What do you stubbornly refuse to read, and why?

[BookJumper]

I actually find that the only true horrors to be found in Stephen King are the demons that abide in all of us, which some people pay more heed to than others. Take Carrie - it's not really a novel about telekinesis,

murdering your classmates and teachers, or your mother before she can murder you

; what it is is a novel about bullying, peer pressure, intolerance, fanatism and the devastating psychological results that all of the above can have on the vulnerable teenage soul. I don't find that twisted, I find it touchingly perceptive, particularly coming from a man who can't possibly know first hand what it feels like to be an unpopular school-girl.

 

Just my tuppence, of course as for the vampires - alas, it looks like you'll never read my book then (I kid, I kid).

 

Things I wouldn't touch with a bargepole, in no particular order:

 

- Chick lit casting women as air-headed gold-diggers and men as rough and rugged commodities whose attractiveness is directly proportionate to their career/bank account.

- Umberto Eco, the pretentious windbag.

- Dan Brown, whose works are ever more badly written than they are researched.

- Stephanie Meyer, with her 500-word vocab, her two-dimensional sparkly vampires and her utter incomphrehension of the workings of high school politics.

- Federico Moccia, Italian "literary phenomenon" (the guy's won awards, they've made musicals from the drivel he concocts!) who writes the most predictable teenage romances of all timein the most preposterous style of all time... and I quote/translate:

 

"Kiss. Soft kiss, slow kiss, non-rushed kiss. Traminer-tasting kiss, light kiss, kiss of tongues in conflict, surf kiss, kiss on the wave, kiss I'm bitten, kiss I'd like to continue but I can't. Kiss I can't. Kiss there's people."

 

or, even better:

 

"You know mayonnaise? Yes, mayonnaise, the one in fast-food stores, the one you squeeze tubes and it comes out. I think there's nothing more difficult to do, putting together the eggs, the lemon, the salt, the oil... well, believe me, compared to that it's easier to fall in love with someone you thought you thought you'd never ever like. For real, mayonnaise is like this, it can go crazy at any moment, a second it seems perfect and the second after all the ingredients are off on their own... but if you make it there's nothing that can stop you."

 

And no, the grammar wasn't lost in translation - it was quite simply never there.

[libri vermis]

I then was recommended theDark Towerseries, which is a little more fantastical and less horror. I adore these. The main characters are actually people you can come to love, and the end of the series is in my opinion absolutely phenomenal, providing you get the point.

I might be willing to give the Dark Tower series a re-look, but I read the first four books, and while I thought it started out great, I got more and more annoyed with the characters as time went one. Maybe book four was the worst one and it gets better after that?

[chesilbeach]

Having read two Jodi Picoult books for my book group, I will never read another one of her books. I found them formulaic, artificially sentimental and the characters were wooden and unbelievable. Never again, I tell you, never again!

[Vanwa]

A quick double-check tells me you mean Wizard and Glass, the one about Susan. And it's kind of mushy and pants. But entirely pivotal to the last book. They do get good again after that one.

[libri vermis]

Thanks, Vanwa. I may give the Dark Tower series another go. I am not sure when, as I have so many other things to read.

[Peacefield]

Ditto to what BookJumper said about King. She hit the nail on the head . Relatability to his characters isn't of utmost importance for me, but I can see hints of it to a very small degree. His imagination and the way he weaves a story just always attracted me. Maybe it was the age I was when I was first exposed to his books, who knows, but I think him to be one of a kind.

[libri vermis]

I actually find that the only true horrors to be found in Stephen King are the demons that abide in all of us, which some people pay more heed to than others. Take Carrie - it's not really a novel about telekinesis,

murdering your classmates and teachers, or your mother before she can murder you

; what it is is a novel about bullying, peer pressure, intolerance, fanatism and the devastating psychological results that all of the above can have on the vulnerable teenage soul. I don't find that twisted, I find it touchingly perceptive, particularly coming from a man who can't possibly know first hand what it feels like to be an unpopular school-girl.

Sorry, I missed your post earlier.

 

I think this may be why I did relate a bit to Carrie as a teenager. I was not popular, often ridiculed and yes, tortured, through high school. The character I was disappointed in with this book was Carrie's mother. Yes, she was a religious fanatic. But why? My own mother is religious, but nothing like Carrie's mother. Carrie's mother didn't make sense to me. My own mother does. I understand where my mother's religious beliefs come from. I did not understand where Carrie's mother's fanatical beliefs came from. At least, Stephen King did not explain it to my satisfaction.

 

Just my tuppence, of course as for the vampires - alas, it looks like you'll never read my book then (I kid, I kid).

I would.

[BookJumper]

Ditto to what BookJumper said about King. She hit the nail on the head.

Why, thank you one does try.

 

I think this may be why I did relate a bit to Carrie as a teenager. I was not popular, often ridiculed and yes, tortured, through high school.

Me too .

 

 

The character I was disappointed in with this book was Carrie's mother. Yes, she was a religious fanatic. But why? My own mother is religious, but nothing like Carrie's mother. Carrie's mother didn't make sense to me. My own mother does. I understand where my mother's religious beliefs come from. I did not understand where Carrie's mother's fanatical beliefs came from. At least, Stephen King did not explain it to my satisfaction.

I don't think it needs explaining per se in the same way that the thought processes behind the actions of Carrie's tortures don't need explaining - the point for me is that religious fanatics, like bullies, do exist in the real world, and that their existence and intolerance breeds suffering .

 

 

I would.

Wahey !

