Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love (personally, I believe the title should be changed to Eat, Pray, Buy My Book.)

Anything by George Eliot for some reason

and the book that created my name: Pamela by Samuel Richardson.

PAM

Any and all of THE LORD OF THE RINGS set.

Anything my father, an English teacher, recommended to me. I knew, for a start, there would be no sex or even girls in them! They were things like TREASURE ISLAND and KIDNAPPED and TARKA THE OTTER. I still haven't read them. On the other hand, I could take all the poetry he could quote at me and more.

Dido

Anything by Charles Dickens. When I was in school, every single year we had to read A Christmas Carol. How I loathed that story after the third or fourth time of reading it! Since then, I've been too reluctant to even try Dickens again.

Also, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, because of the title. It was way too "cutesy" for me, and I thought it sounded like chick lit (which I don't care for). However, once I started it I ended up really liking it.

Anything Oprah recommends.
Anything by Joyce Carol Oates.
I've been twice burnt by each, and won't do it again.

Anything by Jodi Picoult. My bookclub read three by her over 18 months-I threatened to resign if they picked a 4th.

The Lovely Bones I have a daughter.

Any of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum...I've read two and can't bear them. I also don't like Nicholas Sparks or Mary Higgins Clark.

Anything by James Patterson, Nicholas Sparks, Nora Roberts, Anita Shreve, Joyce Carol Oates, Toni Morrison, and all Pulitzers. Eventually I did like some of the Pulitzers.

No more Ian Mcewan. No Frank McCourt, especially Angela's Ashes. Yes, I know they are great writers. No, I am not missing the subtlety of their writing. I don't like them.

Anything promising to change my life in 30 days (or any amount of days). Same goes for flat belly, taut thighs,etc.

I second the 'nothing recommended by Oprah.' And I was also put off by the twee title of Guernsey and ended up really enjoying it.

I could make a long list of what to me are cringeworthies, but I won't bother you all with too many.

Harry Potter - These books fell through the cracks with me because I didn't have, at the time, kids of the right age interested in them -- my boys were too old and the younger kids, I learned, said they would rather watch the video adaptations! I started the first HP about three times, but there were so many other books I preferred to read that I subconsciously sabotaged my efforts to enter Harry's world by promptly misplacing or losing various copies. Maybe when I have grandchildren I will read HP with them; afterall that's what I did with The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with my sons (I had no interest in reading them for myself).

Lord of the Rings -- I was in college when LotR mania hit (late 1960s). I was never fond of fantasy, even as a child, so I knew as soon as I found out what the trilogy was about that I would need to get potted to enjoy them, or even finish one of them. Luckily for me I never tried that route, so after forty years I am still a LotR virgin.

Another for The Lord of the Rings. I think I may have a couple of the books skulking around the basement, but I have never read them. I also shy away from sci-fy books. It probably isn't fair to avoid them, but they just seem SO corny. Maybe it is more that I would feel silly reading them.

Is it okay to put a genre and not an individual book? If so I will put MYSTERY. Nothing against those of you who like them, but I cannot tolerate the idea of reading them myself.
CMK

Ditto on the Joyce Carol Oates. She's so prolific, I know they'll be awful.
Toni Morrison. I'm depressed enough, thanks.
And just about any memoir from someone under 75. I know more about life than they do, and I'm not interested in the experiences of a 28 year old. Even Paris Hilton. Especially Paris Hilton.
Any book by a politician.

Years ago when I first picked up LotR, I opened a few pages at random. It struck me as quite "wordy", to the point that I thought it might have been "fattened up" by a word-processor. I have seen much of that sort of thing lately, as it seems that most books are now much longer than they should/could be in terms of number of pages. As an example; my wife has a number of Danielle Steele novels on her bookshelf, and it seems the early works are much shorter and better written then the later and much longer texts.
As a result, I am often suspicious of a overly long book, and will often pass on that fact alone. I am sure I do miss a few good reads, but on the other hand, I likely do not waste my limited reading time on padding.
Happy New Year to all,
Bob

I also shy away from LoTR and also The Hobbit. I just can't bring myself to read them as I am not really into fantasy stuff. I also am not going to read Eat, Love, Pray due to its bad reviews and I don't want to wallow in someone else's negative view of the world, thank you very much.

