Do you read novels? Which topics do you refuse to read? Me--zombies, vampires

[bobbieinok]

[Dr Hobbitstein]

1. Self-help, romance, westerns, and James Patterson.

I read LOTS of horror, sci fi, and mystery.

[bobbieinok]

4. I also avoid horror. Scifi and mysyeries are great!

* great scifi

Eric Flinn (sp?) 1632 series

Harry Turtledove The Toxic Spell Dump

Alan Dean Foster The Cyber Way

Hal Clement Mission of Gravity

* great mystery authors

Sara Woods

Anthony Price

Barbara Michaels

[Dr Hobbitstein]

5. My sci fi tastes are more along the Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman variety. nt

[yellowdogintexas]

22. Discworld Forever!!! nt

[bobbieinok]

14. More mystery, scifi

* mystery (these are older authors)

Josephine Tey, esp Daughter of Time

Michael Gilbert

Nigel Blake

Michael Innes

Josephine Bell

REX Stout

Ellery Queen

Erle Stanley Gardner, and writing as A A Fair

* scifi

Mercedes Lackey (lives near Tulsa OK; her book Jinx High is about Jemks HS, in suburb of Tulsa)

Diana Wynne Jones (1 of her best books is Howl's Moving Castle; it's been made into a movie)

[yellowdogintexas]

23. I just got Howl's Moving Castle from the Kindle bargain store!

Looking forward to reading it.

[bobbieinok]

25. It's great. She wrote many more fantastic books.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Romance novels. Ick.

I'm also not fond of zombies, vampires, witches, most other supernatural silliness (although I've found a few entertaining ghost stories).

[Dulcinea]

16. Agreed on all counts.

Give me a mystery, thriller, historical fiction, or nonfiction. Michener is one of my all-time favorites.

[yellowdogintexas]

24. 100% agree! much prefer mystery, action, fantasy etc nt

[chillfactor]

3. I am a mystery buff

I love reading mysteries. I also do not like books about zombies and vampires.....they are nonsense.

[CrispyQ]

6. I often pick up the "Staff Favorite" at my library without even reading the inside flap.

I picked up "The Girl with All the Gifts" that way & was probably 50 or so pages into it before I realized it was a zombie story, but by then, I loved the character, so I stuck with it & loved the story.

[LisaM]

7. Sci-fi and historical fiction.

I love history, but dislike historical fiction.

[Aristus]

8. Westerns and romances.

n/t

[Bayard]

9. I'll read about anything that comes my way....

As long as its a real book--not that Kindle stuff!

Steven King, James Patterson, Jeffrey Deaver, Bentley Little, Dean Kuntz, Jonathan Kellerman, John Lutz, Patricia Cornwell, John Sanford, Michael Crichton, recently discovered Lisa Gardener. Books on gardening, dressage, animals, sci fi, art, identifying bug and tree species, history (especially Native American), Louis L'Amour, cookbooks. Zombies and vampires? Bring 'em!

[procon]

10. Zombies, serial killers, horror, westerns, military/war, paranormal...

In my old age, I'm definitely becoming more selective and critical of the genre of books I give my time to.

[Squinch]

11. Time travel stories. Just seems dopey to me.

[WhiteTara]

13. gore.

[rogue emissary]

15. When I was working at a book store.

I always tried to read out side of my favorite genres. So the hardest for me to read was young adult or teen fantasy.

Too many writers think kids/teen are idiots when their just inexperienced. Which means they may not know better. Yet they still have common sense and gut instincts.

So I avoided the teen with powers stuff.

[Iggo]

17. I agree about the zombies.

I think zombies in a book are dumb. Well, zombies are dumb anyway. But I mean writing a book with zombies in it is dumb. Zombies are scary to look at. Totally made for the movies.

Vampires on the other hand, are way more interesting to me in book format. The problem is the few vampire novels I've read are romance novels. And fuck that. (I'm lookin' at you, Anne Rice.)

[Eko]

18. Abraham Lincoln

Vampire Hunter.
For me, sci fi, history, fiction, non-fiction, basically anything including the back of cereal boxes.

