Are there any topics/tropes/genres that you actively avoid reading about?

I avoid books of the 'Happy ever after in the cupcake cafe' type.

Most books written by men actually. I read mainly men when I was young but the older I get the more likely I am to be uninterested in the stories they have to tell or get annoyyed at the way they represent women. I've only read two books by men this year.

Otherwise I have no interest in reading books with violence in them.

Most fiction set in the current day/ past 30 years or so unless its sci fi/ fantasy etc. I also avoid romance unless its a key part of the story- I like historical romances like Poldark and Outlander but those are the exception to the rule.

Romance/ bodice rippers

Most chick lit.

Most of the recent supernatural/ witchy fiction, which is thinly disguised chick lit.

Westerns (do they even have those any more?)

Misery memoirs.

Very macho “hard man” fiction, in whatever setting.

Anything heavily around a terminal illness or bereavement- my work is in that area so I don't want it in books, I need escapism to recharge emotionally

Espionage - bores the crap out of me.

I also cannot bear descriptions of animal cruelty.

There are loads of genres I dislike: crime, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, etc. Funny thing is, though I dislike those genres, I often make exceptions. I dislike crime, yet love Sherlock Holmes. One of my big pleasures in life is laying in a hot bath listening to Stephen Fry read the Sherlock Holmes stories. I dislike historical fiction, yet did enjoy Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. I also loved the 1970s BBC adaptation of I Claudius, and then read, and enjoyed, the novel.

Anything to do with spies or government conspiracies or political intrigue.

Romance.

Anything supernatural. When a novel starts to go down that route without warning, I just stop.

Auschwitz.

Graphic violence... just why would you?
Misery lit, anything involving violence at kids. Ditto.
Pedofilia, it's discovery is the climax moment in so many crime thrillers, nailing how baddy are the baddies. So dull and again, violence against kids...

Any book where the baddies start stalking the cops or their loved ones, I end up throwing the book out at that point.

In non-fiction I like listening to stories about fraud unravelling. Why is crime fiction so focused on salacious evil murder rather than clever & audacious fraud? There's a whole genre that needs development.

Crime or thrillers involving sexual violence, or explicit violence against women. The real world has too much of it, I’m not going to seek it out for entertainment.

Misery memoirs for the same reason. I don’t come away feeling “I am so lucky to have my own life,” I just feel ground down by the unpleasantness in the world.

Testosterone-fuelled thrillers. I don’t care. Fast cars, big guns, I don’t give a shit. Blokes telling blokey tales to other blokes. I have seen more than enough for a lifetime, especially in films and cheap supermarket thrillers. I am done now.

Contempory fiction, some classics, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, romance, detective novels, humorous novels are more my kind of thing.