Books/Series you never plan to read...and why?

[S.J.]

It does sound as if it could be painful, though...

[Amanda]

MrsJoseph wrote: "Are you SERIOUS?? *shudder* I don't get down with noncon. It totally bothers me and rubs me very much wrong way. "

Absolutely, which is why I have no desire to read it. Here's what I've heard from the reviews and friends: (view spoiler)[The victim is a boy, he pushes the girl away but she doesn't listen and proceeds. No means no regardless of who you are, and just because he is on the 'receiving' end doesn't mean it's any more damaging. Now if the genders were reversed, I think more people would be upset about about it, but because the victim is a guy, it's supposed to be sexy? And this is the kind of crap today's teens are reading?? And the authors are terrible because they don't show the pain and the shame that something like that can bring to a person. (hide spoiler)] Ahhh...I think there's smoke coming out of my ears, I'm so mad!

[Chelsea]

Amanda wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "Are you SERIOUS?? *shudder* I don't get down with noncon. It totally bothers me and rubs me very much wrong way. "

Absolutely, which is why I have no desire to read it. Here's w..."

How, EXACTLY, did that get published as YA? I'm not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, but rape is never, ever funny, acceptable, entertaining or sexy.

[S.J.]

I'm wondering what incandescent genius of an editor thought that it would be a good idea to market rape as YA.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*, *good karma*]

Amanda wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "Are you SERIOUS?? *shudder* I don't get down with noncon. It totally bothers me and rubs me very much wrong way. "

Absolutely, which is why I have no desire to read it. Here's w..."

????!?!?!!! You should see my face right now! My husband thought I was choking on something.

No way, no how!

This makes me feel some kind of way. See, I had such freedom as a child...I was allowed to pick up whatever I wanted...my mom just talked to me about it later. But I almost feel that now I will read every book my child picks up until they move out of the house. WTF.

And maybe I'm splitting hairs but jeez!

[carol. , Senor Crabbypants]

Chelsea wrote: "Don't fall for it. I mean, I know what it's like to work really hard on something only to have it be crap. It's called constipation. "

lol!

[Emily]

Yes! Thumbs down to House of Night-I feel kind of mean admitting it, but I'm glad to see it slammed so hard here. The writing is horrible, their made-up slang horribly annoying, and when one of the characters lost her virginity to a teacher, that was about the time I figured I'd had enough.

Hated Hush, Hush and Blue Bloods and did not continue with either of those (although Hush, Hush might have just been the first of a trilogy). I only finished those because they were short audio books I was listening to while waiting for better things to come from the library.

I quit Anita Blake after the third book...from what someone said earlier, maybe I should have read a few more. I do see how she influenced urban fantasy writers who came later and those 3 books were the only zombie stories I've ever liked, but I just got tired of her ending up in ridiculous situations where she had to do something sexy or erotic to save the day. One of my friends put it best (although he stayed with the series longer) when he said he finally gave up on her when, yet again, they needed to have an orgy to save the world.

It's not a series, but I want to put in that after Pride and Prejudice and Zombies created an entire crap genre of inserting monsters into classics, I will never pick up anything of that ilk again. Phooey.

[Tyrone]

Jalilah wrote: "This thread is a lot of fun! It is so interesting how people's tastes differ!

Regarding Orson Scot Card, I also have no desire to read his works because of his ultra conservative political views.
"

I put off reading Ender's Game for quite a long time, partly becuse of the same reason. I finally got around to it and really enjoyed it. It gives one a lot to think about and it doesn't have any of the more objectionable view i has found from Orson Scott Card in interviews and articles. I don't intend to read any further but I was very glad I finally bit the bullet with this novel.

[Olga]

Emily wrote: "It's not a series, but I want to put in that after Pride and Prejudice and Zombies created an entire crap genre of inserting monsters into classics, I will never pick up anything of that ilk again. Phooey. "

I agree. That's just gross! Seems like profanation of classics to me.

[S.J.]

Personally, I won't pick up anything with zombies or any term referring to zombies in the title. I'm reminded of a friend of mine who was going to rent some videos for a group of us to watch. He said ahead of time that he would not rent anything with the words 'Ninja', 'Blood', 'Death', or 'Massacre' in the title.

[Valerie]

Emily wrote: "Hated Hush, Hush and Blue Bloods and did not continue with either of those (although Hush, Hush might have just been the first of a trilogy)."

omg, Blue Bloods was SO BAD. "Hi, we're all teenagers who go to a rich, private boarding school! And we're actually vampires! Who are the reincarnations or descendants of people who came over on the Mayflower! Also, we're fallen angels." WHAT. D:

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*, *good karma*]

Valerie wrote: "Emily wrote: "Hated Hush, Hush and Blue Bloods and did not continue with either of those (although Hush, Hush might have just been the first of a trilogy)."

omg, Blue Bloods was SO BAD. "Hi, we're..."

