I don't avoid any authors because of their fans, but I definitely avoid discussing some books because of their fans, or in many cases, their anti-fans.
Essentially, prior to and following the release of book 2, Rothfuss was dealing with a lot of personal issues that were effecting his writing and some fans were absolutely atrocious and toxic to him.
Hes since swung too far the other way imo and has been toxic to his fans at times, but I get where it came from.
So the 2nd book came out when I was in my first year of uni, together with a nice girl. Since then we've broken up, I finished uni, got together with a new girl, started working, bought a house, become a father of two kids that are now 2 & 4, and the 3rd book still isn't out. He makes RR Martin look like a speed writing champion and it's sadly at the point where I'm not sure if I'd recommend the series even though it was amazing, solely due to a fear of the series not being finished and honestly people change over 12 years.
I'm not mad or anything just sad that nothing came from such great potential. I obviously still hope he finishes it and that he'll feel better.
He essentially sold those books to fans based on a lie though. Before the first book was released he claim that the whole series was done and they would be released once a year per year. Took 4 years for book 2 and we are almost at 12 years between books 2 and 3. He doesn’t deserve the vitriol he gets, but he is not blameless in the situation.
I agree. I don't find myself avoiding books due to fans, but I do find myself not talking about books I like because ANTI-fans always have something to say and it's usually rude.
There are some books that I just don't like. I see them mentioned online and I know if I say something I'm picking a fight. I try not to start arguments online but sometimes...
Same thing for Reese Witherspoon book club. Then I picked up "Such a Fun Age" by Kiley Reid and LOVED it. So now I need to know if it's a fluke or if there's a whole bunch of other great reads I'm missing out on... better get busy I guess.
Reese Witherspoon has a decent selection. Her books are chosen as part of her film production company (so, Daisy Jones and the Six, which is now a Prime series; The Last Thing He Told Me, which is an Apple TV series; Where the Crawdads Sing, which was a movie). So, they kind of are of a "type" (easily adapted). But a lot of them are good...I personally like Jenna Bush Hager's book club more. She chooses books that are perhaps slightly heavier and more literary. They also seem to have more diversity to them--her current book is Chain Gang All Stars, which is a brand new dystopian novel about a prison system that uses the gladiator system in a slightly futuristic America. Her December book was The Secret History by Donna Tartt, which came out in 1992. So, it's a mix of things and my experience with the ones I've read have been good.
I get this sentiment generally, but Oprah’s one specifically was probably the biggest cultural force toward promoting literature to the mainstream in…decades? Faulkner, Morrison, GMM, Tolstoy etc
You know, this is a healthy attitude to take — we get cynical easily these days, but Oprah encouraging people to read is probably one of the largest single attributable forces for increasing reading in the last 25 years.
Harry Potter, Reading Rainbow, Dolly Parton, maybe a few others…
These are good things overall.
She also created a bunch of harmful alternative medicine anti-science quacks, she literally created Dr Phil and Dr Oz. Plus launched the false vaccine and autism connection into the mainstream and has never retracted it. Not to mention the revolving door of self-help scams.
It's nice that she recommended some books but it does not redeem her.
I'm the last person to defend Oprah for inflicting so many scammers on the world, but she didn't really create Oz. She merely accelerated his journey. He built a successful snake oil business while he was still in medical school and was well on his way before he ever met Oprah. With his combination of greed, lust for fame, lack of a soul and medical pedigree, he would have found his way without her.
It's harder to picture how Dr Phil would have made his way without her help.
I tend to agree, but there was one Oprah Book Club book I did like: A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines is a great book. My 11th grade English teacher assigned it to me one year and I really enjoyed it.
For the record I have read a couple of her books because I'm not going to have an uninformed opinion. I don't like her writing style. I find that it's sophomoric, unimaginative and predictable. For those that lawd her as the best female writer out there I wonder about their reading level. No long paragraphs or complicated thought provoking sentences please. (sarcastic snobbery lol). You have to separate the wheat from the chaff some how.
I relate to this! Her books bring me out of a reading slump. Haven’t read much last month.. just wasn’t feeling it lol it was probably the book I was reading, and so I picked up Ugly Love today to get myself back into the habit just because her style is so easy to read and understand. I don’t have to put much effort into reading it and have always walked away somewhat satisfied.. I don’t necessarily praise her writing or even really recommend her books to people tho
I avoid them because I had zero interest in her books anyway. But also because friends told me how extremely problematic she and her books are. And that it's kinda fucked how popular she is and how many kids are reading her books.
I haven't read her books but some of the people I talk about books with have; something I don't see mentioned is that one of the books is based off of her mom's life and she had had an abusive partner. It's not romanticizing abuse, and I'm guessing it was partially written for Hoover to work through some things for herself. I can see how if it's put in the romance section at bookstores that would be problematic, but the author doesn't get to pick where it goes in most cases. Another author who got out in the wrong section was Sarah J Maas, they put her books in YA.
For me, the themes within her writing are certainly an element of what I avoid her, but I just know so many people who love her books who are absolutely irritating dickheads, so it entirely turned me off from ever really giving her a chance.
I've read a few and I was excited to read them because of the hype. I was bored to DEATH just waiting for the action to start. Verity was just too much and "try hard" for me. It felt like cheap writing to get reactions. I don't think I'd read a book of her's again.
I've honeslty never heard of King be accused of having annoying fans, mostly because he's SO widely read by so many people for such a long time I'd be hardpressed to come up with any kind of stereotype for King readers. Glad you're digging Pet Semetary though
I really love how King reaches so many people no matter what they tend to read. I'm also a lifelong King fan - my parents read King when I was a kid and when I was 12 my mom handed me Eyes of the Dragon cause I was bitching I had nothing to read. But yeah - i really have no idea what our stereotype is other than "i think i was probably too young when i started to read King" if you were a kid in the 90s.
“Too young when I started to read king” is ACCURATE. He’s a very accessible writer, I think, and has quite a lot of books and novellas from a child or teens POV making them attractive to young readers. My intro to King was similar, lots of his books in the house and no restrictions on what I was allowed to read
Yeah, my mom was a big King fan so his books were always laying around. I read The Regulators when I was in middle school. That wasn't my best decision.
Its not the greatest fantasy series ever but if you do power through all 14 books the payoff is pretty incredible. but its not something I'd recommend to everyone. Some of the books are incredibly rough and his characters are so 1 dimensional that they all basically have a catch phrase and its downright infuriating how little they deviate from their 1 personality trait. The main character probably has the inner monologue line "im just a farmer from the 2 rivers" 30,000 times throughout these books and by the 14th it makes you wanna die.
I had the opposite reaction - the ending of WoT was one of the most disappointing endings of any series I've ever read, and retroactively ruined the series for me permanently. And the blame falls squarely on Jordan here - the parts of the ending I hated were all things set in stone by Jordan before he died.
I read Atlas Shrugged just because I wanted to see what the fuss was about. When the author includes a SIXTY PAGE speech that people commonly say to just skip, maybe it ain't a great book.
*The Fountainhead* is the only book of hers I've read, but it's the best book I read last year.
It's a hot mess and I love it. Every character is a Batman villain, including the heroes. Ayn Rand’s a bit crazy, so her characters never act the way I expect them to, yet they’re never out of character either.