[csziggy]

19. Mysteries and science fiction

Right now I am working my way through the entire Nevada Barr series with Anna Pigeon as a National Park Ranger. I like the mysteries, I love the settings - nearly every one is set in a different national park - and I like mysteries from a woman's point of view.

Previously I read Elizabeth Moon's Vatta's War series - my kind of science fiction with lots of action and some pseudo science! I've tried reading her fantasy stuff and just don't enjoy it.

[bobbieinok]

26. Have you read Moon's Serrano series? Lois McMaster Bujold series about Miles?

I like the Serrano series better than the one you mention.

[csziggy]

37. Oh yes - and I love the Serrano/Suiza series

I've read them several times and probably will again. Last year my husband wanted to read the Vatta's War series so we found all the books - I had the first couple but Moon had come out with some new ones. I didn't have a chance to read them before my surgeries so once my brain recovered from the anesthetic I did.

I got into Elizabeth Moon when she wrote the Planet Pirate series based on Anne McCaffrey's Dinosaur Planet and Dinosaur Planet Survivors. I used to snap up her books as soon as they came out in paperback. But after 2001 when I started my long series of operations I didn't keep up. Now I use ThriftBooks.com to fill out series and sit down to read them in sequence.

Then I found a couple of the Nevada Barr books and filled out that series. I had read some over the years, but never the entire series in order. Plus, Barr had come out with a prequel about how Anna Pigeon got into the NPS law enforcement branch, so I read that one first.

I never got into Lois McMaster Bujold but I will have to look for her books!

[bobbieinok]

40. When you get to Bujold's books, you should probably read them in order.

From comments I've seen on the internet, Bujold's Miles series is extremely popular.

I got the impression that Moon does not intend to write any more Serrano books. I really want to know the back story of the history between the 2 families. The last statements by a Serrano sounded pretty dire.

I hope you've fully recovered from all your surgeries. That must have been difficult. It sounds like you had and have a good support system.

[csziggy]

42. I'll check them out but it may have to wait for a couple of years

I have yet another surgery to look forward to - my L5 vertebrae was fractured over 35 years ago and has finally been diagnosed. It's almost a month before I see the doctor about it again and I expect to schedule fusing the vertebrae. It HAS to be fixed, healed, physical therapy completed, and time to get back in shape by July 21, 2019 because we are going to the UK for over two months - with two week voyages there and back. Every time I get recovered from a surgery, something new (or old undiagnosed) shows up and I start all over again.

I'm going to have to go to ebooks for the trip - something I really don't want to do but I can't carry enough books for the trip! But books I really like, I want real hard copies to hold. I may try some of the Bujold books via ebooks and if I like them, once i get home I could collect the entire series.

[trueblue2007]

20. i love paranovel fiction. vampires, witches and werewolves oh my

[yellowdogintexas]

21. I do not read drippy romance and trash romance. Blouse ripper is what they call those, right?

I like fantasy, and I don't mind a good love story but those churn them out romance novels just do not do it for me.

However I love a good light mystery series like Stephanie Plum. In fact I love series fiction in general. I have a real OCD streak when it comes to reading a series out of order.

I read fantasy, action (like Jack Reacher, Tom Clancy) suspense, paranormal, and historical fiction. Occasionally I will read a "book club" type book like the "Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" I love political fiction too. Spy novels.

These free/99c/$1.99 e-book services are my addiction! At least when I collect these, they aren't filling up space in my house, and I do not have to pack them in boxes when I move.

[csziggy]

38. They used to be called boddice rippers

A friend of mine writes some of that kind of fiction. I've asked her about her books and she always says I wouldn't like her books. She won't even tell me what her pseudonym is, LOL! Apparently she is successful enough to be asked to conventions of romance/supernatural fiction.

[zanana1]

27. Historical fiction is the best.

Right now, I'm ready "World Without End" by Ken Follett. It's great.

[Runningdawg]

29. My favorite type too.

The Eye Of Horus by Carol Thurston is a great read.

