What WON'T you read?

MagicMarker

There are many things in life that I find baffling, like how Justin Bieber and Jedward are so popular, how movies like Sex and the City & The Five Year Engagement keep getting made, and why people willfully read books like Fifty Shades of Grey.

I just don't get it. I think I'd rather castrate myself with a blunt hacksaw than read such nonsense, but that's just me.

What won't you read?

jam_mac_jam

Chick lit, any kind of romance that does not involve a war, generally books for women. I know I would hate Twilight so I wouldnt even try. Likewise 50 shades of grey, oh sex in a novel, how amazing and shocking.

MissFlitworth

Misery-lit. It absolutely melts my mind that anyone can sit down to 'Ma, he sold me for a few cigarettes' or any of the millions & millions of its little miserable buddies. Not only are they generally v. badly written but they tend to contain a gratuitous amount of detail on any sexual abuse that occurs that leaves me feeling dirty (gosh I know a lot of minutae about something I refuse to read)

PurpleBee

Self-help books.

But on a side note I completely understand why Jedward are so famous.

wow sierra

Self help books

Misery literature

True crime exposé/glorification

50 Shades of Grey (Seriously why is this so popular????? Theme: I lived my life as a sex slave and loved it??? Am I missing something???)

I don't have a problem with lightweight films or lightweight books for that matter - they don't take much effort and can pass a rainy evening etc. Its just when they are being marketed as something else - this is Da Vinci code all over again.

Queen-Mise

Misery lit - is my pet hate... It is horrific stuff. Very self indulgent.

Second is the dumb chick lit - where the morals are stuff down your throat, painful stuff.

Oh and finally Mills & Boons books - that stuff is unreadable.

Aenaes

I ended up reading Victoria Beckham's autobiography a few years ago when I couldn't find any other book in the house.
So I guess...nothing?

Mardy Bum

Queen-Mise wrote: »

Second is the dumb chick lit - where the morals are stuff down your throat, painful stuff.

There is no such thing as a moral or immoral book. Books are either well written or badly written.

I think either statement holds through though for chick lit:P.

allprops

Mis Lit is emotional pornography,

OakeyDokey

Honestly I'd give anything a go! I'm not too gone on autobiographies by the likes of Katie Price or Miley Cyrus though. I usually take any books off my sister and mother to read and there's a good mix of everything.

steve_r

Yeah, I'd echo a lot of the above re: chick lit etc.

There are books that are well written and that I understand why people love them, but they're not really for me, e.g. thrillers leave me cold. Anything that's far more plot driven than character driven doesn't do it for me either.

I struggle with some of the "classics" in that I just can't relate to the settings, I think that's more me than the books however.

I don't tend to read poetry as my habit of speedreading destroys it for me. I had to study a lot of poetry in college, and it takes quite an effort for me to slow myself down enough to actually appreciate the work.

I won't read anything written with a contrived language/dialect/written in phonetics (I'm not sure I'm explaining myself properly). What I mean are books like Pygmy by Chuck Palahniuk, Naked Lunch, Irvine Welsh books etc. Even the colour purple pushed me away somewhat.

I can appreciate and admire what the writer is trying to do, but it does push me away somewhat and I tend to distance myself/avoid those books.

Dades

Poetry.

I absolutely hate it. It just makes me livid. Douglas Adams was onto something when he had amateur (Vogon) poetry as a form of torture.

old gregg

I have to agree with you there Dades. Even during a period studying Literature, whenever I encountered a poetry module I'd slump into a kind of pathetic intellectual depression. I'd pass the module but come out the other side a shadow of my former self. No can do.

E.T.

I agree with MissFlitworth and OakeyDoakey, no misery-lit, no autobiographies of Z-list "celebs".

Otherwise anything goes. I don't like book snobbery though, if you haven't read a book, then how can you comment on it? I keep downloading free books from amazon. Some of them have been really good, I've bought other books by the same authors. Others have been so awful that I've deleted them from my kindle. It's worth giving things a try before judging.

travelledpengy

Anything by Snooki.

Callan57

I think I'm fairly eclectic in my reading choices but I draw the line at Horror, I mean the "how to torture & kill someone in a thousand different ways" rubbish.
Also I steer well away from celebrity so-called autobiographies and the current obsession with vampires & zombies ... can't be doing with any of that adolescent nonsense.