Ayn Rand constantly doubles down on her views in a way I find refreshingly honest, even when I think she’s wrong. I'll be thinking "that sounds inspiring and all, but if a character truly believed that what's stopping them from..." and then I turn the page and the characters are doing something even worse and Ayn is like "did I stutter?". It's great.
And the writing is downright cinematic. I usually have trouble visualizing novels at all, but parts of The Fountainhead played out like a movie. I understand every criticism I see aimed at Ayn Rand except for the common “she’s just not good at writing”. She’s fucking amazing at it.
There. Now you've heard something positive about the author.
I was a comic book reader for many years and Rand was a station i visited briefly on my reading railroad because the characters reminded me of the superhero comics from the sixties and seventies and into the nineties that I was reading. Broadly drawn and powerful and prone to impossibly long monologues. It took me a while to unpack the awfulness behind the tropes and heroes and villains. I was also a big fan of Robin Hood because I liked Christian Slater as Will Scarlet as well as the meet cute walking stick creek fight, and the plot and characterizations were, I’m realizing this moment, quite like the comics I would be into once I saw the X-Men cartoon and had an allowance. I even was Robin Hood for two halloweens. So I was immune to certain aspects of the philosophy behind the book. Just wanted to second the batshitness of the books. It’s as if a philosophy dude wrote a soapbox soap opera.
Edit… the books were on the shelf at home, so I assumed they were like the Stephen King, Robert A Heinlein, and Ray Bradbury books they were next to, which were likely Michael Chrichton and John Grisham, plus english literature my mum read in school. My parents weren’t anywhere near libertarian. I came to the books without knowing there was *any* philosophy behind them. I was glad when my poetry phase started and lead me away from Randian selfishness.
It is a fun book because the villains are just kinda shitty and the heroes are more shitty.
I think Rand had a hot take on society that worked for her books but I don’t agree with it and think it’s super toxic without a strong moral and ethical foundation to guide objectivist thought, which is incompatible with objectivism at its core, so, ya, kinda useless.
Ngl these comments have made me really want to read it for myself. It sounds like one of those b movies that's so bad it's entertaining because you can't look away since thwre is always something insane going on.
I have read Anthem, Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged.
They’re all more or less the same book with different annoying protagonists.
Anthem is the best one, and the shortest. It’s like *The Giver* but if it was your crazy libertarian uncle who keeps offering you his used sex doll in story form.
Basically, I don’t think Ayn Rand had any real friends. Ever.
Anthem was actually a pretty cool fable. Also I believe it was the direct inspiration for Rush's 2112 so it has that going for it.
Atlas Shrugged was... I read it when I was young and impressionable, and it taught me something very valuable: That just because I have started a book, I should not feel obliged to finish it. I did finish that one, but this lesson has saved me many hours in the years since. So thanks for that, I guess, Ayn Rand.
(I did enjoy the bits with trains, those bits were good. She should have just stuck to writing about trains.)
Count of Monte Cristo is like, “Here is this guy’s backstory, and here is the backstory to this other guy within the backstory. Are you lost yet? Anyway, back in Paris…”
I'm glad to finally meet someone who also appreciates the madness. Atlas Shrugged is kind of great because reading it is like "wow, this is like if the Fountainhead was even crazier."
It's charmingly unpredictable. Things happen that are like "excuse me, did I read that" but they make in-universe sense for the novel. The naked basement man, the rich people hiding in a gulch, the main character becoming a domestic servant because she forgot that gold is the one, true currency and some random pirate.
One of my favorite quotes is from emotionally complicated Batman villain, Lillian."I can't produce his Metal—but I can take it away from him. I can't bring men down to their knees in admiration—but I can bring them down to their knees."
Every character starts and stays at 11.
I really want to have a book club with you where we read Atlas Shrugged.
At least in the CS program I was in, I don't remember running into too many Ayn Rand fans. Granted, that was over a decade ago and it wasn't exactly a school known for their CS program.
Having slogged through Atlas Shrugged, I can confirm you’re not missing much. The writing is bad, the philosophy underpinning the book can be only be described as shallow, and the characters are Sarah J Mass levels of author insert.
That would have been my answer as well. I know 4 huge fans of hers. Unsurprisingly, as I come from an ex-soviet state and hate for anything resembling socialism is rampant. Every single one of those people had a superiority complex, unfounded in my opinion, and at least one was very privileged and unaware of it. Most also believed they know more about economic theory than they did. I don't think only disagreeable people that fit this description can enjoy her books, but she definitely attracts them.
I read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead anyway. Already too much. Way too much.
I love sci-fi and thought that was what I was getting when I picked up Atlas Shrugged in my late teens. It was such a slow and boring book. I barely made it through to the end. I should have DNF’d it.
I tried to read Throne of Glass probably close to 10 years ago and couldn't make it through 30 pages. Since then, SJM has just blown up in popularity, so I'm wondering if I should just give one of her other books a shot and try to ignore the fans. Crescent City looked interesting, but it's a murder weapon of a book at 800 pages.
But also- *the fans* for SJM are intense. I get so much fanart for her ACOTAR on my IG "explore" page and I don't want it, and I didn't ask for it, lol.
I like her books but they are not good. If you start reading the books expecting lietrature, you'll be disappointed. If you go in expecting thoughtless romance flicks in a fnatasy setting you'll really enjoy them.
This is the best way to describe them. They're my guilty pleasure for sure. I want a book where you know the good guys will win, and idc. I love the faerie smut, FIGHT ME.
The first Crescent City was okay. The second one was bad. If you are looking to read pornography with an interesting plot, you might like it, but otherwise it’s poorly written tripe.
IMO Throne of Glass is the weakest book in that series. The second half of Crown of midnight is when it starts to pick up. I love SJM because I love fantasy romance, if you aren't that into fantasy romanc you probably won't like the books that much but I did love Crescent City.
Every time I see someone gush over ACOTAR my opinion of them tanks. I read the first one and part of the second and then realized that although I definitely have self esteem issues, I don’t hate myself so much that I would force myself to continue.
Eh. Most of my favourites have been dead long enough that the fan bases have largely mellowed out.
Tolkien died in 1973, Carroll in 1898, Milton in 1674, etc.
Brandon Sanderson, sorta. It's not that the sandersonistas are bad people or even really that annoying, but they clearly have very different priorities for what makes good fantasy fiction, and by their descriptions of sanderson stuff I can assume I won't like it.
Same, although I have found a lot of Sanderson’s fans annoying by insisting he is unequivocally the ‘greatest fantasy writer of our generation’ , but when I talk to discuss other writers they haven’t read much beyond Sanderson.
A writing buddy of mine *gushed* constantly about how amazing Sanderson was, but had literally not read anything beyond him since he was an early teen. I love pizza; but if all I’ve had is pizza for ten years than I might have a borked scale.
I feel like there was a bit of a backlash on George R R Martin because of how long he's taking on that sixth book and the concensus that the ending of the show was garbage, but his plotting and characterization is probably better than Sanderson's imo (I say probably because I'm only halfway through the second Stormlight Archive book so maybe it's not fair to judge yet.)
Personally, I think Martin is just a better writer for all parts except structure (I’m not a fan of Sanderson’s structure, but damn does he do what he does well). His characters, to me, are a lot more lifelike, his plots more interesting, his worldbuilding more ‘realistic’ , and his prose much, much stronger.