I'm also not a big mystery fan, but maybe I just haven't found the right one yet.

Any Booker prize winner (Sorry Martin!)
Anything sad. I won't read Penny Vincenzi after she had a puppy killed in a book that I was quite enjoying up until then.
Autobiographies. How honest are they generally?
I've just realised this list is in alpha order. Can't shake off that library training painfully acquired by going through the alphabet over and over again 55 years ago!

Peony in Love and its sequel, Water for Elephants, any Nora Roberts or Nicholas Sparks, and books which generally get a lot of hype and have a looong reserve list at the library. No real reason behind this other than general contrariness.

I did, eventually, read Water for Elephants and loved it.

I think it's quite rational to cringe away from a book if you've read others by the same author and loathed them, personally.

But annpan - not reading Booker Prize winners is definitely irrational, though understandable; they do have a (totally undeserved) reputation as being heavy, literary and/or pretentious. (Try Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner - it's a very elegantly written story, not at all heavy - and has the added advantage of being very short! At least then you can claim you've read one Booker Prize winner.)

With me, the irrational cringe is away from these books which seem to be so popular at the moment that tell the world what an awful childhood the authors had, and how dreadfully they were treated. I know some people - presumably many people, judging by how well they sell - find them totally uplifting, but to me they feel like a sort of morbid competition between these authors. Urrgh....

I don't think that is at all irrational, Martin. I have no desire to read about awful childhoods either, and there have been a lot of them published in the last two years.

I am put off by (mainly) scifi/fantasy books that come out as 'part one of a trilogy' for a new author.

I also have to admit to being put off by titles and/or covers. A recent book titled Rancid Pansies holds no attraction for me at all.

Another one for Danielle Steele.

Also:

Celebrity memoirs, especially if the celebrity is still alive.

James Joyce. I had him stuffed down my throat when I was studying modern English literature, and developed an allergy.

Paulo Coelho. The Alchemist is supposedly his best, and I thought it read like a failed attempt at capturing the magic of a fairy tale.

Any memoir that has even the faintest whiff of mis-lit. Ok, so I did enjoy Running with Scissors, but that was because itâÂÂs funny and reads like a novel (which I strongly suspect it partially is).

Sequels to classics written by modern authors, e.g. all the mostly execrable sequels, prequels and alternative viewpoint novels based on Jane AustenâÂÂs books. I donâÂÂt mind modernisations of the same, but I have never read a really good one.

Novels that take real historical characters and make them behave in ways they never did or would have just to suit the story the author wants to tell, e.g. the Jane Austen mysteries or some of Philippa GregoryâÂÂs historicals. Strangely enough I donâÂÂt mind grandly speculative historical novels (âÂÂwhat if Napoleon had won at Waterlooâ and so on) and alternative reality stories (e.g. the Temeraire books) using historical characters, but the other kind smacks of historical revisionism.

May I add more to my list? It seems the older I get, the more picky I become in choosing books. I have read a few books labeled "chick-lit" for my book club, but on the whole, I find them to be whiny relationship books that try to tug on heartstrings more than they try to tell a story. So a HUGE ditto on Danielle Steel, Jodi Piccoult, what's-her-name who wrote The Secret Life of Bees, and other books of that ilk. I'd much rather read The Encyclopedia Brittainica - which, actually, I find quite stimulating.

And I cannot read ANYTHING that treats animals poorly. People are awful to each other but I see animals as not having a voice to fight back. I cannot bear to read such stuff. (Thanks to whomever suggested that Edward Sawtelle may not be a good choice for me. I truly appreciated it.)

Perhaps we should start another thread to parallel this one... name one book that you think is a perfect book. That could be an interesting topic.

PAM

Thank you Veronicae and PAM, for mentioning Eat, Pray, Love . It is refreshing to see that I wasn't the only one who felt negative against that book. I loathed it so much I ripped the book apart and chucked it into the trash bin.

