Books the like of which you never wish to see again

Genres or book topics you wish would fuck off and die...

Books about the Kennedys, especially those who weren't actual politicians

"Cosy" mysteries

Adult colouring books

Self-regarding memoirs by comedians

Group biographies of the Mitford sisters (and I say this as someone who really enjoys the work of both Jessica and Nancy Mitford)

Urban fantasy

Paranormal romance

"Books about the Kennedys, especially those who weren't actual politicians"

ANYTHING involving alternate reality kennedy scenarios or kennedy fiction (don't care about Libra either!).

i know people love alternate histories, but i kinda hate so many modern "fanciful" alt histories using historical figures. everything after, i dunno, Ragtime, is a dud to me. i avoid most WHAT IF sci-fi that involves abraham lincoln battling jack the ripper on mars or whatever. (i wonder how many alt-kennedy SF books there are. there are a bunch.)

They seem to be tapering off, but the 'classic literature/historical figure + supernatural/horror element' (Wuthering Heights and Human Centipedes! Chester A. Arthur, Chainsaw Massacre-er!) genre needs to be buried under heavily-salted earth.

flimsy cash-in biographies of new pop stars / actors / reality stars which are cobbled together from press cuttings and wire service photos

anything to do with bob dylan which isn't the next part of chronicles

"wacky" erotic fiction

'Selected short fiction' or 'best short fiction' collections for authors whose complete short fiction could easily be collected in a single volume.

feel like complete collections are kinda more annoying - i really love the 10-story collection for a great writer, read it in a day or two, love every story, come back to it another day.

https://d20eq91zdmkqd.cloudfront.net/assets/images/book/large/9781/5947/9781594743344.jpg

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51ln3cTpHdL._AC_UL320_SR210,320_.jpg

i allow myself now to just read a story here and there in a collection when i feel like it. trudging through a large story collection just to get to the end can feel like work and make you enjoy an author less. sometimes i'll just keep a bookmark where i left off. i do this with poetry now too.

Girl is pretty but doesn't read books so therefore basically deserves to have her boyfriend/husband stolen by plainer-but-more-literary-and-therefore-substantial protagonist.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/88/Android_Karenina_Cover.jpg

also, people should probably be done with zombies right about now...forever.

I should specify: I dislike when selected short fiction collections exist in lieu of complete collections. I understand the appeal of something that's more curated but I usually prefer to sort out my own 'best of'.

also, people should probably be done with zombies right about now...forever.

― scott seward, Wednesday, September 7, 2016 9:16 AM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It's almost as though zombies...refuse to die

books about success

i lol'd xp

i allow myself now to just read a story here and there in a collection when i feel like it. trudging through a large story collection just to get to the end can feel like work and make you enjoy an author less. sometimes i'll just keep a bookmark where i left off. i do this with poetry now too.

yeah this is the nice thing about collections. you can finish a thing and leave it aside, pick it up again when you have 20 mins to spare.

Yeah I have a complete set of Cheever stories and I just occasionally pick it off the shelf and read one in isolation, I'd never attempt to tackle the whole thing at once but equally I'm not sure I'd get around to buying individual collections. But I still prefer an individual collection that was intended to be grouped together, thematically or otherwise, it's the difference between listening to an album vs some fucking huge playlist that someone's put together of everything an artist ever did.

Amusingly, the p&p&zombies guy is now being sued by his publisher for submitting, late, a book that is mostly derived from an okd public domain text. Isnt that what he does?

can't get over ANDROID KARENINA

It’s been called the greatest novel ever written. Now, Tolstoy’s timeless saga of love and betrayal is transported to an awesomer version of 19th-century Russia. It is a world humming with high-powered groznium engines: where debutantes dance the 3D waltz in midair, mechanical wolves charge into battle alongside brave young soldiers, and robots—miraculous, beloved robots!—are the faithful companions of everyone who’s anyone. Restless to forge her own destiny in this fantastic modern life, the bold noblewoman Anna and her enigmatic Android Karenina abandon a loveless marriage to seize passion with the daring, handsome Count Vronsky. But when their scandalous affair gets mixed up with dangerous futuristic villainy, the ensuing chaos threatens to rip apart their lives, their families, and—just maybe—all of planet Earth.

This thread reminded me recent exchange on this other thread

Books about the Kennedys, especially those who weren't actual politicians

― I hear from this arsehole again, he's going in the river (James Morrison), Wednesday, September 7, 2016 2:23 AM (yesterday)

apparently there are two (yes, two. TWO!) new-ish biographies of jfk's younger sister, which seems a mite excessive.

otoh, her name was "kick," which is kind of adorable. kick kennedy!

"The [adjective] [noun] of [whimsical name]"

Is the alternate construction '[title][whimsical last name]'s [adjective][noun]' acceptable?

That's getting close to my friend's novel coming out in January, so I'm gonna give a pass.