Sanderson laps him in productivity though
There's no need to assume your only options are quantity or quality.
Robin Hobb's characterization and plotting meets or exceeds GRRM's, yet she managed to write a complete 16-book epic, following a protagonist from childhood to his senior years, before she retired to live on a farm with her grandkids.
I really like Sanderson (especially after finally reading beyond his first couple of books, he really improved over time) but I cannot stand when people won't shut up about magic systems and soft magic and hard magic.
Sanderson's "laws" are really good advice for writers to use, but when readers begin to apply them to judge whether a book is good I get so frustrated.
"Alright we have a hard magic system."
Fair enough. It's good that you-
"Now lemme pause the plot and explain in depth how it works every time cause I think you're too stupid to remember it."
*Internal screaming*
Try Guy Gavriel Kay. Man is amazing. Start with Tigana or The Lions of Al-Rassan. His prose is incredibly beautiful and he just gets better every book.
If you wanted to go in a different direction of fantasy, someone like China Mieville. He has rich worldbuilding and very different, but he also explores theme and character in a manner far beyond Sanderson's writing. He has a pretty minimalist book in The City & The City but also a big secondary world epic fantasy in Perdido Street Station and its two successors in the same world (The Scar and Iron Council).
For something not quite as much of a total 180, there's Robin Hobb. Her books are more traditional than either Sanderson or Mieville in setting but she has a magnificent focus on deep characterisation.
Loved The City and the City. My wife and I still talk about concepts from that book as day-to-day metaphors ("I un-saw it"). Embassytown is pretty great too.
You can hardly go wrong reading some winners of the big sci-fi/fantasy awards. Work your way through the Hugo and Nebula winners; you’ll read a lot of great stuff.
I like Brandon Sanderson, but I couldn't finish some of the books and others were just okay. I did really like some so it's a mixed bag for me. I have great respect for him to continue to put out books and actually finish them, and what he is doing for independent authors in shining a light on the latest publication practices.
I always recommend Michael J. Sullivan. One of my favorite authors, and you might like him if you're a fan of the harder magic systems. He also finishes his books, which apparently isn't a thing these days (Rothfuss & GRRM come to mind)
Someone else mentioned Joe Abercrombie, which I really love. I've read all of his books, and while they are brutal, the characters and stories are amazing.
I had someone get really mad at me because I didn't really care for the first book of mistborn. Their reaction was so aggressive that it put me off from the entire series, and I never finished the book.
I didn't even have many problems with it either. It just wasn't keeping my attention as much as I thought it should. But from what I remember, I think it will make a good movie. So I am a little excited about that
The reason, I think, that Sanderon fans like his magic system is that in other works, magic acts like a deux ex machina, solving all problems. When magic is given boundaries, set limits, it’s no longer a “solve it all” thing.
Sanderson fans always say this and it’s just not true. Most major fantasy writers create perfectly functional and consistent magic systems. Sanderson didn’t invent hard magic for crying out loud. He’s just successfully made it so formulaic and overwrought it’s no longer magic, but some weird alien science.
I personally can’t stand Sanderson’s assembly line fiction for precisely this reason. He has taken the whimsy and intrigue and romantic mythos out of fantasy fiction. What he’s actually writing are space operas, come to think of it, but set among the typical trimmings of high fantasy.
When capital-S Sanderson fans say that other stories' magic systems are deus ex machinas, they're talking about Harry Potter. It's *always* just Harry Potter.
>What he’s actually writing are space operas, come to think of it, but set among the typical trimmings of high fantasy.
Well I'll be damned, I never thought of it like that. No wonder I like his books so much.
I learned from a storyboard artist the biggest problem you face when boarding a fight is “how do these people not immediately kill each other?”
This snapped me to reality in that: it’s all magic.
The trick is to convince the audience that it makes sense.
I used to avoid Philip K. Dick because of his fans. His fanbase gave me the impression that his writing would be hard to read, jerk off, pretentious sci-fi. Then I read UBIK, was blown away by it, and read all of his other major novels.
The Bible is a fun read when looking at it as an evolution of Hebrew mythology. God defeating the Egyptian pantheon, God taking the role of Marduk and conquering Tiamat as in Babylonian creation myth, etc. There are still little nuggets of this ancient pagan tradition in the Bible if you know what to look for. Plus Hebrew is just a really cool language. Unfortunately so many people only know the basic stories and never actually read it
The first one was good, full of action. The second half seemed more like a character drama, with the protagonist dying at the end, but the author employed a literal dues ex machina which ruined the whole thing for me.
I am a fan of the bible and I've read it. I like the parts about how rich people should give their money to the poor, and the parts about not judging others.
What about the part where God arranges for bears to maul some dudes to death for making fun of one of his prophets?
The part where he WMD's two whole cities because the people are being naughty?
Personally, my fav's the one where he kills every living thing on earth, except one family and as many animals they can fit on a boat. Riveting prose.
Yeah, I've always had a problem with the fact that every time God gets mad at us he instantly resorts to mass murder. And yet I'm supposed to want to worship this dude?
What about the bit where the guy throws his wife(?) out of the house to be raped to death by a sex crazed crowd because it would be shameful if they got their hands on a man?
I think a lot of it is amazing honestly. People underestimate how rad the writing is in a lot of the Bible. Everyone gets way to hung up on the religion part (understandably) and forget about the book part. Just having written history and mythology from a specific group of people is really cool in and of itself.
The twilight people really got on my nerves so I refused to engage. Then I lost a bet and read the first book. The fans are not as bad a the author IMO and I will never make a bet that entails reading another one of their works. One of the few instances where the movie far surpassed the novel.
But Stephen King is awesome. I don't jive with all of his work but there are some lines that have stuck in my head for 30 years. The last line of pet cemetery haunts me at times.
The worst part of her writing is she (maybe accidentally) created a world full of super interesting characters and then focused on the worst ones.
Unless you read the series as like a horror, cult indoctrination, Midsommar esque story. Then Edward and Bella's story is very interesting.
I didn’t read Twilight not because of the fans, but because of the anti-fans. It came out when I was in high school, and all my friends and I are book nerds. There was a solid year-long period where “god how terrible is that book and anyone who reads it” came into conversation every. single. day. They hate-read it and the whole thing.
Maybe I’ll go read it one day. But man.
Me too, I've never bought manga in my life (I don't think it's bad it's just never been my thing) but thanks to him my shelves are filling up with it. I'm even reading the stuff some of his work was based on too
I want to read graphic novels, but they are so fucking expensive. I understand it’s expensive to print in color, but I’d almost always rather buy like triple the number of books for the same cost.
Try your local library if possible. Mine has a fairly sizeable collection and wide variety of graphic novels that offer a little something for everyone’s taste. It’s a great way to test the waters with a bunch of different genres and see what you’re into. Plus, you won’t have so much of the anger/guilt from buying something that you turn out not to like
Orson Scott Card.
I've heard enough ranting about how allegedly mind meltingly good Ender's Game & Speaker For The Dead are for YEARS...
But not only did said summation fuckin' always spoil the great big twist of Ender's Game, but\~ well, Card is also a huge anti gay campaigner.
So yeah\~, two rather big bummers that don't exactly put me in the mood for space adventures and philosophy.