In the past I read some of those Amish Christian fiction books. Now everytime I see one I cringe internally. Some of the writers put hearts and flowers on the lifestyle and folks want to convert without understanding the tenants of their faith. What's interesting to me is some of the Mennonite/Amish businesses I've visited sell them.

~Vanessa

Netla, I felt the same way about The Alchemist which segues into a genre I loathe -- the treacly self-help books.

I'm also not a fan of chick-lit/whiny modern relationship books, nor the issues of the day rendered into a propagandistic drama (i.e., Picoult).

I also prefer reading about the lives of ordinary people over celebrities, the rich, the famous, etc. -- especially when the most interesting thing about those limelighted people is that they are pedigreed.

Any book with a title like "The Purpose Driven Life" is a real turn-off for me. I just find reading "self help" books impossible. The last book of that sort that I got through was by M. Scott Peck, which was OK.

My step-daughter, knowing I love to read, gave me one of these "How to make your life better" books for Xmas and it is going right to the thrift store! Fortunately, she also gave me a gift certificate to B & N!

Any book by the author who wrote "Bridges of Madison County." (His name escapes me, doubtless because it made a negative impression). Oh, it's Waller....

Anything recommended by Oprah.

Anything featuring dysfunctional families or murdered children.

Anything Dark and Literary - Margaret Atwood and Cormac McCarthy come to mind. I never recovered from The Handmaid's Tale and I've heard enough about The Road to give me nightmares without having to read it.

Anything by Nicholas Sparks, Jodi Picoult, Toni Morrison, Anita Shreve, John Grisham, or Joyce Carol Oates -- they just don't appeal to me in any way, though I know they certainly don't all belong in the same category.

And finally, anything by William Faulkner. I was clubbed over the head with him in high school and hated it so much I will never read him again.

Whew! I feel better now.

Martin: You hit on my reason for an instinctive aversion to Booker prize winners! Actually, I have read at least one runner up, a Barbara Pym novel. I even saw the TV fictionalised programme about that event in her life. I've always liked her books.
I will try 'Hotel de Lac' as you recommended it. Don't say I never take expert opinions!

I find it interesting that some of the books mentioned on this thread are also mentioned (by other RPers) on the "Future Classics" thread. Funny how we all have such distinct tastes in reading.

I'm with sheriz - "Anything featuring dysfunctional families or murdered children." I'd add to that books that involve child abuse, torture or gratuitous sexual assault scenes. I couldn't bring myself to read "The Shack," even though it was my book club's choice a few months ago.

I'm cautious with books about racism and the Holocaust. There are some really good books on both subjects, but I can't read ones that are too graphic. The problem is, you sometimes don't know until it's too late, and then you live with a horrible memory forever. I'm still haunted by a story in an Ellery Queen collection I read as a pre-teen. It was horrible, and I wish I could remove it permanently from my memory.

Oh, I forgot about characters brought into novels by other than their original creators. That does annoy.

But Rancid Pansies is very funny.

Here is a link that might be useful: Rancid Pansies, by James Hamilton-Paterson

Great topic! I've enjoyed reading everyone's opinions. Here are mine. Sorry this post is so long.

(1) Any and all books said to feature magical realism!
(2) Books by Toni Morrison. Beloved made me miserable enough.
(3) Though I loved LotR, which I first read when I was in college, much of the fantasy written after that seems to me to be imitating it, and if I suspect an author or a book of doing that, I don't even open it.
(4) Books by the authors of A Bridge to Terabithia (Katherine Paterson and Donna Diamond) and The Day No Pigs Would Die (Robert Newton Peck). The death towards the end of the former depressed me, and the ending of the latter positively sickened me. So I won't even give a youth novel a fair chance if warned that it is going to leave some kid(s) miserable at the end, and all the worse, if the book seems to be preaching a lesson I dislike. (Unless the miserable were BAD kids and deserved it! heh heh)
(5) Sci-fi that features mental telepathy.
(6) Any book by an author who wrote one book that I loved, which led me to read another by him/her and I hated it. I am thinking particularly of Richard Adams (loved Watership Down; was disappointed by Shardik).
(7) Last, but by no means least, books that are written entirely in the present tense. I hate the "in your face" feeling in every line. For me to finish a book written all in the present, it has to grip my mind so strongly from the beginning that I don't notice the tense. Otherwise, back to the library or into the trash bin!

