TTT: Books with Numbers in the Title

TTT: Books I enjoyed reading with numbers in their titles.

1. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki---a wonderful coming-of-age tale in the graphic novel format.

2. I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore---Not especially well-written but an exciting YA series, each one contains a number in the title.

3. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegutt---A classic, surrealist look at the horrors of war.

4. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel---A post apocalyptic world. I think about this book every day.

5. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez---It's a tough book to read because it is so strange but it is worth the struggle. It is actually quite a amazing.

6. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie---The first Christie novel I read. It is a very good mystery.

7. 1984 by George Orwell---Not only a number, but a date. The date which all this creepy surveillance stuff was controlling everyone. It is cringe-worthy to think how so much of it is coming true.

8. One Day by David Nicholls---All the doings in the book happen on the same date every few years.

9. The #1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith---Mma Romatswe is a detective in Botswana. It is both funny and charming.

10. The Final Four by Paul Volponi---two basketball players on different teams who are in the NCAA basketball tournament. Very well-done, especially for sports lovers. 

11. A Thousand Splendid Sun by Haled Hosseini---by the author of the Kit Runner. Very eye-opening and horrifying about two women living in Afghanistan.

 

12. One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish by Dr. Seuss---a personal favorite.

13. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield---an exciting mystery we read in book club several years ago.

 ___

Want to read...

a.  A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

b. The Three Muskateers by Dumas

c.  11/23/63 by Stephen King

d.  One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

Friday Quotes and review of THE NICKEL BOYS

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the opening quote from the book.
The Friday56 is hosted at Freda's Voice.  Find a quote from page 56.

The book I am currently reading (with a summary and review):

Title: The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Book Beginnings: Prologue--- 

Even in death the boys were trouble

Friday 56: 

He'd started his day in his old life and ended it here.

Summary: Elwood Curtis and his grandmother live in Tallahassee, Florida in the early 1960s. Elwood's most prized possession is a recording of one of Martin Luther King, Jr's speeches. In fact the ideals on that recording may have been part of Elwood's undoing. On the day that Elwood is set to start taking classes at a black college, he is caught up in an innocent mistake. Justice for blacks isn't justice and Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile detention center called the Nickel Academy. It is touted as a place for moral, physical, and intellectual development but actually it is place of unimaginable horrors, both physical and sexual. Boys who do not toe the line are severely punished, often killed. Elwood goes in to Nickel Academy quite naive but learns quickly to be wary and guarded. He makes one friend, Turner, who is much more worldly and skeptical than Elwood. Can the boys protect each other and make it out of Nickel alive?

Review: My husband and I listened to The Nickel Boys on audiobook on a recent road trip. I honestly had to turn off the audio player several times to take a break from the on-going horror. I knew that this book was based on an actual juvenile detention facility that operated in Florida for over 100 years, closing some time in the 1980s. And here is the thing. It suddenly hit me that I wasn't expecting a good ending. When I discussed this with my husband he said that may be one of the unidentified aspects of racism--- that even fictional accounts which involve people of color don't necessarily end on a good note. In fact, perhaps one comes to expect the opposite. Colson Whitehead is an excellent writer and his topics are red-hot. I am so grateful that he is sharing his skills at both research and writing with the world.

(RHS Book Club selection for Oct. 2019)

TTT: My Fall Reading List

Top Ten Tuesday: My reading list for the fall (above the line). How I did on my summer reading list (below the line.)

I. Books from my own shelf:

1. Prague by Rick Steves
2. Christy by Catherine Marshall
3. Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks (library book)
4. Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson 
5. Called by Mark Labberton
6. Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr
7. Crooked Letter Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
8. A Week in Winter by Maeve Binchey
9. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
10. An American Spy by Lauren Wilkenson

II. Upcoming book club selections

1. Disappearing Earth by Julia Philips
   
2. Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins
   
3. Mother Daughter Me: a memoir by Katie Hafner
   

III. Books I've started but need/want to finish

1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck 
2. The Submission by Amy Waldmen
   
3. Fear by John Woodward

IV. Mock Printz/YA titles

1. Black Enough: Stories of Being Young and Black in America.
2. How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox.
3. With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo.
4. Frankly In Love. David Yoon.
5. An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States for Young People. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz; adapted by Jean Mendoza and Debbie Reese.
6. Internment by Samira Ahmed
7. I, Claudia by Mary McCoy

I didn't do so hot on my summer reading list, completing only 12 of the 21 books on the list (books with ✔ were completed.) If you pay close attention most of the unfinished books on this list made it onto my fall reading list.

