Just thinking about how for me, I could have got into Pratchett's Discworld books long before I actually did, except I got put off by the original cover art featuring half-naked women with their boobs hanging out. The busyness and general weirdness of the art was fine, but I found the oversexualised gratuitous depiction of (some) female characters a mental obstacle. (Also depicting Granny Weatherwax as some old warty crone.) As a teenage girl, this really discouraged me from thinking the books might be for me.
Well over a decade later, I discovered the beautiful, more subtle hardback collectors' editions, gave it a try, and discovered that Terry Pratchett actually writes proper female characters, not just the massive tits depicted on some of the covers. I love the books and collect them now.
What great books did you almost miss out on, and why?
Did the blurb not capture your attention? Did a trusted friend hate it? Did you hate the cover art, or get the wrong impression from it? Did you watch a bad movie/tv adaptation? Were you forced to read a different novel by the same author for school, and figured you'd blacklist the author's entire works?
by glitterswirl
2 Comments
Almost skipped The Fifth Season because the blurb made it sound like generic fantasy and I was burned out on the genre at the time. Took me like 2 years to finally pick it up and then I devoured the whole trilogy in a week – turns out it was exactly the kind of fresh take I was craving
>except I got put off by the original cover art featuring half-naked women with their boobs hanging out.
The more ironic since Pratchett several times satirises exactly this dynamic, especially in the earlier books.
To answer your question: as a teenager, my dad bought me a Jeeves & Wooster collection that I would never in a million years have thought to try otherwise. Who the hell wants light comedy from the 1920s?!
Now I have a full shelf and multiple gigabytes of Wodehouse.