And no I won't be buying the 50 Shades, had a look at the preview chapter on Amazon & to be honest I don't think I'd ever be bored enough to want to read it muchless spend my hard earned € on it. As someone here has already said, another marketing con-job perpetrated on a gullible public IMO.

girlonfire

Misery-lit! Not in a million years would I read such rubbish.
Poor chick-lit doesn't appeal to me at all.
Aside from the usual suspects, I've got fairly eclectic tastes.

Giselle

My standards are especially low, so there's very little I won't start reading, although whether or not I finish it is another matter.:)

I started 50 shades of grey and after the fool main character blushed (or even flushed) for the 232,939,897th time (estimate) in the space of 30 pages, I gave up.

I absolutely draw the line at misery lit. I think they're voyeuristic and ghoulish and I can't imagine why people want to know the details of anothers abuse.

I go through phases of easy reads and more substantial reads. If I'm stressed and stretched mentally, I take refuge in fluffy reads and if I'm bored or understimulated I'll go for something more absorbing. It all serves a purpose.

mitosis

Won't waste my time with fiction, football biogs (seriously, what sad sack wants to read about Wayne Rooney's life to now?), celeb (read about that bint from Iceland ads? Pah!) biogs

emeraldstar

mitosis wrote: »

Won't waste my time with fiction, football biogs (seriously, what sad sack wants to read about Wayne Rooney's life to now?), celeb (read about that bint from Iceland ads? Pah!) biogs

Every single work of fiction that's ever been written? Poor you, how dull.

MagicMarker

I used to have a similar view of fiction, albeit not so dismissive. I just used to think that if I was going to spend the time it took to read a book then I wanted to "learn" something while doing it, so initially I kind of ignored fiction.

I'm bloody glad that didn't last long though, as some amazing books would have gone unread.

aniejomes

I am reading "A murder to be announced" by Christie Agatha. I suggest everybody to read that novel, if love to read mysteries.

noddyone2

Chick-lit (calling it literature is wrong anyway), self-help, ''Celebrity'' ****e, (celebrity should mean that the person is 'celebrated'), political stuff - dull, dull, Red-top newspapers, I'm not going to read menus with calorie counts on them either! So there!

fionav3

travelledpengy wrote: »

Anything by Snooki.

I'm impressed she can write, didn't think she could!

For me, I won't touch chick lit, sooooo boring (although I hate to be derogatory about a style of writing that other people love/read).

The Twilight books; read the first one years ago when they came out (I was in hospital at the time) and still consider it the biggest waste of my time ever). SHOCKINGLY bad.

Finnegan's Wake. I've read several of Joyce's books and I hate him with a passion. Every paragraph I read in Ulysses was punctuated with me saying "this is so f*****g boring!" I'll never understand how Joyce is part of the canon of Irish literature over other worthier books. He's a boring, pseudo-intellectual whose so full of grandiose and self importance that one nearly chokes on it in his writing. When I think of Joyce, I always think of the Emperor's new clothes; people say they like him because they're afraid people will accuse them of not understanding him (therefore being stupid) if they don't. Sorry, long rant but I just find Joyce to be an insult to my literary palate.

Also, can I ask? What's misery lit? The is my first time hearing about it today!

Oh and Edit: Add any autobiography by an actor/celeb. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

miamee

Well I've learned something new today, the term "misery-lit"! Love it (the term that is)
Things I would not read - very fluffy romance type yokes - I suppose some people would term them chick-lit and I don't go in for them. However I would read Marian Keyes on the odd occasion so can't really denounce chick-lit altogether (and wouldn't want to).
50 Shades of Grey, Twilight Saga - I suppose they also fall loosely into the romance category.
Very few things out there that I wouldn't at least try to read and give a chance.

ThatsAWrap

Like everyone else really: chicklit, miserylit

neris

Autobiogrophies of of z list "celebs" whove contributed nothing to better of man & sports people who havent retired yet. Have also given up on fiction novels

MissFlitworth

fionav3 wrote: »

travelledpengy wrote: »

Anything by Snooki.

Also, can I ask? What's misery lit? The is my first time hearing about it today!
!

