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 would still read Stephen King if his books weren't so long. He is a good writer, although his endings are always unsatisfactory as I suppose is always the case with supernatural stories.

The books are just three times longer than they need to be.

Nothing could turn me away from SK!

He's been my favourite author since my teens

I can't read a rom com or anything light and fluffy. I used to.

As a teen- mainly The Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley Twins 😅

Three women. Three stereotypes. Three names that would not have been used at the time the women are supposed to have been born. One woman is beautiful and high flying. One is married with two children. One is haphazard, endearing and experiences lots of "comic" incidents.

Why always 3?!

Horror, romance, trashy novels. There are so many good books that I still want to read, with more being published every year (and I mean intrinsically good, well thought of, well-written, classics, etc) that I simply don't have time to waste now reading rubbish!

Oh god, yes, I was obsessed with the Sweet Valley High books when I was 13 - I could get through three or four in a day sometimes!

I'm early 40s.

I also as a much younger reader went from Goosebumps onto Stephen King. I'm horrified enough with the real world as is these days, no desire whatsoever to also delve into fictional horror.

I do like Crime Fiction and always have. Authors like James Patterson or Lisa Gardner etc. Also things like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings etc remain on my reading list.

I read a lot more factual and fictional books around the topic of feminism in the last decade.

Things I've never wanted to read and still don't: Child abuse stories real or fictional, celebrity autobiographies, overtly sexual or romantic stories eg mills and boon, fifty shades etc.

I used to read a lot of crime thrillers, but now not so many as having escaped an abusive marriage, I can't read descriptions of women being scared etc. Too close to home.
I still do read some police procedurals, but people like Ian Rankin. And I like to read series in order.
I don't read misery memoirs. I've never read horror.

Nowadays I like to comfort read, authors like Cathy Bramley, Jenny Colgan, Trisha Astley - books about friendly cafes, groups of female friends etc. I'm reading the latest Marian Keyes book now.
I also have an Audible subscription and enjoy listening to celebrity autobiographies (Cher's was brilliant) or really long science fiction or fantasy books. I don't drive, so these are great to listen to when I'm walking around everywhere.

And they were always called things like Molly and Chloe, which were actually pretty unusual names for grown women in the late 90s/early 2000s!

As a teenager, I read a lot of popular science books. I don’t so much now, maybe because I feel I found out the things I wanted to know.

I went through quite a Magical Realism/Latin American fiction stage at one point. Just doesn’t attract me now, not sure why.

And I don’t read as much classic literature as I did, but that’s mainly because I’ve read most of the obvious things. I’m saving re-reading for retirement…

Yes I threw them all away. Madonna was a fan too!

Bukowski that is...

Um....Dr. Seuss?

I read Danielle Steel, Jackie Collins and Barbara Taylor Bradford when I was younger (teenage) wouldn’t read anything like that nowadays.

Stephen King is an exceptional writer and he manages to write in a way that combines fully fleshed out believable characters with fully fleshed out horrific experiences. Most writers are good at either one of the other, meaning they don’t generate quite the same level of emotional intensity.
This means that the reader becomes more enmeshed in the imaginary world Stephen king creates and when the ship goes down it takes the reader with it. As you get older you just don’t have the energy for it.

when I was a teenager it was Jacqueline Suzanne, Jackie Collins, Jilly Cooper. Then progressed to Stephen King early ones Shining,Carrie,Pet Cemetery.
Now I’m reading crime fiction all the time, nothing too gory. Starting a collection of Golden Age ones. Josephine Tey, Dorothy L Sayers and of course Agatha Christie.

I went through a phase of reading Westerns pre-teen/ teenager, it was short lived but I learnt a lot about the First Nation people. Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee broke me. I also read some horror as I think most teenagers do

I moved onto science fiction/fantasy whilst a teenager and still read that now but find series written for young adults have better plots. Laini Taylors' Strange the Dreamer and Muse of Nightmares is beautifully written and is an expansion of the universe she created with The Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy. Guy Gavriel Kay still remains one of my favourite authors.

@Mymanyellow I've read the Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey - brilliant book and I must read more of her. Ellis Peters Cadfael has lots of twisty crime plots as does Edward Marston fi you are looking for other authors

Ooh thanks. I love hearing about new authors I hadn’t heard of either of those two.
The Franchise Affair is probably Josephine Tey’s most well known and is a good read.

I used to read horror, (Dean R Koontz, James Herbert, Stephen King) but when I had kids it was like a switch. Nope, not any more.

I read all of Wilbur Smith, but went off the colonial, patriarchal, misogynistic stuff when I "grew up a bit". Same with Jean M Auel prehistoric , this woman did EVERYTHING, Clan of the cave bear series.

I tried to reread some futuristic "classics" at the start of the year Fahrenheit 451 in particular, my god the use of simile and metaphor was so overdone. Not big, not clever.

Like a PP, I do read so much more non-fiction now. I have a "dipping in and out" pile on the bottom of the coffee table. 2 biographies, a Bill Bryson, Bob Mortimers musings, and the only fiction - a lightweight Richard Osman (which is OK if you want to switch your brain off for a bit)

I still read the same genres that I did, even down to the Bunty annuals, Jinny at Finmory, and Louise Rennison. It's great nostalgia and comfort.

Horror - the gory type
Dystopian - it’s all coming true and makes me depressed.

Things I’ll read now that I never used to - hard SciFi.

Things I’ll never read - anything marketed as “TikTok made me buy it”

Another that used to read every Stephen King until mid/late 20's, then went onto reading Booker Prize winners. Now am consciously trying to read more female writers so might start on these www.womensprize.com/prizes/womens-prize-for-non-fiction/. Weirdly I used to love fiction and couldn't stay interested in non-fiction - I think perhaps now I've lived a bit more I can relate better and have broader interests in other people's knowledge.

I used to love Ernest Hemingway and now find his writing too pretentious. Also John Fowles. Maybe some other classic fiction too, I don’t have so much patience any more.

And gruesome crime fiction.

I used to read a lot of science fiction, but then it all seemed to become fantasy (which I never liked) or completely full of irrelevant made up details rather than having an actual plot

Steven King for me too - I went through a phase of devouring them in my teens but can't think of anything worse now.