Jump to content

What do you avoid?


Recommended Posts

  • Replies 103
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

I forgot Mills and Boons - read one once,never again. And awards. I had to read a couple for uni this year and I thought they were rubbish. I also don't usually read Stephen King but I'm reading 11.22.63 at the moment because it's a subject I'm interested in. Not far in yet, so I may still give up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I generally avoid chick-lit and romance - too mushy, sentimental and predicable. Horror, sci-fi and fantasy used to be on the list, too, but I've found that there are quite a few books I've enjoyed that fit squarely into those genres.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For quite a long time I had been avoiding all fiction. Now I am coming back to it but you won't see me reading much romance ( Phillipa Gregory is an exception). I don't usually read sci-fi but there are some novels I raed long time ago and enjoyed them a lot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I avoid chick-lit and romance novels they just don't interest me.

 

I used to avoid crime fiction but I've read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and really enjoyed it (I have the other two in the series TBR) so I'm thinking of reading some more crime fiction.

 

However, as people have said people can read whatever they like and shouldn't be judged for it :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I totally agree with Kell - all of those child abuse and animal stories are just something that I want to avoid like the plague. Ever since I had my baby boy, I just can't read anything like that.

 

It tends to be romance and chick lit books that I really actively avoid - I've read one or two and they just seem to be the same tired old storyline over and over again. Maybe I'm wrong but I just can't bring myself to read them!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

3. Anything recommended to me by anybody.

How to win friends and influence people, eh?! :lol:

 

Personally I love recommendations - I've read some amazing books that I wouldn't have otherwise picked up by having someone recommend them to me. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. Contemporary fiction, of all genres.

2. Autobiographies.

3. Anything recommended to me by anybody.

That doesn't leave much then, does it? Even the contemporary fiction doesn't leave much fiction at all, because most classic fiction was contemporary at the time it was written, unless it was historical fiction (e.g. The Three Musketeers). Even so, you'll find many of the classic historical fictions will be recommended left, right and centre, because theyr'e so good. And you cannot escape recommendations, whether it's from people you know, people on forums, or reviews on book sites/in book stores.

 

So I'm guessing your reading material is now narrowed down to the following:

1) Classic historical fiction by authors nobody knows and so cannot make recommendations

2) Non-fiction (excluding those books about anybody)

 

With quite such a narrow field of reading tastes, I personally can't understand why one would join a book forum at all!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love recommendations as well. It's opened a whole new set of doors for me on books I thought I'd never read! :D

 

Nowadays really I think I'm open to anything. I can't think of anything I actively ignore except for those cheesy romances like Harlequin (like your Mills & Boone).

 

Sometimes I think I have little spare time so why waste it on some genre/author I've never read before, but then I realize, why limit myself? The books will be there for me to get to eventually :).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At the beginning of the year I would have said I avoid books about or set during the world wars, but I've read so many this year and they've mostly been wonderful books, so that's one to take off my list!

Edited by chesilbeach
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love recommendations as well. It's opened a whole new set of doors for me on books I thought I'd never read! :D

 

Nowadays really I think I'm open to anything. I can't think of anything I actively ignore except for those cheesy romances like Harlequin (like your Mills & Boone).

 

Sometimes I think I have little spare time so why waste it on some genre/author I've never read before, but then I realize, why limit myself? The books will be there for me to get to eventually :).

 

Spot on, I couldn't have said it better myself! I love this forum, I love how I get so many great recommendations on here from you guys. There are an awful lot of gems I've read, based on the BCF recommendations, that I would never have come across with on my own! :smile2:

 

At the beginning of the year I would have said I avoid books about or set during the world wars, but I've read so many this year and they've mostly been wonderful books, so that's one to take off my list!

 

Isn't it amazing how you can go on thinking some genre isn't for you for some reason, isn't your cup of tea, and you go about avoiding it, but then when you get to reading a few books on the genre, you can see that heck, it's actually pretty good and maybe you've been missing out on it before? I was exactly the same way about war books as you were, and I still tend to initially think that I won't like them when someone recommends me, but then I remember that I've read plenty of them and I've actually not read any war novel that I didn't enjoy. How strange is that :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think I would rule anything out but I don't often read books about murder (either fact or fiction) and despite being a bit of an airhead that likes shopping and loves men I don't like reading books about them :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That doesn't leave much then, does it? Even the contemporary fiction doesn't leave much fiction at all, because most classic fiction was contemporary at the time it was written, unless it was historical fiction (e.g. The Three Musketeers). Even so, you'll find many of the classic historical fictions will be recommended left, right and centre, because theyr'e so good. And you cannot escape recommendations, whether it's from people you know, people on forums, or reviews on book sites/in book stores.