[libri vermis]

I don't think it needs explaining per se in the same way that the thought processes behind the actions of Carrie's tortures don't need explaining - the point for me is that religious fanatics, like bullies, do exist in the real world, and that their existence and intolerance breeds suffering .

!

For myself, it is important. I don't think religious fanatics nor bullies are just born that way. I need a reason for why they do the things they do or believe the things they believe. I could see a person becoming a fanatic like Carrie's mother because she was abused or hurt as a child, and therefore became overprotective of her own daughter. Most people are not just crazy. There is something that led to their craziness.

 

Also, why did Carrie's classmates bully her? Were they just mean? Or were they taught their behavior from their parents? Perhaps Carrie made them uncomfortable, and being teenagers, they didn't know how to deal with Carrie's strangeness. Even though I myself was bullied in school, I can still get inside the head of a bully. Bullies usually feel insecure for some reason, and feel a need to take down others because of that. They are not just bullies to be mean, but because it somehow makes them feel better about themselves.

 

People are not one-dimensional. Stephen King's characters, especially his evil ones, come across that way to me.

 

But of course, I would never tell anyone else not to read his work. Different flavors of ice cream for different people.

[Nollaig]

I'm feeling particularly liberal today so I will hypocritically disregard anything else I've said in this thread (if I have said anything, I don't recall -) and say I would never refuse to read anything once! :)

[libri vermis]

Agreed 100%.

 

I can't help but be reminded of the Black Books episode where Manny managed to sell someone "Ulysses, a Guide to Ulysses and a Handbook to the Guide to Ulysses" !

Now that is hilarious.

[SueK]

Can I ask why you don't want to read any King, SueK? Just curious .

 

I haven't read any King since the late 80's, but those old novels of his are really something special to me. I just think he is an amazingly talented writer (at least he was way back then), but that's just me .

 

Hi Peacefield. It's nothing personal against King, it's just not my reading genre. I will say though, I did read Misery and quite enjoyed it but then it was set within "normal realms of possibility" rather than the horror books he writes. The problem is , there is so much to read and so little time, I really just want to read my selected book pile and boy, there's enough to keep me going until I'm 280 years old!:)

[Vanwa]

"normal realms of possibility"!

 

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon reads like this as well SueK, if you live to be 280 it might be worthing giving this one a go

[Nicola]

I still stick by my original post though, the only books I actively avoid are over-the-top romance novels with almost nude guys on the cover. They scream boring to me!

 

Me too! I'm not sure if I think they'd be boring () but I know I'd cringe all the way through.....yikes! So I'd stubbornly say no and nothing could make me budge (I've come to realise over the past few years that I'm a pretty stubborn person:lurker:) I would never read anything to do with the military, war operations or anything like that either. It's just not my cup of tea

[ned]

I read A Child Called It and was moved by the story but then came the onslaught of hundreds of other people telling their story, i just refuse to read them now

[Vanwa]

I read A Child Called It and was moved by the story but then came the onslaught of hundreds of other people telling their story, i just refuse to read them now

 

 

Actually I agree on this. It's admirable when people find the courage to share the horrors they've suffered, and those people I respect. I suspect however some just jumped on the bandwagon to make a few quid, and these ones I do not respect.

[Heffalumpi]

I will not read anything from the Painful Lives section as I read to relax and for enjoyment and feel that I would find books of this kind quite distressing. I know many people who do like this genre but its just not for me.

[Mexicola]

I read A Child Called It and was moved by the story but then came the onslaught of hundreds of other people telling their story, i just refuse to read them now

 

I agree. WH Smiths and other bookshops are overrun with these kinds of books now and I can't help but feel that some of them may not have been written for the right reasons. I won't read them.

[ned]

I'm sure if everyone wanted to they could make minor incidents from their childhood into one of those stories. I wanted the A Team and van for Christmas 1988, what did i get? The A Team van and all the A Team except Mr.T, now what is the point in not having Mr.T?

 

I did get Mr.T as a joke present a couple of years back, my mum got it off ebay for a couple of quid. I would have to leave that part out of the story though.

[funrun]

Mills and Boom books and those Love mushy stories :irked:not a romatic person

[Scarlette]

I still stick by my original post though, the only books I actively avoid are over-the-top romance novels with almost nude guys on the cover. They scream boring to me!

 

Agreed. No Mills & Boon or historic romances with panting heroines for me. I simply cannot take them seriously. I also dislike chick-lit in general - although I'm open to suggestions - and science-fiction.

 

Authors I will never give another chance are Jackie Collins (she should try using her imagination to come up with something other than filth) and Danielle Steele (I know you love her, gran, but she's a bit over-sentimental for my tastes).

[Beccles]

The so called Classics but enjoy Erotic novels very much. Do I find the Classics boring? no hard going and I have lighter books I would rather read

[Morbid Hermit]

Agreed. No Mills & Boon or historic romances with panting heroines for me. I simply cannot take them seriously.

 

That doesn't appeal to me either, although I'm probably not exactly part of the Mills and Boon target audience anyway..!

[Ophelia]

Like others, I don't like biographies written (?) by celebrities, reality show contestants etc who are aged about 10. I don't really blame them for making the most of their 15 minutes, but it's not for me. I would give anything by Jeffrey Archer a wide berth, too.

[Talisman]

I don't generally read autobiographies either - and definately wouldn't read anything 'celebrity'. Most of them are not written by the celebrity themselves anyway, but ghost written. The one exception was Charlie Chaplin's autobiography, which I loved and found really fascinating. In those days of course the word celebrity hadn't been invented - you were either famous or you weren't and the people who were were famous for actually going something ...