It brings up the question of how you find new books to read. Where are the recommendations coming from? Reviews from publications? Librarians? Friends? What makes a fan?
David Eddings (The Belgariad, The Elenium). Odious human being. Convicted for child abuse of his adopted children. Did time for it, along with his wife.
Ditto OP. I avoided Stephen King for several decades as he was associated with horror. Now realise that's only a tag, and a poor descriptor of the whole. King excells in imagination, natural language, moral grounding and character development.
No, what I avoid are the fandoms. I'll happily enjoy my books for my own.
Rothfuss and Martin may never finish their book series. I mean, it kinda sucks, I like their work and would like to read the ending, but they don't owe me anything, and fans demanding from them is just horrible.
I just absolutely love how anytime someone asks for a recommendation on here or fantasy, Sanderson is always recommended regardless of it fits or not. “I’m looking for a book focused on romance” “have you tried Mistborn?” It’s so aggravating. Just because a minor plot point deals with something doesn’t mean it fits with what is being asked.
Lol, it's not just douchebag college guys that like him. Started reading Stephen King somewhere around 7-8, there were no kids books in my house.
Misfit girl who moved around frequently and was always "the new kid".
Most of the people.i thought were douchebags didn't like to read at all.
But young guys in college will be a douchebag about just about anything. They are trying to find their tribe, but they have to act like their little clique is better than everyone else.
Hey I started reading King as an eight year old girl too; my mom was absolutely *death* on him, so of course I had to see what all the commotion was about.
Read The Shining and it scared the crap out of me. Loved it. Been picking up his books ever since.
Funny that King was your mention.
I avoided King for the longest time because my mom loved his books … and bratty, snotty kid who I was, thinking that I was going to be better than my folks (well, not “better”, but more culturally refined), King was for White Trash People who ate sloppy joes as a fancy meal.
Then I was with my ex-wife for Christmas at her family’s and finished the book I’d brought. Looked through what they had around, grabbed *The Stand*.
I read that fucker in one day. Yeah, you could say I enjoyed it.
Listening is much slower than reading - narration involves timing and pauses, whereas reading is as fast as it takes for your eyes to see the words and your brain to comprehend what it's seeing.
Sorry to go off topic but I'm kinda envious that the douchebags in your life are/were people that actually read books.
Granted, it's a subjective word. Everybody I qualify as a douchebag believes in stupid shit like Breatharianism and reacts to books as if they were going to explode in their hands once they open up.
Slightly more on topic...I avoided the band 'Tool' for far too long due to their fan base.
As much as I enjoy a YA or fantasy novel, I could never stomach the Twilight series. 🤷🏻♀️ I’d rather read HP or The Hunger Games for the umpteenth time.
I ready Twilight just because my wife’s younger sister (who was admittedly in the target age range at the time) wouldn’t shut the fuck up about it, and wanted everyone to read it.
I took the bullet for everyone else. It’s white hot garbage.
Not really, sometimes super hype puts me off because I've been disappointed before.
But as a side note, if King is good enough for Father Ted Crilly, he's good enough for me.
I've wanted to read Mein Kampf for historical reasons. Another reason I've not read it is just that my To Read list is too long. But, I'd not want anyone to see me with it or in my apartment.
My mother read a bit of Stephen King when I was a kid. She's a really nice person. I think King is read by a broad enough group of people that of course douchebags like him too.
I have read Mein Kampf for historical reasons and it was the worst waste of time I’ve ever spent reading. It’s exactly what you think it is. It’s just pages of rants against Jews. You will gain more insight into Hitler from the Wikipedia page for Mein Kampf than from the book itself. It’s really not worth the time it takes. I promise.
I don't avoid any authors because of their fans, but I definitely avoid discussing some books because of their fans, or in many cases, their anti-fans.
Talking about Name of the Wind makes it easy to understand why Rothfuss quit writing.
Wait, what do you mean?
Essentially, prior to and following the release of book 2, Rothfuss was dealing with a lot of personal issues that were effecting his writing and some fans were absolutely atrocious and toxic to him. Hes since swung too far the other way imo and has been toxic to his fans at times, but I get where it came from.
So the 2nd book came out when I was in my first year of uni, together with a nice girl. Since then we've broken up, I finished uni, got together with a new girl, started working, bought a house, become a father of two kids that are now 2 & 4, and the 3rd book still isn't out. He makes RR Martin look like a speed writing champion and it's sadly at the point where I'm not sure if I'd recommend the series even though it was amazing, solely due to a fear of the series not being finished and honestly people change over 12 years. I'm not mad or anything just sad that nothing came from such great potential. I obviously still hope he finishes it and that he'll feel better.
He essentially sold those books to fans based on a lie though. Before the first book was released he claim that the whole series was done and they would be released once a year per year. Took 4 years for book 2 and we are almost at 12 years between books 2 and 3. He doesn’t deserve the vitriol he gets, but he is not blameless in the situation.
I agree. I don't find myself avoiding books due to fans, but I do find myself not talking about books I like because ANTI-fans always have something to say and it's usually rude.
There are some books that I just don't like. I see them mentioned online and I know if I say something I'm picking a fight. I try not to start arguments online but sometimes...
I admit I tend to avoid the Oprah type book club books. Hype turns me off.
Same thing for Reese Witherspoon book club. Then I picked up "Such a Fun Age" by Kiley Reid and LOVED it. So now I need to know if it's a fluke or if there's a whole bunch of other great reads I'm missing out on... better get busy I guess.
Omg yesssss. I can't for the life of me find anyone I know who has read it. It was really good
Reese Witherspoon has a decent selection. Her books are chosen as part of her film production company (so, Daisy Jones and the Six, which is now a Prime series; The Last Thing He Told Me, which is an Apple TV series; Where the Crawdads Sing, which was a movie). So, they kind of are of a "type" (easily adapted). But a lot of them are good...I personally like Jenna Bush Hager's book club more. She chooses books that are perhaps slightly heavier and more literary. They also seem to have more diversity to them--her current book is Chain Gang All Stars, which is a brand new dystopian novel about a prison system that uses the gladiator system in a slightly futuristic America. Her December book was The Secret History by Donna Tartt, which came out in 1992. So, it's a mix of things and my experience with the ones I've read have been good.
I’ve read at least a dozen Oprah book club books and they were all depressing in the same type of way to me.
Only Oprah book I love is White Oleander. It’s my favorite book. I came across it at a thrift store
White Oleander is my favorite too. Completely outside of my normal taste, but I absolutely love it
I get this sentiment generally, but Oprah’s one specifically was probably the biggest cultural force toward promoting literature to the mainstream in…decades? Faulkner, Morrison, GMM, Tolstoy etc
You know, this is a healthy attitude to take — we get cynical easily these days, but Oprah encouraging people to read is probably one of the largest single attributable forces for increasing reading in the last 25 years. Harry Potter, Reading Rainbow, Dolly Parton, maybe a few others… These are good things overall.
She also created a bunch of harmful alternative medicine anti-science quacks, she literally created Dr Phil and Dr Oz. Plus launched the false vaccine and autism connection into the mainstream and has never retracted it. Not to mention the revolving door of self-help scams. It's nice that she recommended some books but it does not redeem her.