Basically the paper-y versions of those god forsaken true movies. Generally an autobiography centring on someones shocking childhood. The more shock-shock-horror & involvment of rapist uncles, mothers overly fond of serving glasses of neat bleach for breakfast & children so poor they draw clothes on themselves with wattle & daub the better. They should contain at least 4 descriptions of violence, molestation or torture so gratuitously graphically described that you wonder if the intended audience for them is actually 'perverts' and not your mother who handed it to you with a cheery 'God this us just awful,awful altogether, you'll love it'

It's the sort of thing that makes you certain to your bones that someone in a publishing office somewhere has the job of tracking down the first kid from the Roscommon house of horrors that turns 18 and literally tethering them to a dictaphone

You shall recognise them in bookshops by their creamy covers with obligatory sepia malnourished child on the front

Giselle

MissFlitworth wrote: »

Basically the paper-y versions of those god forsaken true movies. Generally an autobiography centring on someones shocking childhood. The more shock-shock-horror & involvment of rapist uncles, mothers overly fond of serving glasses of neat bleach for breakfast & children so poor they draw clothes on themselves with wattle & daub the better. They should contain at least 4 descriptions of violence, molestation or torture so gratuitously graphically described that you wonder if the intended audience for them is actually 'perverts' and not your mother who handed it to you with a cheery 'God this us just awful,awful altogether, you'll love it'

It's the sort of thing that makes you certain to your bones that someone in a publishing office somewhere has the job of tracking down the first kid from the Roscommon house of horrors that turns 18 and literally tethering them to a dictaphone

You shall recognise them in bookshops by their creamy covers with obligatory sepia malnourished child on the front

This should be the dictionary definition!

fionav3

MissFlitworth wrote: »

Basically the paper-y versions of those god forsaken true movies. Generally an autobiography centring on someones shocking childhood. The more shock-shock-horror & involvment of rapist uncles, mothers overly fond of serving glasses of neat bleach for breakfast & children so poor they draw clothes on themselves with wattle & daub the better. They should contain at least 4 descriptions of violence, molestation or torture so gratuitously graphically described that you wonder if the intended audience for them is actually 'perverts' and not your mother who handed it to you with a cheery 'God this us just awful,awful altogether, you'll love it'

It's the sort of thing that makes you certain to your bones that someone in a publishing office somewhere has the job of tracking down the first kid from the Roscommon house of horrors that turns 18 and literally tethering them to a dictaphone

You shall recognise them in bookshops by their creamy covers with obligatory sepia malnourished child on the front

Ick, I know the ones you're talking about. Wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole. Thanks for the explanation though, made me laugh.

Toby Take a Bow

Chick-lit and misery lit: basically anything that's (badly) written according to a formula to get as much money as possible.

And all that dwarves and orcs type fantasy stuff.

smallerthanyou

Toby Take a Bow wrote: »

And all that dwarves and orcs type fantasy stuff.

:eek:
I think I'd give everything a go. I think I've read some of the misery lit, chick lit, sports books by boring boring people where nothing interesting get's said Mr. Giggs, and Mr. O'Gara here's looking at ye. I've even read the first book Jordan wrote (it came free in a magazine) so don't think there's anything I wouldn't read.

Oh wait I got a book called Jude in London as a present and could not figure out what the hell was happening after two chapters so couldn't read anymore. So that book but yep would give everything a go.

Toby Take a Bow

smallerthanyou wrote: »

:eek:
I think I'd give everything a go. I think I've read some of the misery lit, chick lit, sports books by boring boring people where nothing interesting get's said Mr. Giggs, and Mr. O'Gara here's looking at ye. I've even read the first book Jordan wrote (it came free in a magazine) so don't think there's anything I wouldn't read.

Oh wait I got a book called Jude in London as a present and could not figure out what the hell was happening after two chapters so couldn't read anymore. So that book but yep would give everything a go.

If it's not well-written, why bother?

(And yeah, I'm generalising with the orcs and elves stuff. I have tried. But it seems - from the books I did read - that it was more about having orcs and elves in them rather than a story that necessitated orcs and elves to further the plot).

DarkDusk

Jane Eyre, and anything by (the) Bronte(s).

