As a lit grad some of mine were controversial especially when I was at uni:
Thomas Hardy - boring as! Way too verbose, too much description of scenery just urgh!
Most of the bronte sisters - I love wuthering heights and Jane eyre but the rest nah!
George Eliot - nope! Total yawn fest!
Among modern authors:
Dan brown - I’m not averse to fluff but his stuff is dreadfully written
John Grisham - LOVE the movies but the books are soooo pretentious and waffly
I love crime fiction so someone bought me something by martina Cole - dreadful! Awful writing and it’s clear she’s in awe of despicable gang people who have killed and hurt so many people.
BUT I love
Austen - op p&p is a bit of a slow burner but it gets really good.
Dickens - funny, caricatures, social commentary, “soap” in written form what’s not to like?
Stieg Larsson I read before he was a “thing” recommended by a uni lecturer to me. Loved it.
Marian Keyes is a favourite author...but her earlier stuff I’ve not enjoyed her more recent books as much.
“James Joyce defeated me, but I might try him again.” To be fair defeats most people - somewhat intentionally! I find most modernist writing very unapproachable but I do like Joyce. I suggest starting with the Dubliners as an “easy” intro to Joyce, then perhaps Ulysses but Finnegans wake is really only for the most masochistic! (And lit students aiming for a first! 😂)
@fruitpastille - behind the scenes at the museum was a set text at uni, I was not looking forward to it, the blurb put me off not my kinda book I thought - took a while to get into but then I absolutely loved it!
“Thomas Hardy - really hard going” god I’m glad it’s not just me! I got such a hard time for it at uni!
I must admit I love Agatha Christie and sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I keep meaning to (and have often been told to) try Dorothy l sayers
Sue grafton (rip) - LOVE these books, so easy to read but not insulting to ones intelligence, characters that are easy to like even though flawed... love em.
But yes I think it’s great we all like different things and I loved discussing the likes and dislikes at uni and loved that everyone had their own passions.
I’d like to like fantasy (terry pratchett, jrr Tolkien, Neil gaiman, Phillip Pullman etc but my heart sinks at the thought of the effort to follow a story with backgrounds I don’t already understand, difficult to understand character names and place names and even whole other languages! I guess I’m a lazy reader but I feel I’m missing out because I enjoyed reading fantasy as a child - Enid blyton, cs Lewis, Joan Aiken, Lewis Carrol, Jonathon swift...
Any fantasy readers have guidance/recommendations for me?