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

[TheArtOfBookCollecting]

I can't bear anything with animal cruelty/suffering in it. I've given up on many books because of that though occasionally if the book is good enough, and it isn't a recurring theme, I'll just skip that part and continue.

I also really can't bear to read anything relating to witch hunting. It makes me feel so ill to think about it.

I'm also not a fan of romance for the sake of romance itself. If there's some pressing reason for them to be together or if they've been through a lot as a couple then I don't mind but otherwise I tend to avoid romance.

No judgement. Each to their own but I'm curious to know which subjects/genres you make a habit of avoiding?

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.

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.

Auschwitz.

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.

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.

Espionage - bores the crap out of me.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

I have read one book ever where it was an accounting fraud, found by an auditor. There should be more!

I avoid anything historical (though enjoy little women). Any sci fi or fantasy stuff. Misery memoirs too.

Nice crime dramas for me.

Me too. Also graphic violence & misery memoirs, as mentioned upthread.

I’ve been known to leave a book on the tube / bus if it has references to messy eaters in it. Instant ick.

I'm quite fussy probably.
I wouldn't read cowboy or romantic man stories either, probably. I like quirky weirdness, though.

Chick lit - I don't care about your little dramas with your friends and I don't care about your shopping.

Kidnapped and/or abused children - No.

Misery lit - Why would I want to spend hours reading about abused orphans going hungry on the streets?

Rubbish Sci-Fi written by people who should just write chick lit - Learn something about science, technology, and other subjects you plan to write about, because you clearly know nothing. Emily St John Mandel, I'm looking at you.

Old, badly written fiction with oddly-behaving characters speaking and acting in ways that nobody in their right mind would - Nevil Shute's On the Beach comes to mind.

Non-fiction books by pompous "thinkers" who claim to predict our future as a species, such as Yuval "There will be no more wars because they are no longer economically viable" Harari

Bestselling books that are only slightly above chick lit, often about some current issue or popular grievance, written predominantly for a female reader base - examples: 1000 Splendid Suns, anything by Jojo Moyes, Sophie Kinsella et al.

Romance - Just no.

So-called "Women's fiction" with colorfully drawn multi-color covers and handwritten fonts are to avoid, especially if they are called Some Man With A Profession's Female Relative à la The Baker's Wife, The Hangman's Daughter...

Crime involving cruelty to animals and children. I once read this awful book by Mo Hayder, The treatment. It was awful, I can’t understand why anyone would write such a book. A woman! It describes terrible acts of peadophilia while the father of the child must watch…. I can’t believe people read this stuff for entertainment… i’m not for banning books but this one must be behind bars. It made me want to throw up.

I agree - 80% of what I read is by women now. There are exceptions - Adrian Tchaikovsky is an excellent example with his brilliant science fiction books.

chick-lit

cosy books like The Hundred Year Old Man. The Keeper of Lost Things , Sally Red Shoes etc

stuff about genies and dragons

supernatural content (I read To the Devil a Daughter far too young and it's freaked me out ever since)

child abuse

dementia - don't need reminding how awful it is

misery lit in general

spy fiction - so much double- and triple-crossing I just don't care any more

I'm also weary of time-slip novels. The French Lieutenant's Woman was innovative but it's become lazy and overdone now

and I detest novels written in the present tense. It's not happening now. You're reading about it so it must be in the past.

The Treatment is one of the most disturbing books I've ever read. I did finish it because I needed closure, probably odd logic but I couldn't leave it unfinished with those pictures in my head IYSWIM.

I don't read sci-fi, espionage, misery lit, Westerns, Wilbur Smith-style adventures, most fantasy (don't mind Tolkein or Pratchett's satire of the genre), 'classic' literature written by macho types like Hemingway.

Misery porn ie about abuse especially abusive childhoods
Horror
Chick lit
Violent thrillers - you can usually tell by the title and/or cover
Thrillers involving kidnapping and/or death of children
Romance (except Jane Austen) - don't mind if part of the story but not the point of it
Anything with vampires, werewolves or faeries

Chick lit and murder mystery.

Stuck in a fantasy hole at the moment. Aside from Robin Hobb I'm thinking the quality of more recent fantasy is a bit fanfiction - although I've never read any. And too much badly written sex.

Anything described as heartwarming is an immediate no for me.

Also anything where the blurb asks stupid questions.
Will Jane and John find love together?
Can Matilda overcome her background to find happiness?

Plenty of the above but also I came to the conclusion anything that has tonnes of one line reviews all over the covers; front, back and also inside and out.

Also, now try to avoid things with descriptions of sex; it (almost) never adds to the plot. Not prudish, just feels "sex sells" cynical. However, it's usually too late before I've managed to avoid it.

@CoteDAzur

Rubbish Sci-Fi written by people who should just write chick lit - Learn something about science, technology, and other subjects you plan to write about, because you clearly know nothing. Emily St John Mandel, I'm looking at you

Would that be the yawnfest Station Eleven or the "I wanna be David Mitchell" Sea of Tranquility?

I won't be giving Mandel a third attempt and am bemused by the reviews and prizes.