Monkeybonkers

There are probably only two books that I can say I will never pick up to read: Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, both by James Joyce.

Apart from those two there is nothing that I would rule out

Corruptedmorals

- Misery lit. I have read the Ma, He sold me..series and I do like her writing style but yeah they are just too miserable. Never again.
- Romance, Mills and Boon.
- Philosophy, prose, books that are too 'deep'.
- Crime/detective novels
- Trashy celebrity ghost-written stuff like Katie Price' "books"
- Modern autobiographies, just no interest. (Historical personages are fine)
- Terrible chick lit, I have standards with this genre! I enjoy Marian Keyes and Melissa Hill in particular. Huge amounts of crap I won't read but there ARE good engaging reads within this genre
- Danielle Steele!
- Self-help books
- Non-fiction stuff like 'This is why Ireland's economy is ****ed' and 'What went wrong with the banks'
- Twilight, Hunger Games and anything with vampires
- Horror

My favourite genre, historical fiction, often dips into some of the above- horror, crime, mystery, thriller etc. but as a general rule I avoid the above.

wlzkelly

I wouldn't bother reading at all if it weren't for a love of poetry.

Supermensch

I'm not too keen on biographies, I'll read the odd one if it's gotten good reviews.

One particular type of book, I'm not sure what you'd call them, books written to convey a philosophical theory with a 'real' world narrative. An example of this is Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, pure ****e.

Mardy Bum

Supermensch wrote: »

One particular type of book, I'm not sure what you'd call them, books written to convey a philosophical theory with a 'real' world narrative. An example of this is Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, pure ****e.

I think that may be an over reach because you are dismissing authors like Huxley, Orwell, Sartre, Beckett and all postmodernist classics actually and modernism to a certain extent and greek tragedy and Shakespearean drama, hell nearly all great pieces of literature and drama are heavily grounded in philosophy.

Typer Monkey

I have an aversion to books written in the present tense ie 'I look at him, I say. We walk into the room etc.

Before I buy a book I open it to a random page in the middle and read a paragraph just to check i'm not put off by the way it's written.

I'm not too keen on books written in the first person either!

Persiancowboy

Anything by that smug sh*te Roddy Doyle

Shivers26

What I won't read

- Misery-lit. I used to read loads them and they were just draining the life out of me so no more. I gathered them all up and put them on bookmooch. Won't even have them in the house any more.
- Mills & Boon
- Sci-Fi / Fantasy. Not really my thing.
- 'Celebrity' Autobiographies
- I do read some chick-lit and I stress some. I have a couple of writers that I particularly like but I don't cast the net much wider than that. I think Marian Keyes is class.

I read Fifty Shades of Sh1te just to see what all the fuss was about and I won't lie I did read all three of them. The first one was woeful, I'd have brained the fecker and for the life of me I can't see the attraction to this character. The sex bits were not even remotely the most shocking this about this book. The story improves slightly in the second and third books but not by much.

Tony Trap

Novelisations of Hollywood movies.

Dromineer

Fiifty Shades of Grey, Twilight, Hunger Games, True Blood and fanfiction lit. I love originality and a book that requires some deep thinking and the books mentioned tend to lack these elements. They are okay to read, but bore the heck out of me.

catgirl2012

girly chic lit books!!...thats about it!!!

QuiteInterestin

- Misery Lit, for all the reasons others have mentioned
- Horror/crime novels - don't find them enjoyable
- Autobiographies or novels from Z list celebs eg Jordan, Cheryl Cole
- anything by Cecelia Ahern - got one of her books one year as a Christmas present from my mum, so I had to read it as she kept asking me was I finished it yet (once I start a book, I get a bit obsessed and have to keep reading til its finished) and did I enjoy it. Anyways, it was torture, the greatest load of cr*p I've ever read, about some make believe character, whose name was make believe backwards. I didn't think I'd ever get to the end of it.

damselnat

Terms and Conditions.

Other than that, I'll give anything a start at least....

jeanadamz

So much of an erotic books, I just can't stand love scenes describe in details.

bnt

"Misery Lit" - that's a new one on me, but I agree. Tales of abuse and the daily grind don't do it for me in movies either e.g. I don't care to see any Ken Loach films I don't think I've read any of them, not unless you include Stephen King's Misery.