does the richard and judy label really put you off.....also i find if i read the back and the character name is something like

[zippitippitoes]

...angelina dubarry it puts me off

what sort of things do you view negatively when you pick a book up

or positively?

[UnquietDad]

I mentioned this in a thread last year and quote myself verbatim here.

I boycott the following writers:

• Anyone whose biog reveals they have more than one home ("she lives in London and Hampshire").
• Anyone who "divides their time" between two places (especially in different countries).
• Anyone under 30.
• Anyone who has been excessively drooled over in the press.
• Anyone who looks too much like a smug yummy-mummy.
• Anyone who has had a recently well-publicised literary "spat".
• Any author with a "de" in their name.
• Most people with famous surnames. Ditto.
• Americans. A few honourable exceptions allowed, but definitely not if they are Director of the Creative Writing Program (sic) at Shitkicker College, Nebraska.
• Any "writer" whose suspiciously photogenic mugshot suggests that they weren't exactly employed for their writing abilities.
• Anything touted as this year's Hot Young Thing. If it's good, it will depress; if it's bad, it will annoy. (I made an exception for "The Beach" and was annoyed and depressed in fairly equal measures.)
• Any "novel" about a wacky London career girl and her search for a man. Written in lunch-hours by illiterate bubbleheads and commissioned by same.
• Hideous memoirs about people who were forced to go and stand in sheds in pools of their own urine and were regularly beaten by their mother and the local nuns, before emerging to a greater understanding of it all through lurve or therapy.

Also, I impose quotas: in any calendar year, no more than one Irish novel, one gay novel, one family saga spanning the generations and one "sensitive" portrayal of growing up in an exotic locale. (Idea pinched from Julian Barnes.)

[AnnVan]

Don't know about R&J recommendations but don't do:

''Autobiographies'' of z list wannabes

have read one of those 'how I survived my abusive childhood' books and wander why there are so many of them on the shelves.

Chick lit.
Family sagas.

[fishie]

oh zippi i read that house at riverton too. wasn't it utterly shit, cannot remembr a single thing in it either.

i have more or less given up buying books at all and just order them online from library. less risk.

[ratbunny]

I am an avid reader, and am very fussy about the sort of books I read.
and I have found Richard and Judy's bookclub recommendations to be very good! I have read some excellent books that I would not have picked up before.
Notes from an exhibition
This book will save your life
the testament of gideon mack
I could go on and on...

And I cant STAND them on tv.
So try them. Really.

[JT]

No R & J label does not put me off but then I'm not looking for War & Peace equivalents. Yes, dodgy sounding names (like a Hollywood starlet), girly type novels, my shocking childhood all put me off. I tend to go for the same authors unless one is recommended. As for covers, I've just finished Blaze by Richard Bachman aka Stephen King - it was a plain yellow cover with the title on it, very dull but it was a really good read, I enjoyed it very much.

[JT]

autobiographies of anyone under 65

[MissConduct]

In 'THEIR' comfort zone Crunchynutter. As you are a teacher, I think it's in the best interests of the nation to point that out .

[Fennel]

I just read my first "Richard and Judy recommmend" and yes it would have put me off if the blurb hadn't also said "shortlisted for the Booker prize".

Cloud Atlas. Actually I enjoyed it but it took me 3 months to open the book and start reading mainly because I was put off by the Richard and Judy recommendation.

[laweaselmys]

Have only ever read two R&J books, one was interesting enough but not that great and the other was a pile of grammatically incorrect bollocks.

Perhaps I have just been unlucky.

Very shallowly, interesting covers most definately pull me in, am far more likely to give a book by an unknown author a chance if it has a great cover.

[Notyummy]

I read serious stuff (mostly!) and most of the R and J stuff I have read has been v good.

Don't knock it until you've tried a few!

[CuckooClockWorkOrange]

Now Cloud Atlas WAS shite. Did they recommend that? What were the thinking of? So rambling and complicated.

[Jux]

The words Stephen Coontz or James Patterson on the cover definitely put me off. I will never read anything by Victoria Hislop again and if I were to meet her I think I might actually hit her with a big stick, though I eschew violence, but she has angered me so much that I will not be able to express myself verbally.

Otherwise I'm fairly catholic in my reading tastes, and will go happily from Pilgrim's Progress to The Wouldbegoods to Jasper Fforde and most points in between. But I can't be bothered with Mills&Boon type stuff or chick lit. And an R&J recomm will probably put me off having tried a few, unless juxtaposed with a recomm from a sensible source.

[stephla]

I love the cover of Mister Pip. And I enjoyed the book but I notice it has a R&J label. Which usually means I won't finish it. Maybe I'll give Notes from an Exhibition another go seeing as you all liked it so much.

The covers I love are all those ones that look like your grandmother's bookshelf. Here's some nostalgia for anyone else who likes this kind of thing:

www.amazon.co.uk/Swallows-Amazons-Arthur-Ransome/dp/022460631X/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 =books&qid=1218494328&sr=1-2

www.amazon.co.uk/Prefects-Chalet-School-Elinor-Brent-Dyer/d?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21 p/1847450210/ref=sr14?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218494488&sr=1-4

[muffinmum]

Stephla dont let R& J label put you off mister pip and notes from an exhibition,just read both and they're fab.

i once chose purely on cover as feeling brain dead,chose time travellers wife long before it became popular and loved it!

Have to say I had a horrible but hilarious brush with R& J bookclub: was revising for my finals when they launched bookclub,must be 4yrs ago, saw a good book reviewed then they asked for more volunteers-80ish of us all going away after finals so wrote in to Rand J and they sent me 80 books, all the same, absolute dogshit by celia aherne, her first book, tbh am still totally amazed that cd get published, let alone recommended on tv and then made into a film, stunned. they sent a film crew out to film us by the beach and only about 10 of my absolute best friends finished the book,as was so shite. Have to say they did the best ever editing as we all hated it and they made it look like we thought it was good!!I said smthg along lines of 'her (dead) husband was too good to be true,absolutely amazing not at all like my husband (they cut there but i had carried on to say....as he is a normal husband and not some rubbish character in an unbelievable book) my DH still feels hurt as he was all excited seeing me on tv and i'm stood on beach saying he's rubbish!!!

i usually read recommendations but do always peel off a R and J label,felt gutted recently when one was actually part of the book and not a sticker!Wd love some 'i am highly intelligent' stickers to go over the top!!!!I wish

[suzywong]

oh god yes me too, zippi. In fact the bookshop here tried to give me a free book when I bought one for ds, and I looked at it and the main character was called "Sami". Naturally I made my excuses and left emptyhanded.

[crunchynutter]

You are right misconduct. I apologise. Post only from my mobile phone and I make some really terrible errors! No excuse I should proof read ( if has an American automatic spell check thing too and I find many random z's as opposed to lovely s's!) Please do not let this influence the point I tried to make though as I do think it's important to be as open minded as possible when Reading! Books should appeal to everybody regardless of intelligence/sociAl standing/sex/race/occupation or anything else we may care to add to the list.