[TuxedoKat]

46. Yes

My favorite genre too. Currently reading the Poldark series by Winston Graham, which is also a series on PBS? I think. I also like Sci-Fi, horror and fantasy novels.

My least favorite is contemporary fiction. People writing about fictional people in this time period don't come across as believable to me.

[Runningdawg]

28. Anne Rice ruined the horror genre for me

The first couple of books were great but after that....then the copycats started. Now it seems 99% of horror is written for 12 year olds. I have never read a romance novel and unless it's the last book at then end of the world I have no intention of ever reading one. My idea of a good romance is The Golem and The Jinni by Helene Wecker.

[Siwsan]

30. My best friend is an author in that genre

"Plague Town" and "Plague Nation" - Ashley Parker series. Her name is Dana Fredsti.

[Nay]

31. Romance, cozy mysteries, macho RW thrillers, fantasy.

[Ohiogal]

32. My tastes

run to a good police procedural, Scandinavian noir (such as the Elisabeth Salander series or anything by Jo Nesbo), a biography or memoir of a person I admire, a good mystery.

I refuse to read romance novels, self help books, and I'm not into horror or sci fi, unless it's Stephen King.

My favorite authors are Michael Connelly, Sue Grafton, John Grisham, CJ Box, William Kent Krueger, Jo Nesbo, Peter May, Jon Katz, to name a few.

[bobbieinok]

33. My favorite Grisham books are A Time to Kill and The Client. I like most of his

[bobbieinok]

34. You might like the Sara Woods series about a UK lawyer. Lots of UK legal, police info

[Ohiogal]

39. Thank you, I'll check them out!

[bobbieinok]

35. Can't believe I forgot the Dick Francis series of mysteries!!

2 of my favorites are The Edge and The Decider.

[WePurrsevere]

36. Yes, but I won't read scary horror stuff. Real life is scary enough for me...

Currently reading the non-fiction 'paper' books: The Girls Who Went Away and Primal Sound and when I need a mental break and just want 'fluff' I download a fiction ebook, lately that's a paranormal shifter romance, to my Kindle.

I've always been a read pretty much everything I can get my hands on type (I literally read our two sets of encyclopedias and the Bible as a child because I ran out of other books) but I make an exception when it comes to being scared or overly emotionally stressed by a book now that I'm older and dealing with health issues.

[bobbieinok]

41. 'I don't watch horror movies. If I want to be scared, I can just get $ from ATM at nite in bad area.

Comment heard yrs ago on NPR.

Works for horror books as well.

[WePurrsevere]

43. Lol! BTDT...

"If I want to be scared, I can just get $ from ATM at nite in bad area." It was definitely scary but still less scary than watching some of the news lately.

[Wolf Frankula]

44. Serious Novels (so called)

Tales of suburban adultery, novels by literary professors who write novels about literary professors and the agony they go through writing novels about literary professors, small boys growing up in the Rural South, stories of self hating New York Jews, and so on, and New England Spinster Teacher Lady novels. "This is by Elizabeth Maryon Mulemilker. She grew up and lived all her life in Snorticoke, Massachusetts, where she taught third grade. She never married. Except for an annual trip to Boston to visit relatives, and two years at the Proppamissy Normal School in Dassajunname, Massachusetts she never left Snorticoke. All her characters are alike."

Wolf

[sarge43]

45. Yes, a few. Suburban and teenage/young adult angst themed. n/t

[haele]

47. What, no "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies"?

I tend to read genre novels, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Mystery.
When I read a generic "novels" it tends to be based on subject matter or character study.
I like a mix of hard science and good social studies (i.e., reasonably logical world building) for my Science Fiction, comedy for my Fantasy, and either cozy mind puzzles or historical studies for my Mystery.

On edit - World War Z - the Max Brooks novel, is actually a pretty good novel that treats a Zombie Apocalypse as a legitimate pandemic outbreak. It's set up as a set of reports on individual recollections to determine how it started, how and why it spread, and how it was contained.

Haele