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Katherine Rundell on the Art of Words (Ep. 168) | Conversations with Tyler

TYLER COWEN: What’s a book you can no longer stand to read? For instance, I find it very difficult to now read Dostoevsky. I don’t think he’s a terrible author, but it somehow doesn’t click with me. It fascinated me in high school, but now it just falls flat.

RUNDELL: I still love Dostoevsky, but I can’t read Dickens anymore. I used to be wildly in love with the atmospheres that he conjured of London and smoke and smog, but I now find very vividly visible the fact that he was getting paid per word.

I used to love Dickens, often thinking the books too short. I recently reread A Tale of Two Cities, only to find the magic had left me. Even within a lifetime the language chafes.