*facepalm*

[S]

Olga wrote: "Emily wrote: "It's not a series, but I want to put in that after Pride and Prejudice and Zombies created an entire crap genre of inserting monsters into classics, I will never pick up anything of t..."
I kinda enjoyed it. It was pretty funny. And I think that was the intent. Though I agree, others like that/after that were just cashing on this new genre. Not worth the time.

[Valerie]

I agree with Soan - I actually enjoyed PP&Z, but the trend afterwards doesn't interest me.

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

I couldn't resist buying Jane Slayre, and I'll probably read Little Women and Werewolves.

[S]

I didn't like the one with sea monsters. Now Andriod one is sitting on my shelf and I can't just get myself to pick it up

[Marie M.]

Well I'm tired of these mushy, romantic vampire stories.. so .. after reading The Twilight Saga I think I've had enough.
I'd never read another vampire series.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*, *good karma*]

Valerie wrote: "I agree with Soan - I actually enjoyed PP&Z, but the trend afterwards doesn't interest me."

I've never tried it...

Hated P&P.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I liked P&P&Z. It was amusing - though the joke did stretch a bit thin after awhile. (I had a bit of a struggle with P&P, but P&P&Z is slightly abridged and, ya know, funny and stuff.)

I really enjoyed Shakespeare Undead, with it's groan-inducing puniness and whatnots, but I'd definitely shelve that one under 'guilty pleasures'.

But I did not like The Secret History of Elizabeth Tudor, Vampire Slayer, which took itself far too seriously for what it was.

And I want to read Jane Slayer, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Those are the only ones that really appeal to me, though.

[Traci]

My problem with P&P&Z was how close it was to the orginal. I was expecting a retelling from scratch not an edited version of the Austen book with added zombies. Although I loved the sections of the married friend. (Sorry not a fan of P&P don't know names).
I love quirky retellings but not a fan of refurbishing.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Yeah, I can agree with you there (though it's the only way I'll ever get hubby to read P&P at all, so there's that).

And I agree that the bits with Charlotte were the funniest parts.

That's one reason I want to read Jane Slayer - I've heard it's more of an original story than P&P&Z was.

[Emily]

Traci wrote: "My problem with P&P&Z was how close it was to the orginal. I was expecting a retelling from scratch not an edited version of the Austen book with added zombies. Although I loved the sections of the..."

That was one of my big problems too. It was like he copied and pasted huge chunks and then inserted in zombie action here and there. I read somewhere 80% of it was just the original book, but I don't know if that's accurate. What seemed to me as a funny idea (and I am a big P&P fan) just turned out to be one joke rehashed over and over for a whole book. I admit to being amused at the start, but by the time Lizzie Bennet ate her first still-beating human heart, it was just more than I could stand.

[Pauline]

S.J. wrote: "Personally, I won't pick up anything with zombies or any term referring to zombies in the title. I'm reminded of a friend of mine who was going to rent some videos for a group of us to watch. He sa..."

Is that because you just don't like zombies in general? I wasn't a huge fan of zombie novels but there are a few out there that I found to be excellent. They focused less on the horror/survival/iwanttoeatyourbrain aspect and more on human adaptation and life afterwards.

[S.J.]

Zombie-themed books and movies have proliferated like the mugwort that took over my vegetable garden one season. There may be some good zombie stories out there, but I don't feel like sifting through all the zombie crap material to find it.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Back in the annals of time (May 2011), there was a thread in this group where people listed series they were reading, had finished, given up on, etc.

Here's the (updated) list of series wherein I read at least one, or more, books and decided not to finish:

Monster Blood Tattoo by D. M. Cornish
Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey
Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott
Maze Runner by James Dashner
Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Frontier Magic by Patricia Wrede
Demon Cycle by Peter Brett
Words of the Prophecy by David Burton
Millenium Trilogy by Stieg Larson
Necroscope by Brian Lumley
Clockwork Century by Cherie Priest
Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
Giordano Bruno by S J Parris
Sookie Stackhouse by Charlaine Harris
Remy Chandler by Thomas Sniegowski
The Immortals by Alyson Noel
Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon
Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan
Zoe Martinique by Phaedra Weldon
Septimus Heap by Angie Sage
13th Reality by James Dashner
Spiritwalker by Kate Elliot
Cassandra Palmer by Karen Chance
Marla Mason by T A Pratt
Walker Papers by C E Murphy
Liveship Traders by Robin Hobb
Lays of Anuskaya by Bradley P. Beaulieu
Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade
Shadow Saga by Jon Sprunk
Sandman Slim by Richard Kadrey
Curse Workers by Holly Black
Leviathan by Scott Westerfield
Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde
Chronicles of Faerie by O R Melling
Burton & Swineburne by Mark Hodder

[Becky]

Interesting, I loved both the Hunger Games and the Demon Cycle.

