peppercricket
Book Assistant
Batley Townswoman's Guild presents the Battle of Pearl Harbour
Posts: 7,075 
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Post by peppercricket on Jun 29, 2018 12:33:33 GMT
When you pick a book, what do you go for? Places, situations, eras?
Off the top of my head, I like ...
1. Books where things appear normal, but are actually a bit off.
2. Historical fiction, but no romance, and from the English Civil War onwards.
3. Books set in London, especially the East End.
4. American novels - small town stuff.
5. Faction - fiction based on real events.
6. Apocalyptic fiction.
7. Interwar fiction.
Adding/amending this after reading some of your comments!
8. Circuses/magicians/spiritualism.
9. Unreliable narrators.
10. Stories set in places like Arabia, Mesopotamia, Persia. Names that have gone by the by.
11. Autobiographies if the person is alive, don’t mind a biography if they’re dead!
12. Crime fiction - a good series - like Wendy I don't mine a bit of gruesomeness.
13. American Civil War
What turns you off?
I dislike
1. No blurb on the back, grinds my gears!
2. The Tudors - bar Shardlake.
3. Short stories.
4. Prize winners.
5. Books that exclaim - "This is the new Gone Girl, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Fifty Shades of sh... etc".
6. Books that exclaim the author is "The new Agatha Christie, Stephen King, Steig Larsson"
7. Book set on faraway planets with weird names.
8. Americanisms in a book set in the UK.
9. Misery memoirs.
10. Erotica.
11. Thomas Hardy
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Post by windysisters on Jun 29, 2018 13:58:36 GMT
My likes:
1. Crime fiction - don't mind it being gruesome, in fact I don't like it too "cozy"
2. Historical crime fiction of any era, quite actually like some written in ancient Roman and Egyptian times
3. As Janice has said, books which have some real events in them where I can learn something
4. Unreliable narrators - I sometimes like not really knowing what's going on and then having an "ah, I see" moment
Books I would never even think of reading:
1. Misery memoirs
2. Action hero/war books (Chris Ryan, Andy Mcnab type)
Things which put me off books but I only find once I'm reading them:
1. Very short sentences
2. Very long chapters
3. Annoying lead characters, especially if they are narrating
4. Bad grammar/poor editing (seems more common since e-books have become popular)
5. Contrived or overdone humour - even laughing can get tiresome....
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Post by janetandjohn on Jun 29, 2018 15:00:21 GMT
Oooh, thank you Janice lovely idea! (And after compiling this, I found that we have similarities!) I love: 1. Some series (Miss Julia; Maisie Dobbs; Bryant and May), but not thick historical novels and serials like Outlander (but love the TV series!) 2. Small Town American Novels 3. Faction 4. Dystopian 5. Golden Age of Crime 6. Good Children's fiction 7. Anything by L M Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables) 8. Anything by John Steinbeck 9. Short sentences (although not an entire novel!) 10. Good YA fiction 11. Anything Persephone
I dislike: 1. Crime nevels that are full of "real"descriptions of the body etc (Val McDirmid) 2. Books about husband/wife/partner who is not who we think (although I did enjoy one of the early ones - Whilst I was Sleeping or summat similar - far too many of them around now. 3. Bad grammar/poor editing and proof reading. 4. Misery memoirs 5. Action Hero stuff 6. Armchair travel stuff especially if it's labelled "the funniest book I have ever read" - bleh!
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Post by pennyt on Jun 29, 2018 15:47:02 GMT
I love the way we all share some likes/dislikes, but also have other completely separate ones. My 'floaters' are: - Faction
- Unreliable narrators
- Most historical fiction, including crime, and almost anything set in Victorian London in particular
- Golden age crime
- Almost anything about magicians and/or circuses, real or fictional
- Books about the early years of flying
- American fiction, both small-town and the Wild West
My 'sinkers' are:
- Misery memoirs
- Action hero stuff
- Horror or the occult
- Cold War spy fiction is usually a turn-off, but I'm currently finding le Carré very readable so that's possibly one to review...
- Almost anything described in the blurb as "laugh out loud hilarious" or similar
- Books compared in the blurb to Girl on a Train, Before I Go to Sleep etc etc
And as Wendy says, things that irritate that you only find out once you start reading are: - poor grammar/editing;
- over-long chapters - or, worse, no chapter breaks at all;
- writers who don't use speech marks and "he said/she said" clues, so you have to keep re-reading some passages to work out who's saying what;
- books with children who don't speak or behave remotely like any real child
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Post by natsplatt on Jun 29, 2018 19:48:59 GMT
Ooh, good one, interesting to see what everyone likes and dislikes!
Here's mine!
Likes:
1. Epic fantasy (Tolkien, Robin Hobb)
2. Long rambling stories that follow someone's whole life (a la John Irving)
3. Vampires/paranormal/dystopian (YA fiction is so good these days, why wasn't this stuff around when I was a YA?!)
4. Historical, especially if I can learn stuff from it (particularly bits of history that I've not really known about before!)
5. An entirely superficial one, I love coloured page edges, especially black, If it has black edges I will want the book, even if I don't know what it's about! Always have!
6. Quirky characters/unreliable narrators
7. Handsome but deeply flawed male leads (I blame Linda Gillard, but honestly, she just has a knack for writing the kind of guys I like in real life, so really it's on me!)