Wow! I didn't realize I had so many hates and prejudices, and I'm afraid I have violated the intention of the question, which used the singular "book" and said "irrationally cringe," whereas I think I have perfectly good reasons for my hates, LOL.

I would agree with most of the above 'dislikes'. I have never, even as a child, enjoyed fairy stories and I include all books about Other Worlds elves, wise men with long white beards, fairies at the bottom of the garden, talking animals etc.
Pretentious books written by successful women novelists, married to even more successful male writers, who dwell in the rarefied atmosphere of Hampstead, London and have no idea how ordinary people live (I expect there is an American equivalent).
Bleak stories that not only have no happy/satisfactory endings, but not much fun anywhere within.
Books that deal with terrible family poverty but are written by the next generation who keep apologising for their parents short-comings. . . Tuppence to Cross the Mersey comes to mind, although I enjoyed Angela's Ashes because it was so funny
I should have hated We Need to Talk About Kevin but heard it read on the BBC and found it very powerful and thought-provoking.
Never read chick-lit. Don't even know if the UK produces 'self-help' books unless they are about slimming . . .:-)
I don't feel any of my dislikes are irrational, just very cringe-worthy.

No doubt I will offend when I say that I physically recoil from all fantasy, magic, and science fiction. I am too much of a "social realist" to be interested.

I am also a bit like Sarah Canary in that I avoid books about cruelty, such as memoirs of horrible child abuse. I find them too disturbing and depressing.

I also view with distaste anything which glamorizes murderers, particularly serial killers.

I agree about serial killers and dysfunctional families. The only RP discussion book I have really hated was Joyce Carol Oates' We Were the Mulvaneys. Now, there is a book I have not forgotten.

Magical realism, ugh. Alice Hoffman, ugh. Anything graphically violent or disgusting, ugh. I don't, however, find my distaste for these books irrational.

Add me to the "anything featured by Oprah" category.
But then, way after she promoted it, I read "House of Sand and Fog," and I really liked it.
As they say, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

I also liked "House of Sand and Fog."

Add me to the list of those who in general dislike reading of dysfunctional families, especially of childhood abuse. (One of the worst books I ever read was "Fall on Your Knees.") I had a hard time getting through "Angela's Ashes" but the author's quirky writing style won me over, in the end.

In general, I dislike magical realism and fantasy, as well. Could not get through the one Allende book I attempted....

The Poisonweed Bible. The name alone is enough. Might we have just a bit of hostility there? Then I saw an interview made several years ago with Barbara Kingsolver, when she was still living in Tucson. She came across as so self-righteous, so pompous (in a genteel way, of course), so absolutely "correct" about her correctness, that it permanently put me off.

Charles Dickens. Have really, really tried, and I just can't get through his writing. And I am thoroughly "Jane Austened-out", both books and movies. OTOH, I have loved Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.

Books with lurid gore, cruelty, and abuse of animals and children. E.g., Charlotte's Web depressed me. What about the other pigs? We will not even mention The Yearling and The Red Pony.

The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson. Had to read it in high school, sorry I did, wish I could forget it. Ethan Frome is not much better.

Oh, yes, I forgot about The Lottery....I've had another Shirley Jackson book in my TBR pile forever, but cringe when I pick it up. Isn't is amazing what memories one has of a single book?

OK, I'll run counter to many of the entries here. I tend to cringe from fiction billed as upbeat, happy, cheerful, or uplifting. I don't like self-help, sci-fi, or popular fiction. I don't like violence or gore. But fiction that others might find bleak or dark just doesn't upset or depress me (unless it is badly written).

Bring on the Dickens, Joyce, Faulkner, Morrison, and anything else in that vein. In real life, I'm happy, optimistic, and outgoing, lest anyone think there's a correlation!