I read all of Twilight, and enjoyed in a kind of, its nice to let my mind wander about. The thing with Romance novels and disfunctional relationships, is that a romance novel without drama isnt. No one wants to read 300 pages of someone's perfectly healthy, stable, good relationship. Where is the plot in that? I actually kind of liked the idea of Bella, in that, its nice to have a heroine that isnt that special, and needs to be taken care of. I am completely sick of the feminist, overly masculine, I CAN DO EVERYTHING MYSELF heroine. becuase you know what? No woman, or man, can. Its nice to be taken care of sometimes, and its ok too, people need to reminded of that in this crazy world.

I loved Pern, but now that Todd is writing its lost its glamour. Once you've read one Todd book you've read them all. I actually think he is a fine writer, he just needs to create his own series.

I love the Goodkind books, but because I knew that they got wacky after book 3 I stopped there. That way the series is still perfectly gleaming in my mind, and I can just ignore those others books' existence :) I do this sort of denial thing a lot with series. Its easy when the whole series has been published to just stop at a completely acceptable point, so that it doesnt tarnish your opinion of the books.

Outside of the Dresden Files I do not do Urban Fantasy. At all. And, I dont do Paranormal Romance as a rule.

I also don't know if I'll ever start the Wheel of Time Series. At this point it's just so intimidating.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*, *good karma*]

± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ± wrote: "Back in the annals of time (May 2011), there was a thread in this group where people listed series they were reading, had finished, given up on, etc.

Here's the (updated) list of series wherein I ..."

Wow. That's pretty extensive.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

MrsJoseph wrote: "Wow. That's pretty extensive. "

I really, really can't be bothered to work today. ;)

[Chelsea]

± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ± wrote: "That's one reason I want to read Jane Slayer - I've heard it's more of an original story than P&P&Z was. "

Jane Slayre is actually pretty good!

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

I'm heartily sick of vampires, for the most part, but I can't resist the siren call of my favorite heroine, Jane Eyre, fighting vampires. :)

[Traci]

Jane Eyre is my favorite of the classic romances. Might have to check that one out.

[Danielle The Book Huntress]

I love Jane Eyre too, Traci. Its tied as my favorite book of all time.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I've never actually read Jane Eyre - and I most likely never will - but I have seen one of the movies and I want to see the new one, too.

[Kevin]

S.J. wrote: "Zombie-themed books and movies have proliferated like the mugwort that took over my vegetable garden one season. There may be some good zombie stories out there, but I don't feel like sifting throu..."

If you ever do get the urge for a zombie tale, I recommend this one: The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell

It's much more a character story than the typical zombie horror novel. I've seen it compared regularly to The Road. I haven't read that, so I don't know how justified that is, but I do know that Reapers is among my favorite books, zombies or not.

[Dana]

I have a few things I don't want to get into, but I find myself breaking my rules every so often.

For the longest time, I didn't want to read any urban fantasy besides Dresdin or Kim Harrison's books. There seemed to be just too many new series to keep up with. But now, I've read some of the Sookie Stackhouse books (the first five books, and I doubt I'll read further), and I started into Kelly Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld books. I'm not planning on starting any others, but I might try another author at some point.

The other category is Young Adult. I read Twilight because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about, but I generally don't go looking in the YA section unless I'm looking for a particular author I like. Charles de Lint has a couple YA books that I want to read someday and the same goes for Terry Pratchett.

There are quite a few series that I've given up on and don't see myself going back to.

I liked the first book of Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, but the second book lost me after the first couple chapters.

Robert Newcomb's Chronicles of Blood and Stone was pretty bad. I stopped reading about half way through the first book.

I'm probably not going to read Steven King's Darktower series, even though it's my husbands favorite. For one, he told me how it ends, and I read the Gunslinger and couldn't stand it.

I'm another one that gave up on both Terry's. I read the first Shannara trilogy and the first two of the second. I had to wait for the third book to come out (The Talismans Of Shannara) and I decided it wasn't worth the energy by the time it was released. I liked the first two Sword of Truth books but Blood of the Fold lost me after a couple chapters.

There are some I want to get back to some day, but by now my memory is shoddy of what happened, so I don't know it I will or not.

[Sharon]

Olga wrote: "I dislike the ‘dark’, and unfortunately it’s a trend that sweeps paranormal and fantasy fiction right now. YA too. It’s much easier to name the authors that don’t have the tendency towards darkness..."

I've had to get very selective because of this. Dark, grim and depressive is not my idea of entertainment (if I want realism all I have to do is turn on the news on TV) and it seems as if many of the more recent authors have plunged themselves into dark, bloody, depressive with great enthusiasm.