I. Books from my own shelf:

1. The Submission by Amy Waldman (I started it and set it aside)
2. Christy by Catherine Marshall
3. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin ✔
4. The Library Book by Susan Orleans ✔
5. The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom ✔
6. Four Seasons in Rome by Anthony Doerr
7. Crooked Letter Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
8. Winter Wheat by Mildred Walker ✔

II. Upcoming book club selections

1. Martin Marten by Brain Doyle ✔
2. Circe by Madeline Miller ✔
3. Astoria by Peter Stark ✔

III. Books I've started but need/want to finish

1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck 
2. The Overstory by Richard Powers ✔
3. Fear by John Woodward

IV. Mock Printz/YA titles

1. The Lucky Wars by Julie Berry ✔
2. The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi
3. On the Come Up by Angie Thomas ✔
4. Sadie by Courtney Summers ✔
5. Dig by A.S. King ✔
6. Internment by Samira Ahmed
7. I, Claudia by Mary McCoy

I'll be traveling a lot this fall so we shall see how well I do on this ambitious list.

-Anne

Review and Friday Quotes for CROSSING TO SAFETY

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the opening quote from the book.
The Friday56 is hosted at Freda's Voice.  Find a quote from page 56.

The book I am currently reading (with a summary and review):

Title: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

Book Beginnings: 

Floating upward through a confusion of dreams and memory, curving like a trout through the rings of previous risings, I surface. My eyes wide open. I am awake. 

Friday 56: 

Troubled that what started as a celebration has begun to sound tense, I hold out my Dixie cup for more champagne. "Let us be unignorable," I propose.

Summary: When Larry and Sally Morgan move to Madison, Wisconsin in the late 1930s  they know that Larry's job as an adjunct professor is for only one school year but that doesn't keep Sid and Charity Lang from befriending them and leading them through a friendship that lasts the rest of their lives. At first glance it seems that Sid and Charity have everything: charm, money, easy manners, and generosity in spades. But not long after the two couples meet it becomes clear to Larry and Sally that Sid and Charity do not enjoy a relationship of equals, with Charity being overly controlling and Sid surprisingly submissive. The story of the couples' friendship is told by Larry from the vantage point of over thirty years. The book beginning quote then sets the stage for the telling of a story which will require a lot of memories and confrontations of dreams both lost and those accomplished. The Friday56 quote comes from a time early in their friendships where Sid and Charity are celebrating their anniversary with champagne and other goodies. The day should be full of joy but tension creeps in when the subject of tenure comes up. Both men are worried about their jobs. They decide that no matter what happens they will not allow themselves to be ignored.

Review: I first read Crossing to Safety in 1996 or '97 for a neighborhood book club. I didn't last long in that club because I wasn't in the same place in my life as the other members AND I was the only one who really wanted to discuss the books we read rather than just visit. I remember being very frustrated by the light treatment the other gals gave this book because I felt the book had so much to say about friendship and relationships in general. Of course, the irony was that I wanted to be in the club to make friends and I wasn't very friendly, at least about this book.

I fell in love with Stegner's writing after reading The Angle of Repose. That book is about families but the setting, the West, is almost a character. This book, thought by many to be his finest, is very clearly a book about friendships and that value received by having close friends. Between my first reading and this reread I was surprised how much I had forgotten. I remembered Charity being bossy. I remember that a health problem befell Sally. I'd forgotten that Sid was such a pushover and that Larry was the narrator of the book. But I did retain the essence---how precious friendship it and how much it is be treasured. I had also forgotten how quotable Crossing to Safety is. I highlighted 15 passages as I read the e-book I'd checked out from the library. I highly recommend this book. I wonder if my new book club should reach back and give this one a try.

Friday Quotes and a Review of IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the opening quote from the book.
The Friday56 is hosted at Freda's Voice.  Find a quote from page 56.