 

So I'm guessing your reading material is now narrowed down to the following:

1) Classic historical fiction by authors nobody knows and so cannot make recommendations

2) Non-fiction (excluding those books about anybody)

 

With quite such a narrow field of reading tastes, I personally can't understand why one would join a book forum at all!

 

Shakespeare is no longer contemporary. Dickens is no longer contemporary. His novels were considered contemporary at the time, but I wasn't there when he wrote them. The books are contemporary of his age, but not of this.

 

When I said "Anything recommended to me by anybody", what I meant was when people hear I like reading say "Oh but you must SIMPLY read...." or "You would LOVE...". No I wouldn't. I love the books I read (classic literature) and am always disappointed by the instantly forgettable books that people have insisted I'd love.

 

I joined a book forum not to find out what I should read next - I have a list of books as long as the 19th Century - but to discuss those books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...
  • 3 months later...

I enjoy thrillers/suspense type novels, but avoid reading the same author more than two or three times. Regardless of their talent, writers tend to use the same basic template for each of their stories and become predictable. I recently read a Lee Child’s book, an author who works I’ve read several times before, and had the mystery/suspense figured out before I was halfway through the story. He’s an exceptional author but that will likely be the last of his books I read.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I tend to avoid anything fictional, I prefer to read about real life (mostly history) as long as it's written well. Having said that I do enjoy an occasional work of fiction Terry Pratchett books are brilliant and I have recently finished The first George Martin book .. A Game of Thrones, which was pretty good, but boring as hell in places

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There isn't a whole lot I avoid.

I do avoid something too gruesome, although that is in the eye of the beholder I know. I don't like anything where an animal gets hurt or killed.

I also don't care for romance novels, I mean the Harlequins sort.

 

I guess that is about it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Barbara Cartland I avoid like the plague, even when I was silly romantic teenager who loved mills and boons because she thought they were real life, I never read Barbara Cartland, vile books!

Also Jodi Picoult, and I realise I am in the minority there. I have read many of her books and find them all to be basically the same, sickly sweet feel good story that bores me. Always open minded though, I will still give her a try if someone recommends one of hers, but if anyone recommends Barbara Cartland, I will actively avoid them :)

Not really into sci fi, wasn't really into fantasy until a stephen lawhead book was book of the month at the library a few months back, and really enjoyed it, so revising my opinion on that too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I avoit chicklit as I find it trivial shallow stupid stuff. Women's lit is okay, but I'm not overly keen on the genre.

 

I avoid most high fantasy involving magic and too much made-up crap. There was only one Tolkien. The others are shoddy.

 

Avoid books with pink front covers as I am very self conscious and don't want to be mistaken as a girly girly.

 

Avoid horror like the plague as I don't see the point, avoid crime books - I like crima dramas though. Have bought myself an Agatha Christie to get into... Piorot. (however it is spelt)

 

Also avoid sci-fi because meh, never really interested in it.

 

Will avoid Ernest Hemmingway in the future, how he has been labelled a literary genius I don't know. I am reading (and will finish if it kills me, which it probably will...) because he can't write for toffees. Also seems like a complete arsehole.

 

Avoid all books with insipid womensy covers. I don't care if it is a good book, why trivialise it by putting a handbag on it? No thank you.

I like this post, it made me smile.I avoid westerns, sci fi and romance, anything with a girly girl theme, etc.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

For me it has to be the current trend of 'misery-lit' books, I just cant stand them. All my friends at work circulate them between themselves and I shocked that I don't want in on the action...absolutely no.

 

Also, I feel the same about celeb bios ~ I saw Lewis Hamilton has one out, he can't be more than 22! What's the rush?! :irked:

5 years on, it`s the same at my work..eagerly read tales of violence, cruelty and child abuse...women at my work read this stuff.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...