I pretty much stick with the old standby's ... Robin McKinley, Lois Bujold, Mercedes Lackey and a few others here and there, mostly of the same general 'era'.

The more recent entries into the fantasy/paranormal field I tend to approach with great caution now ... read all of the reviews and then go to the samples before I even consider buying.

[Sharon]

Tyrone wrote: "
I put off reading Ender's Game for quite a long time, partly becuse of the same reason. I finally got around to it and really enjoyed it. It gives one a lot to think about and it doesn't have any of the more objectionable view i has found from Orson Scott Card in interviews and articles. I don't intend to read any further but I was very glad I finally bit the bullet with this novel."

I read (and loved) Ender's Game many years ago ... and more recently Ender's Shadow, which I also like very much. But those are about the only two books by Card that I've cared for.

Tried more in the Ender's Game series, dropped those. Tried books from a couple of his other series here and there, was definitely underwhelmed ... after many years picked up Ender's Shadow because of the reviews which indicated it went back to the original storyline in Ender's Game. It worked for me but I suspect anything else would not and don't plan to go there. Just definitely not my thing ... too much 'message' ... not enough 'story'.

[Emily]

± Colleen of the Crawling Chaos ± wrote: "Back in the annals of time (May 2011), there was a thread in this group where people listed series they were reading, had finished, given up on, etc.

Here's the (updated) list of series wherein I ..."

I'm right there with you on Maze Runner, Monster Blood Tattoo, Nicholas Flamel and Millenium trilogy.

Of these, I found The Maze Runner to be the worst-a very dull and not very believable dystopia. Some of the dystopias out there sort of follow a worst case line of logic, where you can see how things might progress to that point if just enough things went horribly wrong. I couldn't quite figure how things would ever progress to a giant maze with venomous attack robots.

[Valerie]

Emily wrote: "Some of the dystopias out there sort of follow a worst case line of logic, where you can see how things might progress to that point if just enough things went horribly wrong. I couldn't quite figure how things would ever progress to a giant maze with venomous attack robots."

Hah! Yeah, that's my problem with most of these YA "dystopias," too -- instead of the setting being something terrible because it could happen, it's something terrible Just Because.

[Madalyn]

I try to stay pretty open minded because there were a few series that I said I wouldn't read but loved them when I finally did read them. GRRM is one of those. I started the SOT series 2 years ago and haven't gotten past the 4th book, I probably wont get back to it anytime soon. I also read up to book 7 of House of Night before I quit on that series. Usually an authors political views don't influence if I will read them or not unless they get preachy in their books. I gave up on Leviathan after the first book, I find that I really don't like steampunk. As far as gritty darkness goes it doesn't bother me. I get sick of everything being lightness and rainbows all the time.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Emily - I totally agree about Maze Runner, and, from what I hear, it never does seem to make sense.

[Emily]

Madalyn wrote: "I try to stay pretty open minded because there were a few series that I said I wouldn't read but loved them when I finally did read them. GRRM is one of those. I started the SOT series 2 years ago ..."

From a lot of the comments on this thread, it seems like most people are willing to try something out before passing judgment on it, which is pretty cool. I loved the first 3 GRRM books, thought the 4th was so-so and liked the 5th, but still not as much as those first 3. I'm sticking with it, though. What is SOT?

[Olga]

I'm baffled by most abbreviations of the series people use here. Like Emily, I don't know what SOT is. And what GRRM stands for?

[Jalilah]

I am glad you mentioned that! I am don't know what they mean!

[Anne]

SOT= Sword of Truth (Terry Goodkind)
GRRM= George R.R. Martin

[Olga]

Ok, thanks. I dislike both, maybe that's why I don't know them.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*, *good karma*]

Emily wrote: "From a lot of the comments on this thread, it seems like most people are willing to try something out before passing judgment on it, which is pretty cool. I loved the first 3 GRRM books, thought the 4th was so-so and liked the 5th, but still not as much as those first 3. I'm sticking with it, though. What is SOT?"

I tried to get into GRRM several times. I bought A Game of Thrones 2-3 times...and each time ended up giving the book away.

Olga wrote: "Ok, thanks. I dislike both, maybe that's why I don't know them."

Yeah, me either.

[Valerie]

So... all the comments made me morbidly curious, and I read Marked. All of it.

Holy mother of God. Why? -curls up into a ball-

[carol. , Senor Crabbypants]

Tsk, tsk, tsk. *passes Valerie a glass of wine*

Go watch a movie and clear your head :)

[Emily]

Valerie wrote: "So... all the comments made me morbidly curious, and I read Marked. All of it.

Holy mother of God. Why? -curls up into a ball-"

Me too. Ugg.