This blog has been sitting in my drafts for an embarassing amount of time. My wife has already published hers which you can find here. But thanks for taking time out of your day to check out my answers to this and if you have done this tag or plan on doing it, let me know and I'll check it out!
. A popular book EVERYONE loves that you have no interest in reading.
I hate to copy my wife's answer for this question, but I will anyway. Game Of Thrones was not only a very popular TV show, but a massively popular books series as well. There are a few issues I have with this series after watching a few seasons of the show. It's too grimdark for me. I stopped watching The Walking Dead as well because it was just too grim. Hell, Supernatural isn't nearly as dark and one character went to hell and another was trapped in a cage with Lucifer.
There's also the question of the future of the series. The last GOT book came out in 2011. 2011! The man has had 9 years to write a follow up. But instead he's working on other series and writing the history of GOT families that only hardcore fans would ever care about. And finally I just don't want to read about things like rape and incest.
George R. R. Martin is just like Patrick Rothfus he can't finish a damn series. True, the third book in the Kingkiller Chronicles is supposed to come out in 2021, but I'll believe it when I see it.
So not only do I have no interest in the series, I don't want to read something that may never be finished.
2. A classic book (or author) you don’t have an interest in reading?
Franny and Zooey by J D Salinger. I hated Catcher in the Rye with every fiber of my being. It's not a good book. I'm sorry if you liked it when you were an angsty teen and thought that it was written just for you. But Holden Caufield is a horrible character who has no redeeming qualities, no growth, and nothing about him that's worth a damn. No wonder he thinks everything is the worst. It's because he a waste of good oxygen. Because of this, and the fact that my wife hated it, Franny and Zooey will never be picked up by me unless it's to use it as kindling.
3. An author whose books you have no interest in reading?
Robert Galibraith / J K Rowling.
Yes, this answer is, in part, because J K Rowling (aka Robert Galibraith) is a dirty TERF who I regret ever giving money to. But there's more to it than that. This might have been my answer even if she didn't hate the Trans community. It's because she got lucky with Harry Potter. They were very well written books and a truly well thought out series. But anything else she's done since has been awful. Every time she tries to add on to the Harry Potter universe, she only screws it up.
The Fantastic Beasts franchise had hope but she's already screwed the pooch on that one. Not only was the last movie one of the worst I've seen in a long while, but she's already messed with already established HP mythos. She got the continuity of her own series wrong!
Add on to that the fact that there's problematic Trans representation in her latest Robert Galibraith book and I'm officially done with her. She could write a new HP series where it's a new generation at Hogwarts and I wouldn't even think of picking it up. She did one good series and anything else she touches is crap.
3.2 A problematic author whose books you have no interest in reading?
Rainbow Rowell, author or Eleanor & Park. I don't know how popular this book really is as Fangirl and the Simon Snow series really are her more popular works. But I'm counting this because she's a popular author and this is one of her books.
I have no interest in this book because of the very problematic Asian descriptions in it. An article from the Northeastern University Political Review called The Problem with Eleanor & Park goes into more detail about her problem filled book. In her defense it seems like her transgressions come from a place of ignorance rather than purposeful racism, but I'd rather not support someone who could make such obvious mistake and never own up to it. The only thing Rowell has ever done was defend the use of Park as a first name and how she, a white woman, can have an Asian character. As far as I can tell she never apologized or addressed the issues.
She could write the next great book that wins each and every prize and I wouldn't care because I don't want to support someone like her.
4. An author you have read a couple of books from & have decided their books are not for you?
Patrick Rothfuss. Apparently you have to like him if you like fantasy books, but I disagree. I find The Kingkiller Chronicles to be a painfully slow and uninteresting series. It has a lot of promise but Rothfuss is so long winded that I stop caring about anything. Kvothe could have been a very good character and the story could have been really good, but it goes on for so long that by the end, I just want it to end so I can move on with my life.
Also, Rothfuss has spent so long writing the next book in the series (7 years) that if I did care enough to read it, I'd feel like I have to reread the first two books just to read the new one. Also, he wrote a novella about a side character and I fully DNFd it because it was too painful to read.
Patrick Rothfuss seems like a nice guy, but I'll avoid any future books by him.
5. A genre you have no interest in OR a genre you tried to get into & couldn’t?
Classic Cyberpunk. I've read Neuromancer by William Gibson. I've tried to read Idoru and few short stories of his as well. I also tried to read Snow Crash but I just couldn't get into it. I'm almost 100% done with this genre. Next year I plan on reading the last book I have any interest in. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick.
I was specific when I said “classic” cyberpunk because there are quite a few more recent books that I think I may like. Warcross by Marie Liu is on that list as well as The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. Just older Cyberpunk is too boring and hard to follow.
6. A book you have bought but will never read? (this can be a book you have unhauled/returned to the library unread)
The Broken Empire by Mark Lawrence. I bought the books because my group of friends loved them. We have very similar tastes in terms of Fantasy and Sci-fi. I saw these books at a library book sale and got them. Before I could pick the first one up, I found out that he's a very problematic author. He apparently has been very mean towards women on book tours and on twitter and he hates booktubers and book bloggers as well as not caring about any opinions on his book except from actual book critics. Overall he's just a huge ass.
I have so many books on my TBR that I don't want to waste time with someone like him. I couldn't find evidence to substantiate all the claims I've heard about him, but a simple google search showed me more than enough to know I'd rather not support him.
7. A series you have no interest in reading OR a series you started & have dnf’d?
Easy. The Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire. I tried this series out a couple years back and I was so sure I was going to like it that I took the first three books out of the library and even considered buying them before I even read them. Then I read Every Heart A Doorway and it was one of the worst books I ever read.
Seanan McGuire isn't a good author. The only thing that she did well was come up with a very good idea that I'd rather someone else write (like Rebecca Mead maybe?). Her characters were mostly forgettable. They made very weird choices and said odd things that didn't seem to further the plot or serve as any kind of development. The pacing of the story was horrid and it all seemed to end out of nowhere. The ending was also awful and happened in the stupidest of ways.
My wife wants me to read the third Wayward Children book because it's her favorite but I don't want to because I'd rather rinse my eyes out with bleach.
8. A new release you have no interest in reading?
A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green. I feel bad. I like Hank Green as a person. He seems super nice, super smart, and like a genuine good person. But the first book in The Carls series An Absolutely Remarkable Thing was a test of my patience. April May is a worthless tryhard piece of literary garbage and the only reason I would pick this book up is if she died a horrible death and even then I would only read that part just to make me smile.
Hank Green is pretty damn great and I feel bad for this. I love him on YouTube and TikTok. I think he's very smart, funny, and nice, but his books are just not for me.
Post a Comment