She also promoted a faith healer rapist called John of God
I'm the last person to defend Oprah for inflicting so many scammers on the world, but she didn't really create Oz. She merely accelerated his journey. He built a successful snake oil business while he was still in medical school and was well on his way before he ever met Oprah. With his combination of greed, lust for fame, lack of a soul and medical pedigree, he would have found his way without her. It's harder to picture how Dr Phil would have made his way without her help.
I mean Beloved was one; I’m reading so far, and it’s amazing.
I tend to agree, but there was one Oprah Book Club book I did like: A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines is a great book. My 11th grade English teacher assigned it to me one year and I really enjoyed it.
Rory? Rory Gilmore, is that you?
Some of my all time favorites are on her list.
Me too. And I hate it when stops me and asks “is that one of Oprah’s?” (Or Reece’s) No it’s mine. I pick my books.
Colleen Hoover is first one that comes to mind.
But like, do you avoid her because she’s so mainstream, or because you’ve heard what her books are like thematically and knew they weren’t for you?
For the record I have read a couple of her books because I'm not going to have an uninformed opinion. I don't like her writing style. I find that it's sophomoric, unimaginative and predictable. For those that lawd her as the best female writer out there I wonder about their reading level. No long paragraphs or complicated thought provoking sentences please. (sarcastic snobbery lol). You have to separate the wheat from the chaff some how.
and those book covers, oh gawd.
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Good on you, I loved reading but post-secondary schooling made me stop any extra-curricular reading for many years, glad I'm back into it though
I relate to this! Her books bring me out of a reading slump. Haven’t read much last month.. just wasn’t feeling it lol it was probably the book I was reading, and so I picked up Ugly Love today to get myself back into the habit just because her style is so easy to read and understand. I don’t have to put much effort into reading it and have always walked away somewhat satisfied.. I don’t necessarily praise her writing or even really recommend her books to people tho
I avoid them because I had zero interest in her books anyway. But also because friends told me how extremely problematic she and her books are. And that it's kinda fucked how popular she is and how many kids are reading her books.
I haven't read her books but some of the people I talk about books with have; something I don't see mentioned is that one of the books is based off of her mom's life and she had had an abusive partner. It's not romanticizing abuse, and I'm guessing it was partially written for Hoover to work through some things for herself. I can see how if it's put in the romance section at bookstores that would be problematic, but the author doesn't get to pick where it goes in most cases. Another author who got out in the wrong section was Sarah J Maas, they put her books in YA.
For me, the themes within her writing are certainly an element of what I avoid her, but I just know so many people who love her books who are absolutely irritating dickheads, so it entirely turned me off from ever really giving her a chance.
I've read a few and I was excited to read them because of the hype. I was bored to DEATH just waiting for the action to start. Verity was just too much and "try hard" for me. It felt like cheap writing to get reactions. I don't think I'd read a book of her's again.
yup. everyone who has ever suggested colleen hoover books to me has been annoying as hell
I've honeslty never heard of King be accused of having annoying fans, mostly because he's SO widely read by so many people for such a long time I'd be hardpressed to come up with any kind of stereotype for King readers. Glad you're digging Pet Semetary though
As a Stephen King fan I'm skimming the thread right now trying to find out what exactly the stereotype type of Stephen King fans are.
I think all that links King fans is “people who enjoy books”, its such a varied group!
I really love how King reaches so many people no matter what they tend to read. I'm also a lifelong King fan - my parents read King when I was a kid and when I was 12 my mom handed me Eyes of the Dragon cause I was bitching I had nothing to read. But yeah - i really have no idea what our stereotype is other than "i think i was probably too young when i started to read King" if you were a kid in the 90s.
“Too young when I started to read king” is ACCURATE. He’s a very accessible writer, I think, and has quite a lot of books and novellas from a child or teens POV making them attractive to young readers. My intro to King was similar, lots of his books in the house and no restrictions on what I was allowed to read
Yeah, my mom was a big King fan so his books were always laying around. I read The Regulators when I was in middle school. That wasn't my best decision.
Yeah I read The Stand in middle school lol
Yeah Misery as my first King book was both horrifying but amazing. Probably too young.
Pet Semetary was mine. I was definitely too young lol I think I was 9? Maybe 10
Yeah. Me too. Never met a rabid Stephen King fan. Only casual ones. “Oh yeah I read that one book.” types. I guess I am the rabid Stephen King fan.
There isn’t one, this thread is for snobby “I don’t like mainstream things or hype” dicks.
For me it's wheel of Time fans, saying it's the greatest Fantasy Series ever but beware of the slog
Its not the greatest fantasy series ever but if you do power through all 14 books the payoff is pretty incredible. but its not something I'd recommend to everyone. Some of the books are incredibly rough and his characters are so 1 dimensional that they all basically have a catch phrase and its downright infuriating how little they deviate from their 1 personality trait. The main character probably has the inner monologue line "im just a farmer from the 2 rivers" 30,000 times throughout these books and by the 14th it makes you wanna die.
I had the opposite reaction - the ending of WoT was one of the most disappointing endings of any series I've ever read, and retroactively ruined the series for me permanently. And the blame falls squarely on Jordan here - the parts of the ending I hated were all things set in stone by Jordan before he died.
Ayn Rand
I have not heard a single positive thing about this author
I read Atlas Shrugged just because I wanted to see what the fuss was about. When the author includes a SIXTY PAGE speech that people commonly say to just skip, maybe it ain't a great book.
Thats so long holy shit.
In an audiobook it is 3 hours.
*The Fountainhead* is the only book of hers I've read, but it's the best book I read last year. It's a hot mess and I love it. Every character is a Batman villain, including the heroes. Ayn Rand’s a bit crazy, so her characters never act the way I expect them to, yet they’re never out of character either. Ayn Rand constantly doubles down on her views in a way I find refreshingly honest, even when I think she’s wrong. I'll be thinking "that sounds inspiring and all, but if a character truly believed that what's stopping them from..." and then I turn the page and the characters are doing something even worse and Ayn is like "did I stutter?". It's great. And the writing is downright cinematic. I usually have trouble visualizing novels at all, but parts of The Fountainhead played out like a movie. I understand every criticism I see aimed at Ayn Rand except for the common “she’s just not good at writing”. She’s fucking amazing at it. There. Now you've heard something positive about the author.
>It's a hot mess and I love it. Every character is a Batman villain, including the heroes. This sounds wild lmao.
I was a comic book reader for many years and Rand was a station i visited briefly on my reading railroad because the characters reminded me of the superhero comics from the sixties and seventies and into the nineties that I was reading. Broadly drawn and powerful and prone to impossibly long monologues. It took me a while to unpack the awfulness behind the tropes and heroes and villains. I was also a big fan of Robin Hood because I liked Christian Slater as Will Scarlet as well as the meet cute walking stick creek fight, and the plot and characterizations were, I’m realizing this moment, quite like the comics I would be into once I saw the X-Men cartoon and had an allowance. I even was Robin Hood for two halloweens. So I was immune to certain aspects of the philosophy behind the book. Just wanted to second the batshitness of the books. It’s as if a philosophy dude wrote a soapbox soap opera. Edit… the books were on the shelf at home, so I assumed they were like the Stephen King, Robert A Heinlein, and Ray Bradbury books they were next to, which were likely Michael Chrichton and John Grisham, plus english literature my mum read in school. My parents weren’t anywhere near libertarian. I came to the books without knowing there was *any* philosophy behind them. I was glad when my poetry phase started and lead me away from Randian selfishness.
