I just stop reading. I'm much more critical of self-published works too. If the writing's poor or the story is sloppy, I'll stop reading after the first chapter or so.


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## Sarah Peters (May 12, 2012)

I am really young compared to some of you but I agree with a lot of what you are saying. Not dissing any books here but in my opinion a lot of today's books are mimicking each other in some way or form. Hunger Games and Twilight- love triangles are now popular in most books. Fallen and Hush Hush- Bad boys are secretly soft and sweet and every book has them. And so on and so on. Everything is just copying what is selling and frankly I don't like most of it. I am tired of all the paranormal-romance, not in the least bit awesome, not original books. I will admit that I like werewolf story's and that it the main reason I actually read Twilight. I probably would have liked Twilight more if she (SM) came up with something other then vampire. She could have called them something else with all she changed from the original Dracula. Harry Potter was good in tell the publisher made J.K. Rowling change it up in the last few books and it became less her and more of what the people (publishers) wanted. I find myself reading more and more oldies just so I can get the rich, classic stuff not polluted my the publishers and mind setts of today's culture.


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## Todd Trumpet (Sep 7, 2011)

morantis said:


> I believe that it must be something to do with the overload of media that we have now. Between my computer, the TV, my cellphone, and ten different devices around, I need a require more input to be satisfied.


I agree with everything you said except the word "more". I think we have _plenty _of input - an overabundance, as you pointed out. For me, it's not simply a matter of changing or evolving tastes...

...but simple repetitiveness.

I'll give one example in the world of TV: I got my fill of cop and detective shows _decades _ago, but there seem to be more on the air than ever before. I know they're often done in a different way, utilizing the latest technology, able to examine, illuminate, and explain the tiniest piece of minutia associated with killing, death, and murder...

...but I have no interest left. The only thing I find fascinating anymore is the apparently unquenchable fascination the general populace has for anything revolving around homicide, the baser the better.

But for me, been there, done that.

Bored to death of death.

Todd


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## Ann Herrick (Sep 24, 2010)

I actually find I'm more open to different _kinds_ of books since I got my Kindle. Maybe it's because I don't have to pay as much as I would in a book store or be on a waiting list for a book at the library (or being concerned about when it's due back).


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## Krista D. Ball (Mar 8, 2011)

A bunch of us were talking about Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms books on Friday at work. My eldest has been devouring Forgotten Realms and I'd said there's no way I can get through them. The others said they were huge fans as teens, but now? Unreadable. 

We change.


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## Kenton Crowther (Jan 5, 2012)

daringnovelist said:


> I don't allow anything to come into my attention range uninvited. I don't do texts, for instance. I choose when I do social media. I choose the TV shows I watch and when and how I watch them. Same with movies. I enjoy everything MUCH more when it is not fed to me.
> But I enjoy books the way I did when I was a kid now.


The power of concentration can give savour back to things that have become drab. Or sometimes a book, or movie, hits you so hard that everything else is knocked out of the account for a time. Only it exists, and it glistens.
Also, being a scribbler can make you a a bit jaundiced when you see the tired old paces an author is running through. 
An analogy is with the guitar. When you play a bit yourself you can't get so much out of listening to a mere strummer any more. A virtuoso, yes, but not a four-chord cobbler.


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## Josh_Stallings (Mar 18, 2011)

Very thought provoking posts.  I think writing as a whole keeps getting better, however I find my self less and less interested in mass culture blockbusters.  If feels like Hollywood and the big publishers are chasing their tails.  Constantly looking at what they have done and succeed at and trying to replicate it.  Digital video on demand has given us unlimited shelf space, and opened the door to so many great independent and foreign films.  We are living in a gold age of documentaries.  I just saw "The Bengali Detective" a great doc on a Kolkata detective agency.  Kindle has done the same for books, it has opened the door to so many fresh new voices.  My standards may have shifted, I do find myself seeking more and more original material.  But maybe more mainstream novels felt original when I was younger because I was reading the stories for the first time.


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## bordercollielady (Nov 21, 2008)

I'm 63 - and for me, there is just so much more to choose from compared to when I was younger.  Amazon and the Kindle has opened up the possibilities..  my tastes have changed mainly because I have so many more opportunities to try things out.. and I find new interests.    So many books I want to read,  so little time..


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