What kinda books do you like/and what is your favorite

[Big_John]

Interesting observation. My personal feeling on Fitzgerald is this-- This Side of Paradise is great because it's fresh, The Great Gatsby is a solid, excellent book, Tender is the Night is, well, a bit disparate, though interesting for the biographical elements at least.

well, each to their own and whatnot. i loved tender is the night, partly because of it's autobiographical aspects. despite it's popularity, i still think gatsby is one of the greatest novels ever written, in terms of subject and execution.

I haven't yet been able to bring myself to read The Beautiful and Damned. Every time I pick it up it just strikes me as too pretentious.

i have yet to read either the beautiful and the damned or this side of paradise.

The vast majority of his short stories are pretty commercial.

while they were certainly designed to be sold to the magazines, i don't think it's fair to write off fitzgerald's stories for being commercial. even the most fantastical and commercial stories offer interesting insight into the psychology of the times (e.g. "a diamond as big as the ritz"). there are some very good stories on their own merits too ("winter dreams" comes to mind).

I liked him very much initially and he has been an inspiration, but I have come to think that he's been somewhat over-hyped as a writer, at least in the public perception.

well, i'm not sure about the public perception, but being as i consider gatsby to be one of the greatest works of literature ever, i think he should get tons of hype.