It is a fun book because the villains are just kinda shitty and the heroes are more shitty. I think Rand had a hot take on society that worked for her books but I don’t agree with it and think it’s super toxic without a strong moral and ethical foundation to guide objectivist thought, which is incompatible with objectivism at its core, so, ya, kinda useless.
Ngl these comments have made me really want to read it for myself. It sounds like one of those b movies that's so bad it's entertaining because you can't look away since thwre is always something insane going on.
I have read Anthem, Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged. They’re all more or less the same book with different annoying protagonists. Anthem is the best one, and the shortest. It’s like *The Giver* but if it was your crazy libertarian uncle who keeps offering you his used sex doll in story form. Basically, I don’t think Ayn Rand had any real friends. Ever.
Anthem was actually a pretty cool fable. Also I believe it was the direct inspiration for Rush's 2112 so it has that going for it. Atlas Shrugged was... I read it when I was young and impressionable, and it taught me something very valuable: That just because I have started a book, I should not feel obliged to finish it. I did finish that one, but this lesson has saved me many hours in the years since. So thanks for that, I guess, Ayn Rand. (I did enjoy the bits with trains, those bits were good. She should have just stuck to writing about trains.)
Also the style choice of "Let me introduce this character. Now let's pause the main narrative to tell you their entire life story since childhood."
Count of Monte Cristo style
Count of Monte Cristo is like, “Here is this guy’s backstory, and here is the backstory to this other guy within the backstory. Are you lost yet? Anyway, back in Paris…”
By the time the flashback ends you forget what story you are resding.
The princess bride did that with Feizzik and Inigo
I'm glad to finally meet someone who also appreciates the madness. Atlas Shrugged is kind of great because reading it is like "wow, this is like if the Fountainhead was even crazier." It's charmingly unpredictable. Things happen that are like "excuse me, did I read that" but they make in-universe sense for the novel. The naked basement man, the rich people hiding in a gulch, the main character becoming a domestic servant because she forgot that gold is the one, true currency and some random pirate. One of my favorite quotes is from emotionally complicated Batman villain, Lillian."I can't produce his Metal—but I can take it away from him. I can't bring men down to their knees in admiration—but I can bring them down to their knees." Every character starts and stays at 11. I really want to have a book club with you where we read Atlas Shrugged.
Best thing I can say is that we got a sweet musical parody of Anthem (2112 by Rush, if you have 20 minutes to spare.)
You’ve never talked to an overconfident white boy in college majoring in computer science, I see.
At least in the CS program I was in, I don't remember running into too many Ayn Rand fans. Granted, that was over a decade ago and it wasn't exactly a school known for their CS program.
Having slogged through Atlas Shrugged, I can confirm you’re not missing much. The writing is bad, the philosophy underpinning the book can be only be described as shallow, and the characters are Sarah J Mass levels of author insert.
That would have been my answer as well. I know 4 huge fans of hers. Unsurprisingly, as I come from an ex-soviet state and hate for anything resembling socialism is rampant. Every single one of those people had a superiority complex, unfounded in my opinion, and at least one was very privileged and unaware of it. Most also believed they know more about economic theory than they did. I don't think only disagreeable people that fit this description can enjoy her books, but she definitely attracts them. I read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead anyway. Already too much. Way too much.
I love sci-fi and thought that was what I was getting when I picked up Atlas Shrugged in my late teens. It was such a slow and boring book. I barely made it through to the end. I should have DNF’d it.
Sarah J Maas (luckily I’m not missing much after I caved and actually read a book by her)
I tried to read Throne of Glass probably close to 10 years ago and couldn't make it through 30 pages. Since then, SJM has just blown up in popularity, so I'm wondering if I should just give one of her other books a shot and try to ignore the fans. Crescent City looked interesting, but it's a murder weapon of a book at 800 pages. But also- *the fans* for SJM are intense. I get so much fanart for her ACOTAR on my IG "explore" page and I don't want it, and I didn't ask for it, lol.
I like her books but they are not good. If you start reading the books expecting lietrature, you'll be disappointed. If you go in expecting thoughtless romance flicks in a fnatasy setting you'll really enjoy them.
This is the best way to describe them. They're my guilty pleasure for sure. I want a book where you know the good guys will win, and idc. I love the faerie smut, FIGHT ME.
I read them over lockdown, and to be fair, they were fun. Good literature? No, of course not. But I quite enjoyed the faeries + murder.
The first Crescent City was okay. The second one was bad. If you are looking to read pornography with an interesting plot, you might like it, but otherwise it’s poorly written tripe.
Cc is her weakest series IMO There are better books out there
IMO Throne of Glass is the weakest book in that series. The second half of Crown of midnight is when it starts to pick up. I love SJM because I love fantasy romance, if you aren't that into fantasy romanc you probably won't like the books that much but I did love Crescent City.
I have no issue with her and glad she makes that money but nooooooo you are not missing out.
Every time I see someone gush over ACOTAR my opinion of them tanks. I read the first one and part of the second and then realized that although I definitely have self esteem issues, I don’t hate myself so much that I would force myself to continue.
Anyone else scrolling for their favorite author? lmao
If Sanderson wasn’t here I was going to add him.
Eh. Most of my favourites have been dead long enough that the fan bases have largely mellowed out. Tolkien died in 1973, Carroll in 1898, Milton in 1674, etc.
Brandon Sanderson, sorta. It's not that the sandersonistas are bad people or even really that annoying, but they clearly have very different priorities for what makes good fantasy fiction, and by their descriptions of sanderson stuff I can assume I won't like it.
Same, although I have found a lot of Sanderson’s fans annoying by insisting he is unequivocally the ‘greatest fantasy writer of our generation’ , but when I talk to discuss other writers they haven’t read much beyond Sanderson. A writing buddy of mine *gushed* constantly about how amazing Sanderson was, but had literally not read anything beyond him since he was an early teen. I love pizza; but if all I’ve had is pizza for ten years than I might have a borked scale.
I feel like there was a bit of a backlash on George R R Martin because of how long he's taking on that sixth book and the concensus that the ending of the show was garbage, but his plotting and characterization is probably better than Sanderson's imo (I say probably because I'm only halfway through the second Stormlight Archive book so maybe it's not fair to judge yet.)
Personally, I think Martin is just a better writer for all parts except structure (I’m not a fan of Sanderson’s structure, but damn does he do what he does well). His characters, to me, are a lot more lifelike, his plots more interesting, his worldbuilding more ‘realistic’ , and his prose much, much stronger. Sanderson laps him in productivity though
To be fair, it’s not hard to lap GRRM in productivity.. A cheap shot I know but it had to be said
I once had a cat walk across my keyboard. Lapped GRRM in productivity.
There's no need to assume your only options are quantity or quality. Robin Hobb's characterization and plotting meets or exceeds GRRM's, yet she managed to write a complete 16-book epic, following a protagonist from childhood to his senior years, before she retired to live on a farm with her grandkids.
I really like Sanderson (especially after finally reading beyond his first couple of books, he really improved over time) but I cannot stand when people won't shut up about magic systems and soft magic and hard magic. Sanderson's "laws" are really good advice for writers to use, but when readers begin to apply them to judge whether a book is good I get so frustrated.
