Authors who are very popular but you just don't get....

Ishiguro. I mean, he’s WELL lauded so it must be me. I just haven’t got what it takes to see his quality.

Have come to this thread just as somebody is slating my favourite ever living author Louis de Bernieres I am a fan of the hundred words for 2 though.

I was coming on to say Ferrante as well. It’s not even not caring about the characters. I don’t need to care about the characters and sometimes enjoy that I don’t but I’m just not sure what the point is.

Louis Dr Bernieres - awful. Used 100 flowery words when one would do in Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I love Gabriel Garcia Marquez as well (and South American lit in general) and Louis Dr Bernieres cod south American books were a travesty.

Salman Rushdie - again with the too many words.
I have up when he spent two pages describing someone's nose.

@CountFosco i read 100 Years of Solitude when I was 20 and loved it. I raved about it to loads of people who tried it and couldn't stand it. Maybe I was ahead of my time!

@Matt Haig I really liked the one called “Humans” or whatever. Haven’t read any others, I maybe I did but forgot.

Harlan Coben. His books are generally well reviewed and the blurbs always sound thrilling. But the books always end up being being in the 2.5-3.5 range. Passable to quite good. Stupidly, I must have read half a dozen of them. It’s those blurbs!

Well I've just read Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and I have to say I won't be reading any of his again! I cannot understand why it's a classic!

I first tried to read 100 years of solitude when I was 20, I didn't understand it at all. I then read when I was 30 and married to a south american. It made complete sense. Read it again at 40 and still loved it. 50 next year, will read it again.

Elena Ferrante. I know it’s practically illegal not to like her, but there it is.

Yes

@highlandcoo

Don't like Jodie Picout

Or Celia Aherne

Another for Dickens. I've read some, hated it but love a good TV adaptation! I also didn't really get on with Elena Ferrante, I read all the My Brilliant Friend books but sort of wished I hadn't bothered.

An author who gets a lot of recommendations on the fantasy threads is Jodi Taylor - the first couple were ok but then I just got bored and they weren't well-written enough to keep me going back. I don't get the love for her!

Donna Tartt is indeed pretentious drivel

I agree about Ian McEwan and Atonement is probably the only case in history where the film is better than the book, I LOVE the film!

I ageee @BeardedMum for both Jojo Moyes and David Walliams. I also just can’t get along with Jessie Burton, and despite the huge hype around Emma Donoghues Room the writing style just drove me mad, though I haven’t read anything else by her so it may just be that book!

I don’t know how anyone gets past the blurb of a Tony Parsons book. All I could hear was “poor meeee, I’m a man, and I have to look after my own child, how can this have been allowed to happen???”.

I was given two of them about a decade ago, and this is a great summary 😂

I'll add my voice to those disliking Thomas Hardy (too depressing) and 'Wuthering Heights'. I feel about WH the same way I felt about 'Bridget Jone's Diary' both are full of unlikeable characters who are far too self-absorbed. However, I love 'Jane Eyre' and 'Tenant of Wildfell Hall' so its not a general allergy to the Brontes.

Matt Haig. Urgh twee bollocks. Painful to read.

Also Milan Kundera. Tried the Unbearable Lightness of Being. Reminded me of Garcia Marquez. Can’t remember why now.

I don’t know how anyone gets past the blurb of a Tony Parsons book. All I could hear was “poor meeee, I’m a man, and I have to look after my own child, how can this have been allowed to happen???”.

As a result I’ve never read one, so I can’t offer an opinion on the actual content.

Agree on Gabriel García Márquez. Think I read 100 years... kept waiting for it to get good. Nope.

I like Donna Tartt and Kate Atkinson. I agree that Sally Rooney has no chance of meeting the hype. Liked Ian McEwan, but haven’t read any of the more recent ones (yet).

Hated Hardy, Austen and Dickens. Never got as far as the Brontes in case they were same.

I love Shakespeare’s language but think most of the storylines are shit.

There’s an early Sophie Hannah that’s a mystery set in an academic scene with emphasis on the metaphysical poets. I loved it.
Then I was pleased to see she’d written a whole series and it’s so...different! Dark, dreary detectives. I read a few of them but I don’t know why.

I’m currently reading my first Victoria Hislop, and while I appreciate the research that’s gone into it, it’s presentation is a bit dull.

Danna Tartt is not for me, but I enjoy Kate Atkinson, Austen and list others mentioned here.

I used to think I didn’t like Margeret Atwood but then I started again with the MadAddam Trilogy and I love those

ELJames
Tony Parsons - soooo self absorbed
Cecelia Ahern
Ian Mckewan - love the idea of the book and the plot. Don’t get on with the style of writing

Another vote for Thomas Hardy and Ian McEwan. Also:

Philip Roth
Salman Rushdie
David Mitchell

Hilary Mantel for me too. I found Wolf Hall absolutely unreadable.

100& Kate Atkinson. I've tried a few times, persuaded by the general love for her writing but am always disappointed.

Also Donna Tartt, my ex was a big fan, so I have read the secret history and the goldfinch, but waited the whole way through for the wow moment, or for it to grip me and failed both times.

Sally Rooney, I don't dislike, but there is so much hype about her that I think she cannot fail to disappoint. Shame, I hope she doesn't suffer under the weight of expectation and is allowed to grow into her potential (meant in a less patronising way than it sounds!)

John Irving is another one. I read A Prayer for Owen Meany and thought it was pretty rubbish. So I tried another because of the hype and gave up.

It's funny how personal books are. The more time I spend in this section, the more I am starting to identify a few posters with similar reading preferences to me. I tend to listen to their recommendations and ignore most others I'm also getting much better at ignoring what I "should" read or "should" enjoy!

I agree with everything you said about On Chisel Beach @Judashascomeintosomemoney. The ending ruined the whole book for me, it made the whole pacing of the book feel wrong. I tried another one of his books but it was full of people I didn't like, I obviously need to like some of the people in a book I read.

I’m so pleased so many of you also dislike Ian McEwan
Yes, me too. Elena Ferrante’s offerings are just plain dull, but McEwan is offensively bad. On Chesil Beach is utter, pretentious drivel. Awful protagonists, about whom I cared nothing. The Guardian, of course, loved it. And I was dismayed to see, the worst book I’ve ever read, included in a list of ‘best ever books’ recently, can’t remember where, Times probably. The Luminaries. So, Eleanor Catton, for that alone.

Thanks for the fantasy recommendations, my concentration is very poor at the moment (health issues) but I really miss reading maybe a new genre will help.

I mainly like crime fiction probably influenced by my mum, both parents are readers but dad likes much heavier going stuff like Russian authors so when I hit teens mum was able to recommend more approachable authors. She started me off on Agatha Christie because they're well written "adult" without really having too much gore or sex in and I'd watched some of the tv adaptations so was kind of familiar with them that way.

She also tried me on Barbara Taylor Bradford (a woman on substance was on tv at the time and I was enjoying) but she was ridiculously over descriptive of the most mundane crap! - 2 whole pages of the soft furnishings in a living room at one point! Nope!

She also recommended Virginia Andrews really not suitable for a mid term in my opinion as a mother now but at the time I didn't think it odd.

She didn't know I was reading (admittedly for somewhat salacious reasons as a curious teen) Lace by Shirley Conran (also on tv at the time), and Jackie collins - which are actually quite well written for a popular author, especially like the "Lucky" books - they're complete nonsense but good fun.

Catherine Cookson I also went through a phase of but they are VERY samey after a while. You are just reading the same book with different character names after a point.

Spy novels are another genre I want to try having enjoyed the film and tv adaptations of several.