What genres did you read when you were younger that you don’t now?

[BabCNesbitt]

I was looking through the new Kindle deals today and it struck me that I’d have bought loads of the self-help books in there that I now have zero interest in. Same with the kind of authors that I only read because they were worshipped by blokes I fancied (all those bloody “rebellious young men” ones - Kerouac and Bukowski, I’m side-eyeing you). What genres or types of books have you left in the past, and are you ever tempted to go back and reread? (And if you’re now reading books that your younger self would have hated, I want to know that, too!)

I read dystopian fiction, Handmaid’s Tale, 1984 etc. wouldn’t re-read.
I used to love Stephen King too, couldn’t face it now.

Stephen King for me too

Horror fiction ie Steven King or James (?) Herbert. Some of the more gory crime fiction.

Prefer a more sedate read these days (Richard Osman) 😁

I think I’ve probably expanded the numbers of genres I read rather than cut them down, but I certainly read less of the tortured or glum variety of literary fiction than I did in my 20s and 30s. I think Rachel Cusk is a genius, and her prose is beautiful, but I can’t stomach her sensibility any more— similarly Gwendoline Riley, and quite a few others. I also read fewer books by men.

Romance.
I can't even manage good romance writers any more as I am too old and cynical.

Stephen King, stopped reading him when I had children didn't want to imagine them growing up in a world he portrays

Interesting that so many people say Stephen King! I’ve never read him, but what has turned you away from him?

Pony books.

And I also had a phase where i binged on the Beat writers as well.

I had prolonged phase also where I read all the Russian authors I could possibly manage... I very nearly did an undergraduate in Russian literature.

Nowadays I need light relief from the daily stresses of life and major heavily on Rosamund Pilcher, Maeve Binchy and similar.

Actually I have never left my most of my favourite genres, although I have added biographies and political works too.
I still like a comfort read - stuff like maeve binchy, patricia scanalan, marian keyes, also historical sagas such as cynthia harrod eagles, rf delderfield, elizabeth jane howard, galsworthy, witty historical novels like pg woodhouse, evelyn waugh.
Sometimes for real nostalgia I even re read some of my huge selection of pony stories. I spent most of my childhood hidden in their pages.
I never get rid of any book I really enjoy so they are all here to dip back into like the old friends they are.

Big bonkbusters. They aren't such a thing now anyway, but we were all obsessed with Lace at school, swapped Jilly Coopers, Jackie Collins and Judith Krantz. I used to get authors like Penny Vincenzi out of the library and sink into them like a bath (in fact often IN a bath). I knew my white Chanel from my turquoise Oscar de la Renta and my Jaguars from my Cadillacs despite never knowingly encountering any of these things in real life. Everything was plural including the trousers, red lips, pearls and shoulder pads. Everyone lived in houses not properties.

I think probably this is the gap that social media has filled tbh.

I had a patch of reading science fiction in my first marriage and developed a mild liking for Robert C. Heinlein, but not having to read any more of it was one of the many benefits of divorce.

Stephen King is an amazing writer, but he portrays such awful and sickening things so vividly I can’t bear to read them. Some of the things he wrote, I can still recall these 25/30 years later.

Catherine Cookson!
Jodie Picoult- couldn’t read them now
Stephen King/James Herbert

Loved a good bodice ripper when i was younger. Poldark/Lady Chatterley vibes.

True life crime, I used to read it all the time but I find it to upsetting. The last one I read was written by Fred Wests daughter and I wish I hadn't.
Also (and I'm not sure I'm correct here) but the books by the foster carer Cathy Glass.. Read a few and I don't understand how she gets away with making a lot of money from someone else's story?

Biographies. Used to love a biography, but I wouldn't even pick one up now - no one interests me enough to read about their life. To be honest, I've gone off almost all non-fiction, bar a few exceptions.

Science fiction. I read Asimov, Arthur C Clarke, John Wyndham and many others. I never touch science fiction these days.

Lord of the Rings and Hobbit. I even read first Game of Thrones book. I don't know what I was thinking, I didn't even enjoy it.

Explicit gore. When I was a teenager, I'd consume Herbert van Thal's Pan Books of Horror Stories, some of which were so horrible they are still etched on my brain. Then when I was about 18, I read Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, which scared me half-silly and did it nicely, no eviscerations, no gallons of tomato sauce etc. I rarely read fiction with much body horror now.

I also consumed a lot of Danielle Steel, Catherine Cookson and Barbara Cartland at one stage. I haven't read any of them for decades.

Bonkathons! My friend and I aged around 13-14 used to pinch our mum’s Jilly Cooper books!

Mills and Boon 😁
Oh and those awful misery biographies, Child Called It etc. can't do those anymore.
Still love Stephen King

I loved ghost stories as a young reader & had all the Armada Book of Ghost Stories series. I wouldn't read a ghost story now. They just don't tempt me at all.

Another one for Stephen King also Rosamund Pilcher, Amanda Powse and Jojo Moyes type books.

However I have always read historical fiction, fantasy and like a good thriller!
I think I read in phases so I might come back to some geners and drop others.

I have never been into classic literature like Dickens, Austen or Brontë. But I am impartial to the old phphilosophers.

I was on the Point Horror —> Stephen King pathway. Read The Stand (uncut) a good few times at uni.

Then I had kids and was on the strung-out-working-mother self-help genre.

Then I went through a deep Val McDermid murder mystery with feisty women phase.

And now I’m unashamedly into the ‘TikTok’ fantasy stuff (commonly referred to as ‘fairy smut’ but it’s not nearly smutty enough). Easy, compelling, escapism. I’m all in and reading more than I have since I was a teenager.

Bukowski for sure. Read loads when I was 23. Now think it's absolute tosh.

Me too. Misogynistic, self-indulgent guff.