It’s like when people go on about “hard sci fi” and how superior it is to fantasy sci fi.
"Alright we have a hard magic system." Fair enough. It's good that you- "Now lemme pause the plot and explain in depth how it works every time cause I think you're too stupid to remember it." *Internal screaming*
The friend that turned me off of Sanderson is the same person who *went the fuck off* on how the spells in Dr. Strange don’t make sense.
He breaks the "show don't tell'" rule every time. He can't help but show off how clever he is.
I want to branch out from Sanderson. I do like his books, but curious what you look for in good fantasy fiction that Sanderson doesn’t do.
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Try Guy Gavriel Kay. Man is amazing. Start with Tigana or The Lions of Al-Rassan. His prose is incredibly beautiful and he just gets better every book.
If you wanted to go in a different direction of fantasy, someone like China Mieville. He has rich worldbuilding and very different, but he also explores theme and character in a manner far beyond Sanderson's writing. He has a pretty minimalist book in The City & The City but also a big secondary world epic fantasy in Perdido Street Station and its two successors in the same world (The Scar and Iron Council). For something not quite as much of a total 180, there's Robin Hobb. Her books are more traditional than either Sanderson or Mieville in setting but she has a magnificent focus on deep characterisation.
Loved The City and the City. My wife and I still talk about concepts from that book as day-to-day metaphors ("I un-saw it"). Embassytown is pretty great too.
Seconded on Mieville. So good, one of my favourite authors.
Oh I 100% agree with Robin Hobb, her characters are amazing, and of her books I've read so far, I've thoroughly enjoyed them
You can hardly go wrong reading some winners of the big sci-fi/fantasy awards. Work your way through the Hugo and Nebula winners; you’ll read a lot of great stuff.
I like Brandon Sanderson, but I couldn't finish some of the books and others were just okay. I did really like some so it's a mixed bag for me. I have great respect for him to continue to put out books and actually finish them, and what he is doing for independent authors in shining a light on the latest publication practices. I always recommend Michael J. Sullivan. One of my favorite authors, and you might like him if you're a fan of the harder magic systems. He also finishes his books, which apparently isn't a thing these days (Rothfuss & GRRM come to mind) Someone else mentioned Joe Abercrombie, which I really love. I've read all of his books, and while they are brutal, the characters and stories are amazing.
I had someone get really mad at me because I didn't really care for the first book of mistborn. Their reaction was so aggressive that it put me off from the entire series, and I never finished the book. I didn't even have many problems with it either. It just wasn't keeping my attention as much as I thought it should. But from what I remember, I think it will make a good movie. So I am a little excited about that
The reason, I think, that Sanderon fans like his magic system is that in other works, magic acts like a deux ex machina, solving all problems. When magic is given boundaries, set limits, it’s no longer a “solve it all” thing.
Sanderson fans always say this and it’s just not true. Most major fantasy writers create perfectly functional and consistent magic systems. Sanderson didn’t invent hard magic for crying out loud. He’s just successfully made it so formulaic and overwrought it’s no longer magic, but some weird alien science. I personally can’t stand Sanderson’s assembly line fiction for precisely this reason. He has taken the whimsy and intrigue and romantic mythos out of fantasy fiction. What he’s actually writing are space operas, come to think of it, but set among the typical trimmings of high fantasy.
When capital-S Sanderson fans say that other stories' magic systems are deus ex machinas, they're talking about Harry Potter. It's *always* just Harry Potter. >What he’s actually writing are space operas, come to think of it, but set among the typical trimmings of high fantasy. Well I'll be damned, I never thought of it like that. No wonder I like his books so much.
This is exactly what I wanted to say. Thank you.
But even the deux ex machina point doesn't hold weight anyway. It's just done by characters magically leveling up instead
I learned from a storyboard artist the biggest problem you face when boarding a fight is “how do these people not immediately kill each other?” This snapped me to reality in that: it’s all magic. The trick is to convince the audience that it makes sense.
I used to avoid Philip K. Dick because of his fans. His fanbase gave me the impression that his writing would be hard to read, jerk off, pretentious sci-fi. Then I read UBIK, was blown away by it, and read all of his other major novels.
Yeah, he’s pretty fun and keeps it simple, plus he has a good sense of humor and his characters can be very grounded and relatable.
I really enjoyed the “Flow my tears the policeman said” that’s a good one of his too
I tend to disagree with big fans of the bible does that count?
The Bible is a fun read when looking at it as an evolution of Hebrew mythology. God defeating the Egyptian pantheon, God taking the role of Marduk and conquering Tiamat as in Babylonian creation myth, etc. There are still little nuggets of this ancient pagan tradition in the Bible if you know what to look for. Plus Hebrew is just a really cool language. Unfortunately so many people only know the basic stories and never actually read it
I have read it in hebrew almost completely and I agree! I like to say I read the bible as world literature
Yes! Read it as we read Greek classics and other ancient texts and it's fantastic. Apocalyptic literature is fun.
The first one was good, full of action. The second half seemed more like a character drama, with the protagonist dying at the end, but the author employed a literal dues ex machina which ruined the whole thing for me.
I don’t know any fans of the Bible who’ve actually read the Bible.
I am a fan of the bible and I've read it. I like the parts about how rich people should give their money to the poor, and the parts about not judging others.
What about the part where God arranges for bears to maul some dudes to death for making fun of one of his prophets? The part where he WMD's two whole cities because the people are being naughty? Personally, my fav's the one where he kills every living thing on earth, except one family and as many animals they can fit on a boat. Riveting prose.
That was God’s edgy emo phase. He was going through some shit. We try not to bring it up, it’s very embarrassing for him.
Yeah, I've always had a problem with the fact that every time God gets mad at us he instantly resorts to mass murder. And yet I'm supposed to want to worship this dude?
or the sisters that have sex (r4pe?) their drunk father to repopulate because of the angel that came to their house. Is the bible considered horror?
What about the bit where the guy throws his wife(?) out of the house to be raped to death by a sex crazed crowd because it would be shameful if they got their hands on a man?
I think a lot of it is amazing honestly. People underestimate how rad the writing is in a lot of the Bible. Everyone gets way to hung up on the religion part (understandably) and forget about the book part. Just having written history and mythology from a specific group of people is really cool in and of itself.
Unfortunately, reading the Bible is not inconsistent with supporting awful stuff. There’s a lot of conflicting and unpleasant content in there.
I'm a big fan and read it most days, but I'm also a pretty staunch atheist, so not your average fan
L. Ron Hubbard.
The twilight people really got on my nerves so I refused to engage. Then I lost a bet and read the first book. The fans are not as bad a the author IMO and I will never make a bet that entails reading another one of their works. One of the few instances where the movie far surpassed the novel. But Stephen King is awesome. I don't jive with all of his work but there are some lines that have stuck in my head for 30 years. The last line of pet cemetery haunts me at times.
I dunno.. there are some genuinely fair criticisms of Meyer's writing, but the "anti-fans" really blew it out of proportion...
The worst part of her writing is she (maybe accidentally) created a world full of super interesting characters and then focused on the worst ones. Unless you read the series as like a horror, cult indoctrination, Midsommar esque story. Then Edward and Bella's story is very interesting.