Dislikes:
1. Fifty shades and it's ilk
2. Misery memoirs
3. Poor spelling and grammar
Nat
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Post by rosemary3 on Jun 30, 2018 13:32:58 GMT
And mine, trying to think of some different ones: - life-after-death, ghosts, time travel, reincarnation stories (if fiction, and not religious) - Persephones, golden age crime, and almost any British fiction from 1920-1950 - gay male characters (as long as they don't get killed off) - snarky female characters who say things I wouldn't dare say myself (Elizabeth Bennet and her heirs) Things I don't like:
- Mills & Boon type traditional romance
- gory crime or horror
- a certain type of "laddish" male writer, eg Hemingway, John Updike, Norman Mailer, Howard Jacobson, Martin Amis - "hard" scifi (but I like the more psychological/philosophical kind)
After reading Nat's comment, I *must* get around to reading some of the Linda Gillards that I have on my Kindle! |
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Post by elliej84 on Jun 30, 2018 21:35:26 GMT
What a great idea peppercricket, you are nosey though! My likes: - 1920's era / WW1 or WW2 books, but they must be written now rather than at the time if that makes sense
- Romance / Chicklit / etc
- Crime / thriller either series or stand alone
- Young Adult of any type, but really enjoy sci-fi/fantasy (I very rarely enjoy adult sci-fi/fantasy)
- Memoir - medical or a sad one
My dislikes: - Horror
- Overly descriptive books, where the author will go on for pages about something small
- Books described as Psychological thrillers, when they are not thrilling at all (and also due to the next point)
- Dislikable main characters, I really have to gel with the lead to have any sort of feelings or want to finish a book
- Autobiographies of famous people
- Font used in classic texts (also classics in general!)
- Books written in the 80's
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Post by adelynechan on Jun 30, 2018 22:14:52 GMT
Ooh wonderful idea, I've never really thought about books this systematically! I'm a pretty all-around reader so I enjoy loads of things, so it's probably more of "anything but the dislikes" for me  Things I particularly like: - Auto/biographies, particularly the former - Feel-good books (Sophie Kinsella being my go-to) - A good crime novel defined by a likeable / clever protagonist, a strong support network both inside and outside of work, a mystery or crime that I feel invested in, a sensible ending with a reasonable plot to get there - Non fiction written for the common audience (makes a good conversation starter too!) Dislikes: - Literary classics. I still find these impossible to understand - Anything with horror - gives me sleepless nights - Fantasy stories with a million characters, all of which have names which are easily confused with one another - Endings / Conclusions that just seem to fall from the sky: unfortunately I have to get to the end to find this out! - Overly flawed characters with no sign of character development - Sob stories where the good guys never win (Virginia Andrews I'm looking at you!) |
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Post by geminii on Jul 4, 2018 10:18:11 GMT
I may have had too long to think about this one ..  Likes :Anything that grabs me emotionally .. a book that I literally have to carry everywhere and keeps me so captivated that I put other things aside .. Crime .. I don't mind if it from the perspective of the Detective or the Criminal, just needs to feel real, with a crime that is actually believable (as graphic as you want) and a perp who you love to hate or hate to love, plenty of twists .. However, the solution needs to be original and clever Romance .. prefer more modern, but as long as not too saccarine, make me fall in love a little bit too Chic-Lit .. my cheer-me-up genre .. just make me laugh and want to join in the M/C's zany antics Historical .. bring people and true situations to life, make it interesting and help me to learn more (Philippa Gregory is brill) Horror .. Scare me rigid .. give me nightmares .. as gory and graphic as you like Classics .. any time period, just show me that bygone age .. what was life like, esp in Britain .. My fave period has to be 1920's to 1950's, love those Flappers and anything Art Deco Capture me with a brilliant cover that promises so much inside .. A clever title, including a song title or lyric will turn my head .. Finding a book that I know that one of you has reviewed and loved .. A FREEBIE on kindle by someone I've never heard of that is totally amazeballs .. Dislikes :Crime involving children as victims, both physical and psychological Sci Fi / Dystopian YA Biographies .. unless of someone I really want to learn about Politics / Religion Capturing me with a fab cover and totally disappinting me with your words .. Over descriptive writing, just for the sake of it .. Long chapters .. Reading 400 pages only to have all the lose ends hurridly, and usually poorly, tied up in the last 20 .. Stickers that are 'printed' onto the cover (Richard & Judy etc) .. Getting bored with " The Mousetrap Repairers' Second Cousin Twice Removed " titles .. Also getting bored with the ' sole woman walking away ' on the cover .. Being TOLD I should read it .. I'm sure there are more on both sides of the coin .. |
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Post by shanzi on Jul 18, 2018 22:39:34 GMT
Likes:
Good crime novel - and I don't mind a bit of gruesome either.
Real life account of escaping from the war for example
Books that are set in old England - Harry Bowling, Dilly court, etc.
Books set in Australia - I silently fall into their accent in my head which makes it really exciting.
Real life accounts of people who can talk with the dead.
Some Autobiography or Biography if I know of the person and nosy to know their lives.
Dislikes
Historical Romances (which is unusual as I used to read those in my 20s)
Horror - worse than crime novels.
Erotica
Books about animal's lives
Science and Fantasy - I have enough dreams I could write one!
Classics - can never get into them.
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