Book Prejudices

[Celestial Dung]

What type of books won't you read merely on account of some personal bias? And on a side note...anyone got books of these nature that they can reccomend?

1. Books set in a precreated world. I won't read D and d Book, White Wolf books, Buffy the Vampire slayer books, etc etc etc. My early reading experiments with this sort of thing left me severely wanting. I felt as if the marketing scheme was smothering the art of it all.

2. Romance novels. Totally unbelievable and gunky. Plus the majority of them are so horribly written I've considered hacking one out for a cheap buck.

3. Westrens. I'll read the Dark Tower Series and that's about it.

[Lost Traveler]

I agree with the above, except I will read White Wolf Guides (the stories i write in my head with thier matterial is soooo much better) and Im not a fan of ann rice, Dean Koontz, and stephen king is really begining to bore me, so except the darktower stuff hes out, and I tend to stay away from "fantasy" but will try out a classic or two.

[candicide]

What type of books won't you read merely on account of some personal bias? And on a side note...anyone got books of these nature that they can reccomend?

1. Books set in a precreated world. I won't read D and d Book, White Wolf books, Buffy the Vampire slayer books, etc etc etc. My early reading experiments with this sort of thing left me severely wanting. I felt as if the marketing scheme was smothering the art of it all.

If you're looking for role-playing books in particular, I can't help you there, because I do not know much about them...but if you're looking for fantasy books set in an original, precreated world, I suggest the Wraeththu trilogy by Storm Constantine. She is my favourite author, so I am a bit biased, but she has the stunning ability to create entire worlds, languages, and races...even adding maps in her books of the worlds she imagines, and it all comes together perfectly. Of course, she is a fan of homoerotica...but not in a vile, pornographic, Poppy Z. Brite kind of way. So, if that doesn't bother you, you should definately check out her works.

The Wraeththu trilogy is now sold as one book, and I usually see it at Barnes. They also usually carry Stalking Tender Prey, though it is part of another series about fallen angels. Most of her books, you would have to order through her website, or through Amazon UK.

I don't know that there is anything I really won't read...there's never been a time that I started reading a book and couldn't find my way through it, because I fall into storylines so easily. It's the same reason that, though I strongly dislike action/adventure movies for the most part, I will get into it if I pay attention, you know? I do have preferences, but if I get my hands on something and I don't have the means to get anything else, chances are I'll read it.

Thank the stars that I'm a speed-reader.

[JaNell]

I just read the Wraethu series, and I enjoyed it. I've read some Poppy Brite but she's more than a bit coarse for my taste...

What I avoid:
High Fantasy - dragons and princesses and knights
Hardcore technical Science Fiction
Anything people tell me that I "must" read, like Sandman
VC Andrews and the like
Bodice Rippers & Harlequin Romance, although I can read historical romance if I'm desperate
Westerns, but I'll read epics if jonesing

Otherwise I'm pretty much a book slut. Or harlot. No, I'm just a harlot for the writers...

[candicide]

VC Andrews and the like

Heehee! I have read every VC Andrews book that's been released...as a matter of fact, I'm working through Broken Wings right now. Yeah...it's cheese, and the storylines do not really vary from series to series (especially now that she's dead and the ghost writer is demolishing any sort of credibility that her work might have had)...but I can't help it. I read Flowers in the Attic as a tot, and I've been addicted ever since. Young girls, happy lives...then a family secret comes out and their lives are ruined. The girls are always extremely beautiful, talented in one way or another...they're practically the same character over and over again, with different hair and living in different places.

In the more recent novels, I have noticed that the ghost writer has decided to make the characters more modernized....even if that disturbs certain timelines. For example, I read a book about a character named Willow, and there were modern day references throughout the book, suggesting that she was a young person in present times. I then read two other books in the series, one that focuses on Willow's daughter, and then on her mother...and both had that same sense of a modern day timeline...even suggesting that Willow's mother, Grace, listened to Shania Twain. Thinking back on the novels that were actually written by VC Andrews...she kept her characters timeless, keeping that sort of detail out of their lives.

Another thing I have noticed is that the editors of the newer novels have gotten rather lazy about proofreading. I think I should contact Pocket Star Books about a job.

It's disgusting....and yet, I read on. *grins*

[Hardcoregirl]

I won't read Weiss and Hickman, the Shannara books, or really any fantasy besides Tolkien and some C.S. Lewis. I don't really read much science fiction either...I read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and it was alright...

I gave up on Anne Rice a long time ago...I really liked The Witching Hour, but the sequels just went to far. Couldn't get over Lestat being in an 80's hair band. And the Sleeping Beauty series ...

Poppy Z. Brite I was not impressed with after reading Lost Souls.

I don't read any of that law type stuff like John Grisham.

Dean R. Koontz blows goats.

Ummm...I haven't read much Stephen King because of all the hoopla...

No romance or westerns here. Does anyone with half a brain read those harlequin type romances? I think my grandmother and great grandmother read them...but, they aren't book-smart either. I think the only other thing they read is the bible and smut like Woman's Day, Family Circle and Southern Living.

And I don't read Playboy for the articles

[Ladybee]

In general i won't read Westerns, Romance, or war novels. They don't interest me topically and are IME usually formulaic. I don't read media-tie-in novels (like say, Star Trek books or novelizations of films) even if i like the stuff on which they're based. I generally don't like serial novels either (like, say, those Laurell K Hamilton vampire hunter books, or strings of mysteries all with the same sleuth, etc).

[Black Lotus]

I don't care for westerns at all or romance novels, though I've always thought it would be fun to be the person writing the blurbs for the back covers. "blazing passion sweeps across a continent as..." or " Caught up in a tumultuous storm of illicit love and passion..."
I once listened to one of V.C. Andrews audio books on a long trip - I don't think it was supposed to be funny but we laughed through the whole thing.
I don't really have a particular genre I will or won't read - my only requirement is that the writing is good.
Good reads:
Girl With Curious Hair and Brief Interviews With Hideous Men - both short story collections by David Foster Wallace
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami
anything by D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, or Anais Nin
The Erotic Life of Anais Nin - biography by Noel Riley Fitch
Clive Barker is my one true god - especially check out 'Imajica' if you've never read it
Savage Beauty , the Life of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Nancy Mitford
I agree I wasn't too impressed with Poppy Z. Brite's fiction. She does however have an interesting book called Full Exposure about creativity and eroticism.
Identity and also The Unbearable Lightness of Being both by Milan Kundera
Into The Forest - Jean Hegland
I could go on forever actually and I haven't even gotten to poetry yet.
~Black Lotus

[doctorthoss]

Seems like we all pretty much agree on the "no westerns, no romance" point. Gotta say, though, that I actually liked most of Poppy Brite's stuff (at least through the late '90s) -- how did she wind up so far out of favor?
Another category of books that suck: military/what-if-masturbatory novels about war. Tom Clancy was interesting for a few years, but he's about tapped out on anything remotely interesting, I think. Meanwhile, a whole genre has arisen based on right-wing conspiracy theories about how we would defeat, say, Japan if they ever got uppity.
I don't care much for fantasy/sci-fi series, where a writer decides to cash in on a good idea by churning out endless sequels. Unfortunately, that seems to be the trend in both fields lately, mainly (I think) due to economic pressures.