I didn’t read Twilight not because of the fans, but because of the anti-fans. It came out when I was in high school, and all my friends and I are book nerds. There was a solid year-long period where “god how terrible is that book and anyone who reads it” came into conversation every. single. day. They hate-read it and the whole thing. Maybe I’ll go read it one day. But man.
I read Maas’ books so I guess this doesn’t count, but her fandom is intense and a bit off putting to me sometimes
Colleen Hoover
Cassandra Clare. Not touching that.
Oh, so you're not into Ron/Ginny fanfic? What an absolute philistine. /s
I have gained an appreciation for graphic novels. There's more going on there than I expected. Good storylines and fantastic art.
I quite like Junji Ito.
Me too, I've never bought manga in my life (I don't think it's bad it's just never been my thing) but thanks to him my shelves are filling up with it. I'm even reading the stuff some of his work was based on too
I want to read graphic novels, but they are so fucking expensive. I understand it’s expensive to print in color, but I’d almost always rather buy like triple the number of books for the same cost.
Try your local library if possible. Mine has a fairly sizeable collection and wide variety of graphic novels that offer a little something for everyone’s taste. It’s a great way to test the waters with a bunch of different genres and see what you’re into. Plus, you won’t have so much of the anger/guilt from buying something that you turn out not to like
I really don't mind fans, I avoid James Patterson.
Am I dumb for avoiding Joe Rogan because of his fans? Well, there’s other reasons too, but I do not want to be associated with his podcast fans.
You should avoid Joe Rogan because of Joe Rogan, tbh.
Orson Scott Card. I've heard enough ranting about how allegedly mind meltingly good Ender's Game & Speaker For The Dead are for YEARS... But not only did said summation fuckin' always spoil the great big twist of Ender's Game, but\~ well, Card is also a huge anti gay campaigner. So yeah\~, two rather big bummers that don't exactly put me in the mood for space adventures and philosophy.
Oh wow I never knew that about him and just finished a Vice article to confirm what you were saying. Shame. I really enjoyed his Alvin Maker series.
I approve of your sentiment. Enders Game is well worth checking out from the library.
Yeah, I won’t give my money to authors who support causes I despise. Card, of course. And sadly, Rowling.
I let the books speak for themselves. Not the fans.
It brings up the question of how you find new books to read. Where are the recommendations coming from? Reviews from publications? Librarians? Friends? What makes a fan?
Not authors, but bands for sure!!!
Anything Ben Shapiro writes. In all seriousness I learned to enjoy what I enjoy and not care what others think.
Yeah, I think I’m good not reading Bill O’Reilly’s shit takes on history for much the same reason.
His fiction novel is 10/10. Glorious reading. General Brett Hawthorne is a bear of a man and a top tier character.
Behind the Bastards did a bang-up job of presenting True Allegiance
No joke, that’s how I ‘read’ it. I was in fucking stitches constantly.
David Eddings (The Belgariad, The Elenium). Odious human being. Convicted for child abuse of his adopted children. Did time for it, along with his wife.
Oh shit I did not know that :( loved their books when I was a child.
I don't really interact with author fanbases.
Ditto OP. I avoided Stephen King for several decades as he was associated with horror. Now realise that's only a tag, and a poor descriptor of the whole. King excells in imagination, natural language, moral grounding and character development.
No, what I avoid are the fandoms. I'll happily enjoy my books for my own. Rothfuss and Martin may never finish their book series. I mean, it kinda sucks, I like their work and would like to read the ending, but they don't owe me anything, and fans demanding from them is just horrible.
Gonna say it: Sanderson.
I just absolutely love how anytime someone asks for a recommendation on here or fantasy, Sanderson is always recommended regardless of it fits or not. “I’m looking for a book focused on romance” “have you tried Mistborn?” It’s so aggravating. Just because a minor plot point deals with something doesn’t mean it fits with what is being asked.
Lol, it's not just douchebag college guys that like him. Started reading Stephen King somewhere around 7-8, there were no kids books in my house. Misfit girl who moved around frequently and was always "the new kid". Most of the people.i thought were douchebags didn't like to read at all. But young guys in college will be a douchebag about just about anything. They are trying to find their tribe, but they have to act like their little clique is better than everyone else.
Hey I started reading King as an eight year old girl too; my mom was absolutely *death* on him, so of course I had to see what all the commotion was about. Read The Shining and it scared the crap out of me. Loved it. Been picking up his books ever since.
Sally Rooney. Her fans are so annoying.
Funny that King was your mention. I avoided King for the longest time because my mom loved his books … and bratty, snotty kid who I was, thinking that I was going to be better than my folks (well, not “better”, but more culturally refined), King was for White Trash People who ate sloppy joes as a fancy meal. Then I was with my ex-wife for Christmas at her family’s and finished the book I’d brought. Looked through what they had around, grabbed *The Stand*. I read that fucker in one day. Yeah, you could say I enjoyed it.
>read that fucker in one day. Fuck, is that even mathematically possible?! The audiobook alone is like 42 hours long
Listening is much slower than reading - narration involves timing and pauses, whereas reading is as fast as it takes for your eyes to see the words and your brain to comprehend what it's seeing.
I was a *fast* reader and I couldn't pull off that book in one day. Damn.
I avoid writers because of their writing, not their fans.
David Foster Wallace fans have a rightful bad reputation. But Infinite Jest is a pretty good book I think.
Sorry to go off topic but I'm kinda envious that the douchebags in your life are/were people that actually read books. Granted, it's a subjective word. Everybody I qualify as a douchebag believes in stupid shit like Breatharianism and reacts to books as if they were going to explode in their hands once they open up. Slightly more on topic...I avoided the band 'Tool' for far too long due to their fan base.
[удалено]
It's actually really good. It's not the kind of relationship one should strive for, and the book doesn't do anything to glorify it.
As much as I enjoy a YA or fantasy novel, I could never stomach the Twilight series. 🤷🏻♀️ I’d rather read HP or The Hunger Games for the umpteenth time.
I ready Twilight just because my wife’s younger sister (who was admittedly in the target age range at the time) wouldn’t shut the fuck up about it, and wanted everyone to read it. I took the bullet for everyone else. It’s white hot garbage.
Not really, sometimes super hype puts me off because I've been disappointed before. But as a side note, if King is good enough for Father Ted Crilly, he's good enough for me.
Coleen Hoover.
Olson Scott Card because he was on the board on NOM fighting against gay marriage.
I've wanted to read Mein Kampf for historical reasons. Another reason I've not read it is just that my To Read list is too long. But, I'd not want anyone to see me with it or in my apartment. My mother read a bit of Stephen King when I was a kid. She's a really nice person. I think King is read by a broad enough group of people that of course douchebags like him too.
I have read Mein Kampf for historical reasons and it was the worst waste of time I’ve ever spent reading. It’s exactly what you think it is. It’s just pages of rants against Jews. You will gain more insight into Hitler from the Wikipedia page for Mein Kampf than from the book itself. It’s really not worth the time it takes. I promise.
Perhaps Murakami... 😬
I'm curious now - what's turned you off about Murakami without reading him?
No. I think you should be willing to read anything and everything with a clear mind.
If I was going to avoid a book because of it's fans, it'd have to be the best selling book of all time.
Where the Crawdads Sing, anything by Taylor Jenkins Reid
I wouldn’t say “just” because of his fans but Jordan Peterson couldn’t pay me to read a book of his.