Namely, At the Mountains of Madness.

I see Lovecraft is really into describing how dreadful the surrounding environment is, and loves repeating the same stuff in so many different ways. It's quite a bore, to be honest. And I keep having to take good breaks from it every now and then because of its tediousness and because it gets really tiring having to resort to dictionaries and google images and wikipedia to understand all the sciency/engineering/construction terms he uses. I will finish it eventually, though. Just so I can say I've read some Lovecraftian work.

What books by Lovecraft have you guys read? Was this a tedious read for you as well? And are there better works of his that you recommend I read?

I've never read anything by the guy, but the way you're describing him seems akin to Jane Austen's works: boring.

I read two collections of Lovecraft (a lot of overlap between the two) and, to be honest, his idiosyncracies as a writer got on my nerves really quickly, particularly his refusal do dialogue (that said, the few occasions he did, he was really bad at it.) It was really antiquated, and not in a good way, but given that Lovecraft was known to backdate his letters TWO CENTURIES (i.e., a letter he wrote on October 13, 1928 would be dated 13 October 1728), this is probably to be expected.

(October 13, 2018 at 12:19 pm)Grandizer Wrote: Namely, At the Mountains of Madness.

I see Lovecraft is really into describing how dreadful the surrounding environment is, and loves repeating the same stuff in so many different ways. It's quite a bore, to be honest. And I keep having to take good breaks from it every now and then because of its tediousness and because it gets really tiring having to resort to dictionaries and google images and wikipedia to understand all the sciency/engineering/construction terms he uses. I will finish it eventually, though. Just so I can say I've read some Lovecraftian work.

What books by Lovecraft have you guys read? Was this a tedious read for you as well? And are there better works of his that you recommend I read?

I've read pretty much all of his available stuff.  It takes a certain love for the neogothic to really get into him; I might have suggested a book of short stories, first.

One dreary January I was stuck at college over winter break, because I was on the swim team and that was the middle of swim season.  Between practices I was bored shitless.  There was no place to go, and no way to get there.  There were at least 6 feet of drifted snow all around, and it was -18F, and there were maybe all of 50 people on the whole campus -- none on the dorm floor I lived on.

That's when I read At the Mountains of Madness.  
Well, it was the only book in the room I hadn't read yet.   
Under those conditions, I rather liked it.

More characteristic, though (and also shorter), I'd recommend "The Call of Cthulhu", "The Dunwich Horror", or 
"The Shadow over Innsmouth".

Dictionary might be handy, but forget Wikipedia and Google and all that.
Lovecraft never had any of that stuff.

Just finished the 6th chapter. Clearly a very educated and smart guy, but wish he'd get to the point sooner! He dwells too much on the setting to the detriment of the plot.

(November 5, 2018 at 12:47 am)Grandizer Wrote: Just finished the 6th chapter. Clearly a very educated and smart guy, but wish he'd get to the point sooner! He dwells too much on the setting to the detriment of the plot.

Ever read Melville?   Lovecraft is concise to the point of brevity, by comparison.

Keep in mind when he's writing (1930's), and the genre he's trying to fit (19th century gothic horror), which is all about atmosphere.

Ok, just finished the seventh chapter, and let me say this was a really enjoyable chapter to read. It's basically a chronicle of the early history of these bizarre Lovecraftian creatures on earth. That said, I'm starting to realize that I probably won't be spooked at all by the written contents of this specific book. I'll keep reading anyhow.

After a hiatus from reading this book, I just finished reading a few further chapters and now up to Chapter X. Things are starting to get more interesting, and am looking forward to the next one tonight (resting my brain now).

I toy with the idea of buying Lovecraft short story anthologies virtually every time I go to the bookstore, but I always wind up purchasing stuff I feel more confident I'll be able to enjoy. So I think I'd have to test-drive a story or two in the store before buying one of his books, I think. 

I really don't want one to of those cats who peruses potential purchases in bookstore cafes though. I just know they leave goddamn biscotti crumbs and chai latte stains all up in the pages. So I will stand as I preview, thank you very much! 

Or park my ass in one of those tiny little chairs in the children's section.

(October 10, 2019 at 12:48 am)Athene Wrote: I toy with the idea of buying Lovecraft short story anthologies virtually every time I go to the bookstore, but I always wind up purchasing stuff I feel more confident I'll be able to enjoy. So I think I'd have to test-drive a story or two in the store before buying one of his books, I think. 

I really don't want one to of those cats who peruses potential purchases in bookstore cafes though. I just know they leave goddamn biscotti crumbs and chai latte stains all up in the pages. So I will stand as I preview, thank you very much! 

Or park my ass in one of those tiny little chairs in the children's section.

Start with one of the shorter ones then. This one I'm reading is said to be one of his longer works, if not the longest. Start of it is boring as hell, but it has slowly grown on me with each chapter. Not sure if it's because of the contents of the later chapters perse, or just I've acclimated to the style enough to enjoy it now.