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

[Corneliawildthing]

I read the first Harry Potter book when my kids were little and was rather underwhelmed by it (maybe I wasn't the target audience). I started The Cuckoo's Calling and seemed to have been reading for about 2 hours and had only reached page 25.

My in-laws raved about the Stieg Larsson books but I think I lasted about 20 pages.

Highland it might just be that I really fancy Jackson Brody

Ooh just remembered another one Michelle Paver's adult books! See them frequently recommended on here as being super scary and I think really? They just seem like children's stories and not very frightening. In fact, children's books are often far more so!

And yes to Thomas Hardy! Had to read 2 at secondary school: mahoosive yawn! Tess of the D'Urbervilles! Hardy just comes across as a misogynistic old perve!

Boy oh boy - I cannot read any more of this thread.

I think we need to start a thread with our favourite authors.

There's a heck of a lot of negativity on this thread for my favourite authors which makes me think a lot of people are VERY STUPID

Ok cheers for that Rapunzel.

@Rapunzelsplait I think your comment is the one that comes across stupid if you're claiming people are stupid for not liking the same authors as you

Thanks Rapunzel sorry us idiots don't all share your favourite authors. Each to their own and all that.......

Go on then Rapunzelsplait, tell us your favourite authors so that we can cast judgement on your intelligence.

Harry Potter and Game of Thrones both leave me cold. And then I have people going "le shock!! you've never read Harry Potter!! but it's so amazing and magical and Hufflepuff sorting hat Dumbledore is gay classic tale of good and evil so amazing!!!"

I don't care. They're children's books, I was an adult when they came out, and so, I have never read them. If that makes me a snob, then I'm a snob.

Game of Thrones, too long, too many tits. Didn't care.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I want to like her books but I just don't. I like her Ted Talk and I like her in interviews but I have never finished any of her books.

I love Thomas Hardy though basically because it's boring, no thought required, just let him drone on and on about the endless misery of existence and how awful everything and everyone is and 50 pages describing a fucking field or something. It makes me feel oddly better about my life. I bet he was a right miserable bastard.

Rapunzel is very very smart, she's read all the smart person's books and understood them too.

which makes me think a lot of people are VERY STUPID

Are you for real? We'd be very boring if we only liked the books you like, even if that makes us intelligent in your opinion!!

I'm sure there are authers you dislike that someone else does like, does that make you stupid too?

Lol about Hardy and lol about Rapunzel @LoveIsLovely

Imagine being stupid enough to read a thread about authors people don't get and being surprised that it contains negativity

Oh I agree with Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Any magical realism really. One minute someone is working in an office and the next they're flying around or something. I just find it stupid tbh.

I think generally I just don't like any kind of fantasy or sci fi or anything that couldn't happen in the real world. Someone (Tina Fey? Or someone else entirely) said somewhere that it just feels like lazy writing if you can just conjure up a dragon or travel through time because you can just make up any rules you want so it's easy to write.

That's how fantasy and stuff always feels to me. Like if you're stuck with your plot, just create some type of magic or mystical creature and it will solve everything.

Hilary Mantel. I tried to read Wolf Hall. I think it's the only book I have given up on. I got about a quarter of the way through. Her style of writing obviously isn't for me. I just couldn't follow it/understand who was talking most of the time and had to keep reading pages again.
I've heard others say the same although it's a best seller and was even made into a series so obviously many people will disagree with me. Would be interested if anyone else has read her and what they think?

Just read more of the thread seen others have a similar opinion.

I've read all of Hilary Mantel's books and love them all. The one about the French Revolution 'A Place of Greater Safety' is fascinating. I lent it to a French friend and she said that even though she had done the revolution at school in France, she learnt more from this book than she had at school.

Haruki Murakami

Jodi Picoult. Her books sound brilliant but are utterly tedious on reading. Cheesy and fluffy at the same time. Maybe her more recent writing is better but the last one I tried I couldn't get past the first chapter.

Highland it might just be that I really fancy Jackson Brody

And who could blame you Blakes77? Jason Isaacs channeled his fanciability (and his essential decency which is also v attractive) pretty well in the TV version I thought.

I remember a conversation with my friend Tom who quite liked the show but was complaining that there was a lot of time wasted with too many shots of JI striding around in jeans and a leather jacket. I pointed out that in Baywatch the scenes where Pamela Anderson sprinted up the beach in a high-cut red swimsuit weren't essential to the plot either

A friend pressed Captain Corelli's Mandolin on to me because she thought it was brilliant, Tried to read it a couple of times but only managed a couple of chapters. Can't abide Adrian Mole as a child or adult. Twee and annoying. Didn't get on with My Brilliant Friend. So miserable.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin on to me because she thought it was brilliant, Tried to read it a couple of times but only managed a couple of chapters

The first hundred pages or so were tedious but then it suddenly took off. Granted, a hundred pages is a lot when you’re bored.

Terry Pratchett I just don’t like. BUT Good Omens is one of my favourite books. (I do like Neil Gaiman tho)
I think Jodi Piquolt is naff.
I also hate Dickens and Hardy which is more controversial. Hardy’s poetry which is just a suasion of guilt about how horrible he was to his now dead wife and moaning about the weather.
Dickens is far to wordy, even for that time.

YY Jason Isaacs was very good as Jackson. Unfortunately I saw him in an interview and he was NOTHING like the character (Isaacs was very actory and not at all strong silent Yorkshirman (phwoargh) and it really upset me for ages!
Soz folks, derailing book thread to discuss totty.

If you enjoy Jason Isaacs with a Yorkshire accent then you may enjoy this Blake

m.youtube.com/watch?v=jNbvepjd46A