Has your Taste in Books changed over the Years?

I'm in my 40's also I don't think my taste has changed much since my teens. I still like literary fiction and crime. I think that some contemporary crime fiction writers are just as good as literary fiction and reading them doesn't mean you've dumbed down. I would rank John Connolly, James Lee Burke, Benjamin Black, Jo Nesbo, Denis Lehane and Peter Robinson very highly as writers. I like Harlan Coben and Linwood Barclay for an easy read. I've rarely read any chick-lit but intend to read a Jilly Cooper at some stage to see what I've been missing.

Yes my tastes have changed.
In my teens in the 1970s - Historic romances by Anya Seaton; all of George Orwell, Solzhenitsyn (was feeling pretentious). Fantasy by Stephen Donaldson.
In my twenties in the 1980s ; Wilber Smith, cold war spy thrillers
In my thirties in the nineties; chic lit and a few more classics
In the last 15 years since DC I have read mostly crime fiction and thrillers with the odd Erica James type.

There is plenty of modern HB too, but those are the classics to use as a springboard. My favourite British, sadly gone is Derek Raymond, his autobiography is great too, post war, public school boy living a louche life in soho. His Factory series are really really dark, finishes with I was Dora Suarez, makes me cry.
Stuart Macbride is great, dark but funny (DS Steele is cracking)

'Hard boiled' = tough talking, womanising private eye, 1930s onwards, I should think.

Does "hard boiled" in a literary context mean "written at least 50 years ago", then?

Brilliant - thank you. :)

try these Look out for the Serpents Tail and No Exit imprints in second hand and charity shops. They might be on kindle etc too.

That looks interesting! Thanks, Remus.

What hard boiled crime is good, other than Chandler (who is brilliant)?

Here you go, Cote. Mr Mercedes

I liked, 'Under The Dome' a lot - apart from the really stupid 'revelation' at the end.

I was a big sci fi/fantasy fan in my youth, moorcock, Bradbury, Aldiss Azimov. Grew up, went onto modern classics, then hard boiled crime, now all sorts.

What will SK's new book be about?

I have his Under The Dome in my Kindle, too, snapped up one day when it was 99p. Just haven't managed to get interested in the improbable premise yet.

Always preferred modern literary fiction but no longer have the patience for magical stuff - I think back to all the Ben Okri and Garcia Marquez and wonder why I loved it, although I should probably try rereading something.

When I had babies I read a lot of crime - after DS3 coincided with the brilliant Swedish Wallander series I got into Scandi crime fiction but I haven't read any for a couple of years.I've also started reading more classics since having children. Still can't abide Dickens though however often I try but discovered a love of Henry James and Thackeray that surprised me having given up English after O level for fear of being forced to read that sort of thing

So it seems I have become a more nostalgic realist than when I was 20 which is about right I guess.

You and me both, Remus. As soon as I'm don't with all the books already in my Kindle which might easily be never, at the rate I keep adding to them.

And King has a new one out in June, iirc. :)

I live for the day that a box of previously undiscovered Jane Austen manuscripts is...erm...discovered.

I must re-read, 'This Thing of Darkness' Cote.

My taste in books definitely got increasingly literary over the years. I'm reading much more non-fiction these days, probably because of Remus who got me reading This Thing Of Darkness

I used to read a lot of Stephen King, thrillers, and sci-fi. I still read sci-fi but select only the best

Massively! I have a degree in literature, and I was very into contemporary poetry as well as fairly "difficult" novels.

I really can't be bothered to keep up with what's happening in current literature anymore. I feel like I have done my share. And I am not interested in older literature that I didn't manage to read at university.

These days I read mainly non-fiction (health, diet and parent's self help) and the odd crime novel. I am very disappointed by the selection at my local library, it's all "airport literature".

In the last 5 years only 2 novels really caught me:

www.amazon.co.uk/Exception-Christian-Jungersen/dp/0753821672/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1392667982&sr=1-3&keywords=christian+jungersen

and Siri Hustvedts What I Loved. I can recommend both.

I still read comfort books. Sometimes it's nice to know I'll enjoy something, when there's so much garbage out there!

I read far more non-fiction than I used to - biographies, history books, that kind of thing.

And I rarely have "comfort reads" any more - there used to be half a dozen or so books I'd come back to time and time again, which I never do now. I feel quite sad about that, but these days I always have a long list of books I really want to read, and comfort reads would get in the way of that. It must be a sense of time running out.

I've found myself reading a lot more non-fiction since ds was born. Somehow I can cope with reading grim stuff if it really happened but can't stand stories with any emotional content at all. So I watch lots of documentaries and quiz shows and very little drama, see a film about once a year, and read lots of biographies and science books and some old-fashioned school stories and SF.

Some thrillers are ok but didn't like Reacher as it's basically gun porn and some torture scenes.

Remus I agree. I used to be able to pick up something trashy for a train journey or whatever, but now find it impossible to read badly written rubbish.

I have got even fussier, and much more impatient with bad writing. I read a lot more non-fiction than fiction now - and my tolerance for books by/about women has reduced substantially, for some reason. I've decided I like quite 'manly' books best, I guess - Captain Scott, manly expeditions into the unknown, battles etc.