I had to rewrite this post because the moderators thought I was asking for book recommendations. And I'll write right away, no, it's just a discussion.
Everyone has their own unloved author and you somehow read a lot of books from him and one of them seemed normal to you against the background of the others. Let's put aside the question: "Why should I read an author I didn't like?"
For example (not my reading experience, but just something like a template): "I don't like Dan Brown, but I liked his first book, Angels and Demons. I really love the city of Rome and I liked how he conveyed the atmosphere of this city, but the rest of his books seemed to me much more stupid and boring."
by mystery5009
14 Comments
I was worried about Piranesi because I hadn’t liked Johnathan Strange and Mr Norrell. My fears were unfounded apparently
Julio Cortazar, I have strong and negative feelings towards “Rayuela” but I really enjoyed what he put out before that, especially “Historias de cronopios y de famas”.
I do like Norman Mailer but I understand why a lot of people would hate his style, especially his non-fiction. I would suggest those people read The Executioner’s Song. It’s great and nothing like his other non fiction books.
I am not a Sarah J Maas fan at all, but I do remember liking her prequel The Assassin’s Blade. I thought it was genuinely enjoyable and interesting, and the romance wasn’t cringey for once.
I’m going to get downvoted so hard for this, but I’m not a fan of Margaret Atwood. Don’t know why her stories aren’t for me. The only book I liked by her was Alias Grace.
A classic: I don’t like colleen hoovers romance books but I really enjoyed verity 🙃
Nonfiction but Bryan W. Van Norden’s Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy is a fantastic, broad-ranging explanation of the main themes of classical Chinese thought that presents the subject in a clear and interesting light.
His personal philosophy, along with his public spats with Jordan Peterson have permanently ruined his reputation in my opinion.
Ian McEwan. I loved Atonement, but his other books don’t appeal to me.
I recently read Lessons and had a hard time getting through it. While his writing style worked well for Atonement, I found it pretentious-sounding and cumbersome in Lessons.
I love Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell trilogy, but I detested the historical inaccuracies in A Place of Greater Safety. The relationship between two main characters is so different to what happened in reality that I felt quite offended on their behalf when I read up on them elsewhere. But Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies are masterpieces, in my opinion, and I can return to them again and again.
I don’t like Isabel Allende but I did like *The House of the Spirits*
Easy, Dean Koontz.
Almost everything he’s written for the last 30+ years has been trash, but in the 80’s he wrote a few bangers (Phantoms, Watchers).
I’ll give a conditional exception to at least some of the Odd Thomas books, because even though they don’t interest me in the slightest, I’ve heard a number of people who profess to loathe Koontz at least as much as I do say they are good.
For me, that would Stephenie Meyer’s The Host. The book is about an alien invasion for an alien’s POV. I thought this was an interesting concept, and that got reinforced by the reason why the aliens invade Earth and how they do it. While I like this book, I’ll never finish her Twilight novels. No sparkly vampires for me.
Lionel Shriver is kind of an asshat outside of “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”
I read It, The Stand and a few short stories and I didn’t like any of them. Misery is the only book that I really enjoyed.