Types of Books I Can't Stand Reading

2016 has been a great year for getting back to reading. I've always been the kind of person whose idea of bliss is to hide away in some corner with a snack and a book, but what usually curbs my reading appetite is the desire to not spend money. These days, we happen to have a library in our apartment complex. Isn't that just the most brilliant idea ever? To have your very own library, supplied by various residents of the apartment complex you live in? It's a very relaxed library, too, without strict 'return by' guidelines. I love it.

(I didn't want to bother taking a photo of books for this post, so I went looking for old photos involving books, and stumbled across this terrifying one, from when Angel really wanted to take a picture of me with his cow piñata.) 

So, I've read 28 books in 2016 thus far, and I thought instead of talking about all the books I've read (how predictable!), I'd instead talk about all the sorts of books I don't like. I'm limiting this list to genres I've actually tried more than once. I'm sure there are other sorts of books I'm not a fan of, but I've never even bothered reading one, so I can't give much of a reason why.

Christian Romantic Novels

Yes, I'm looking at you, Love Inspired and Karen Kingsbury. I don't know why, but this particular genre of fiction tends to have the most formulaic and flattest and downright boring-est love stories of all time--with occasional twists of tragedy that you don't even care about because the heroine and hero have annoyed you so much. I've heard that women shouldn't read too many Christian romantic novels because they'll give you unrealistic ideas of romance and relationships and men. I also think they shouldn't be read, but for a completely different reason--because you'll get too annoyed at the silliness, stilted dialogue, and random Bible verses shoehorned in. There are probably outliers in this genre that are actually good. But none come to mind at the moment.

Gory/Supernatural/Spooky Novels

Gratuitous blood or vampires or, in general, stories designed to help you NOT get a good night's sleep--not my thing. I enjoy detective fiction, but more the classic Father Brown, Sherlock Holmes, or Hercule Poirot type where the story is more about personalities and psychology and mystery, and not so much about death and spooky things.

Dystopian Novels

Yeah, I had to read all the classic dystopian novels when I was still in school, but mostly these are too depressing to actually enjoy reading, even if they do contain interesting themes and insights about human nature. I haven't read much, if any, modern dystopias, just because they don't sound like a lot of fun. I watched The Hunger Games and had nightmares for months because the concept it's based on is so deeply horrifying, so yeah, I'm not reading the books.

Ultra-Complicated/Super-Serious Fantasy or Sci-Fi

I actually do like a good number of fantasy novels, or, generally, novels set in other worlds or outer space. But I tend to like the lighter-hearted type that don't take themselves too seriously and don't require the memorization of countless names and rules and regulations to understand what in the world is going on. I do enjoy Tolkien's Middle Earth, of course, and I think he tells incredible stories, but even in those it's easy to get bogged down in the details.

YA/Teens Romance

Occasionally fun to read, but mostly, such a book just makes me feel like yelling at everybody. You are 16. Don't waste your time, energy, or emotions on any boy. I don't care who he is, you're not married to him, so it's not worth it! Just have fun and be a kid! Adult responsibilities are coming all too soon!! Yeah, basically I have no patience whatsoever for teenage relationships. Come back when you have a financial budget plan for your future and then we'll talk. Other than that, stop stressing and have a fun life. I actually like quite a few YA/Teens books and will often read them to have books to recommend to the teens in my life, but when romance is a major factor/plot point in the book, I probably won't like it, because it turns me into an old grandma who thinks these love-struck teenagers are just making fools of themselves.

Non-Fiction Sports History 

There are probably other non-fiction genres I don't like (self-help, I'm looking at you...), but this one sprung to mind so I'll write about it. I was the nerd who read every word of every assigned reading and textbook in college. I had to take a sports history class in my senior year and the book I had to read about the history of cricket in India was so dry even I could hardly get through it. The book about football clubs in Europe wasn't much better. I did like the class, and the professor, just not those books.

Modern Rom-Coms by British Authors

There's just something about the modern British sense of humor...it doesn't meld very well with mine. Whatever they write that is supposed to be funny I typically don't think is funny. Culture does have a big influence on humor/comedy.

And maybe I just hate romance in general. But for some reason I like to think that I don't hate romance, and so I'll keep on trying books even if 'love' plays a role. I do love real-life love stories. I'll ask anybody "So tell me how you two met?" I'll re-tell funny love stories that I read in biographies to anyone who'll listen. That counts, right?

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What are some popular genres that you just don't enjoy? Are there any books you could recommend in these genres that might make me change my mind or allow that there are a few outstanding specimens?