In the Second(third)Chance thread I mentioned that I have an unofficial cured shelf. This is a shelf for authors I have been cured of ever wishing to read again. Some folks thought it was a good idea, so I thought I would ask. What authors have "cured" you and what work was it? Mine are below.

Ernest Hemingway---The Sun Also Rises
Cormac Mc Carthy---No country for Old Men
Elizabeth Kostova---The Historian
Kim Edwards---The Memory Keeper's Daughter
Frank Mc Court---Teacher Man

Heinlein -- Friday
Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure

That's clever. Offhand, I'd say
Orson Scott Card - Magic Street
Brad Meltzer- the Millionaires
Michael Crichton - Rising Sun

Hmm... I'll have to think more on this, but here's a start (they are kinda the cheesey ones for now):

Nicholas Sparks - The Notebook
L.A. Banks - Vampire Huntress Legend series
Sherrilyn Kenyon - Dark Hunter series

Dan Brown---The DaVinci Code--read against my better judgement, this takes up enough room on my shelf so there's hardly room for anything else.

Paul Coelho--The Alchemist--total twaddle

John Irving--A Prayer for Owen Meany--I'd liked several of his earlier books but this put the kibosh on him.

David Wroblewski - The Story of Edgar Sawtelle -- clumsily written dogwash

Alice Sebold -- The Lovely Bones --the unlovely book

Interesting thread - there are some books that I loved on here. It shows how personal this sort of this can be.

And Ruth, I'm glad you say that about Edgar Sawtelle; I quit after about 30 pages because it wasn't quite speaking to me, but I had felt like it should...

Laurel K. Hamilton - Narcissus in Chains

The Anita Blake series really jumped the shark with Obsidian Butterfly, but I was hoping things would improve here. Sadly, this was practically unreadable, and I never finished it. Nor did I ever return to Hamilton's work... Sometimes authors don't know when to quit!

Abigail -- I'm with you there. I was hanging on, hoping against hope the fun would come back. Narcissus in Chains just killed it all.

She's up to book 17 now...I have friend who read them for the trainwreck value.

Sarah, I truly expected more of an overlap but we seem as you said to have a broad diversity in which authors we dislike.

First, there's Left Behind. I read the first book, and it was enough for me. I'm intrigued by some of the later titles, but not enough to actually slog through them. That's a bad sign from a guy who keeps reading George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series, although I keep expecting to be 'cured' of him, too. Too much ruin, not enough balance. Maybe the latest one (Haven't read it, yet.) will finally be enough for me. I've made no effort to see if the library has it, so perhaps that's a sign.
Stephen R. Donaldson managed to depress me enough in White Gold Wielder to keep me from attempting any more of his work.
Erskine Caldwell completely repulsed me with God's Little Acre. So far as I could see when reading it, he's no idea whatsoever what he is writing about: he simply attempts to be lurid. His characters are all caricatures, and the novel itself seems like a satire, but I fear it isn't. Perhaps he does better with other subjects, but I'm not eager to test this.

I may also be 'cured' of Lillian Jackson Braun, but that's likely another subject: I strongly suspect she'd nothing to do whatsoever with the last 'Cat Who' book I read: The Cat Who Dropped a Bombshell. So I may be looking at some odd amalgamation of ghost writers here.

We've got some overlap, Rob. I quit reading those Cat Who books back in the early 90's, when I got bored with them - the guy got a new girlfriend EVERY book. There was NO story arch, no backstory at all, except the fact that the guy had the two Siamese cats. What was his name? Quint? Q something...

And those Stephen Donaldson books were just dreadful, I don't know why I read more than Lord Foul's Bane. I kept waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever did. I think I still read 4-5 of them before wising up.

I'm also cured of the Redwall series. There's not much difference between the books - there's a feast, and some brave mice or rabbits, and a battle with the "bad" animals, the evil weasels or some such.

James Merlin Qwilleran.

It IS amazing how personal the books one likes or dislikes is. If you check in the True North bookshelves, you'll see Top books and Bottom of the Barrel bookshelves -- and they contain several of the same books! What we get FROM a book is such a factor of what we bring to the book ourselves -- our experiences, our viewpoints, our expectations, our fears and hopes.

That's one reason why I rarely try to persuade someone to like a book they say they do not. I can't give them my viewpoint and experiences, my expectations and mental template through which to see the book. It's also why I occasionally try again on books I disliked -- my experiences change over time and I could now be able to appreciate something I could not (but wanted to) before.

Jackie: I read and enjoyed the first eight Redwall books before becoming bored. I've thought of revisiting the series - we shall see...

Sarah, I remember when I compared books with you I noticed you hated Magic Street which most of our other books matched. I *loved* that book. I think that's really funny!

My list:
Stephenie Meyer: Twilight
Ayn Rand: Atlas Shrugged
Tim LeHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins: Left Behind
David Foster Wallace: Infinite Jest A Novel
Ernest Callenbach: Ecotopia The Notebooks and Reports of William Weston
Whitley Streiber: Communion A True Story

And, I am ashamed to admit I read it but:

O.J. Simpson: If I Did It Confessions of the Killer