People often ask me what I like to read, but almost no one asks me what I do not like to read. I wonder why? Well … of course, I know why. They just aren’t interested in what I don’t like to read, and I don’t blame them. I’m not interested either.
However, today I got to thinking about several authors whose works I do not like. Actually, the list is very, very, very long, but I didn’t have much time to post today, so I’ve narrowed it down to the ones that came to mind quickly. Now, my total lack of appreciation of these authors’ efforts does not mean that they do not have a talent for writing. It just means — simply — that I don’t appreciate their talent.
I do not like works by Nicholas Sparks, and I won’t go to the strenuous mental effort it takes to read Herman Melville or Victor Hugo. (At least, now that I’m out of school and don’t have to.) Stephen King and J. R. R. Tolkien are on my hit list, along with C. S. Lewis. And I absolutely despise works by Hemingway and Dr. Seuss.
When all is said and done, I doubt that there’s a book club anywhere in the world that wants me for a member.
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The Happy Wordcrafter 
I agree with you on favourite and not so favourite authors. As an aside, I can’t understand how some rave over The Great Gatsby – I was still bored a quarter of the way through and never finished.
I agree. If I had thought for a little longer, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s name would have been on my list. And, to be more honest, the only thing I’ve ever read by Sinclair Lewis that I thought was worth the read was “Main Street.” Needless to say, as an English major all the way through college, several of my classes were frustrating. I do love literature, but my judgment about what makes a piece great or horrible is totally different from that of most of the people who populate the English faculties of most universities..
I refuse to read thrillers, horror and crime books.
At least 95% of what I read has to be something that makes me feel good. Life has enough problems without my getting myself deeply embedded in imaginary ones — especially if they don’t lead to totally happy endings.
Terry Brooks, Andy McDermot and Scott Mariani, favourites to me, I dislike biography’s,,just not interested in their toils and troubles and now wealthy people trying to tell me how they struggled,, they truly do not know what struggling is,, the usual Kathy Reichs, Patricia Cornwell and Tess Gerritsen are okay,, have read them but my numero uno is Terry Brooks..
Hey, thanks for taking the time to comment and share your reading insights, Gerry.
anytime,, 😉
I do not like Moby Dick either.