I'm also one that will throw back any book that the reviewers tell me will change my life.

I'm going to sneakily use this thread to ask a bit of advice :)

Terry Pratchett. I've seen him mentioned quite a few times recently. I've a strong suspicion that I would really enjoy his books. I've heard him interviewed and enjoyed what he had to say.....but to my increasing shame I've yet to read one of his books.

I've even gone to a bookshop with the express intention of buying my first Terry Pratchett book.....and come out with something else.

And the problem ?... There are just so many of them. Where do you start ? Are these books that are better read in a particular order ? Do you start with his best, or earliest ?

I suppose that classes as an "irrational cringe" - I don't want to spoil something I think I might enjoy by going about it the wrong way. Must be a name for that as a psychological condition......

Hi Phil.
You might find part of an answer at fantasticfiction-I have linked to Pratchett's page. It gives you the discworld books in order, as well as his other fiction.
cc

Here is a link that might be useful: Terry Pratchett's page on ff

I used to say I read anything but Westerns, romance and sci-fi. But have found some really good books in each of those genre. So now I say I'll try anything.
I stay away from about the same and I've seen repeatedly above: Oprah recommended, Danielle Steele, Toni Morrison and Terry Pratchett.
My sons favorite author is Terry Pratchett. I've tried several times and just can't do it.

For no rational reason, I tend to avoid books that are touted as book-club books. I am perfectly aware that there is no logic in this, as I have enjoyed many of those I have read, but I still put my mental foot down and refuse to read many others.

I didn't particularly like the first couple of Pratchetts I read. Didn't dislike them, just didn't "like" them. But one day out of Hobson's choice I downloaded The Wee Free Men, a kids book, and loved it. I've was equally charmed by the next two of that subseries of Discworld. I still haven't erased Wintersmith from my player because I enjoy dipping into it still.

Phil- I love Pratchett, but I actually came to him via a book called "Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch," which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman, a favorite author of mine. I don't know that you have to read the Pratchett books in order, but I guess it helps with some of the subseries. I find that I like certain characters (Granny Weatherwax, Death, and Reg Shoe(?) to name a few), and tend to look for books that feature them.

Thanks for those comments - I now feel "*empowered*" to grab whatever I see on offer / second hand without worrying too much about getting them out of sync.

I would have to add Life of Pi to this list-however, my bookclub has just chosen it for our next discussion, so I'm in. I told them about this thread, and I think they chose Pi partly to push me!

I've been trying to decide what my own irrational aversions are and they don't seem to me to be irrational at all. :D Unless it is political books. I'm okay with books about policy and current events, I just hate books that obviously advocate. On either side.

Any "Chicken Soup..." book or other self help book promising absurd results.

All books promoting a particular form of spirituality, such as "A Purpose Driven..."

Any books post-Ann Rice featuring vampires. I just don't get this fascination with creatures sucking blood from your neck.

I loved LOTR, back in my teens, but I have no interest in fantasy since then.

All true crime books.

Memoirs and autobiographies by most politicians.

Most poetry.

Like others above, any book that prequels or sequels a classic, such as the Scarlett and Rhett novels for GWTW.

Years ago when The Far Pavillions first came out, it was very popular and was hard to get from the library. I finally found it on the shelf (and I worked at that library too!) and took it home. It went back unread at the end of the borrowing period. This happened a few times; for some reason, I just couldn't sit down to read it. Finally, my sister in law gave me a paperback copy as a birthday present and it again sat on my shelf unread for quite a while. One day, bored, I picked it up and started reading it. Hours later, my eyes closing despite my efforts to stay awake, I put down the book with only 60 or so pages to go and fell asleep. I finished it the next morning and couldn't understand what took me so long to get into it.

For those who think Tolkein is too wordy, Rosefolly explained it much better than I could. She said he wrote as if the books were being presented orally. (Rosefolly, you explained it more clearly in a much earlier post.)In other words, his works are meant to be read aloud. If you listen to an audio presentation of LoTR, you will hear this.