The book I am currently reading (with a summary and review):

Title: If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

Book Beginning: 

I look at myself in the mirror. I know that I was christened Clementine, so it would make sense if people called me Clem, or even, come to think of it, Clementine, since that's my name: but they don't. People call me Tish. I guess that makes sense, too. I'm tired, and I'm beginning to think that everything makes sense. Like, if it didn't make sense, how could it happen? But that's a terrible thought. It can only come out trouble---trouble that doesn't make sense.

Friday 56: 

I suddenly looked up into his [Fonny's] face. No one can describe this, I really shouldn't try. His face was bigger than the world, his eyes deeper than the sun, more vast than the desert, all that had happened since time began was in his face.

Summary: Tish and Fonny grew up across the street from each other. At some point they fell in love and now Tish is pregnant with Fonny's child. As soon as they can get together the funds, they will get married. But before that happens, Fonny is arrested on false accusations. Fonny's father, Tish, and her whole family try to raise the funds to get Fonny out on bail while he awaits his trial. They also try to prove his innocence with little success. Tragedy is just one step away from the whole family.

Review: The terrible tentacles of racism creep into every aspect of society and in this case, nearly destroy two families. Baldwin published this book in 1974 and one would think, reading it in 2019, that it was published this year because so little has changed---hatred based on the color of the skin, justice inequality, and yet, love flourishes.

If Beale Street Could Talk has come back into our consciousness this year due to a film which was up for several Academy Awards, and won for Best Supporting Actress. This is my first Baldwin book but it certainly won't be my last---the man could write prose. Oh my. There is one sex scene which isn't pornographic but it is quite graphic, at the same time capturing the rapture and tenderness of sex between two people who love each other. I've never read anything like that before. Well done. 

The book, however, broke my heart. I grew up in the 1970s and I was blithely blind to the horrors of racism hurled at people of color. I kept repeating the phrase in my head, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry", as if my enlightenment could change the past. 

The book is tough read for the subject matter, but a spectacular one for the writing. I think every adult should read it and then, like me, read more books by this author.

Note: I found a first edition at a used book store of If Beale Street Could Talk. It looks like the cover I have used for this post. Can you believe how plain and nondescript it is? I only read a few pages from the print book, however, preferring the audiobook read by Bahni Turpin.

-Anne

Six Degress of Separation: A Gentleman in Moscow to---

Six Degrees of Separation---A Gentleman in Moscow

 

We start with...

↓

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Count Alexander Rostov is placed under house arrest and essentially becomes a hostage for life in a hotel in Moscow.

↓

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

Terrorists seize hostages at an embassy. 

↓

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett

Another book by Patchett. A romantic encounter and tryst changes the trajectory of the lives of all the members of two families.

↓

The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje

An eleven -year old boy boards a ship from Ceylon (Sri Lanka) to England. While on board the trajectory of this boy's life changes forever.

↓

The Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Pi and his family are moving their zoo from Asia to Canada when the ship they are on sinks. Only Pi and a few animals survive.
↓

The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman

A nonfiction account of a couple who helped save Jewish people during WWII in Warsaw by hiding them in their zoo. 

↓

Schindler's List by Thomas Kenneally

A WWII novel about an actual historical character, Oskar Schindler, who saved thousands of Jews. For obvious reasons it reads as nonfiction. 

That brings us back to...

↓

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Another novel that reads like nonfiction. In this case, Count Alexander Rostov is fictional.

Join in the fun. Make your own Six Degrees of Separation list.

Hosted by Books Are My Favourite and Best

-ANNE

TTT: Though on my TBR they remain unread

Top Ten Tuesday: Books on my to-be-read (TBR) list which remain unread, including my thoughts on why they remain thus.

1. Middlemarch by George Eliot---This classic has been on my TBR for years, decades probably. Why? I suppose it is the 904 pages that seems like such a daunting number.

2. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry---This western-genre book went on my TBR after I watched the mini-series made from it and after I learned that it had won the Pulitzer Prize. I purchased a copy of it for my husband a few Christmases back but it still remains unread by both of us. Why? Once again, I am ashamed to admit, it is the length. This one weighs in at 858 pages.

3. East of Eden by John Steinbeck---This is starting to feel like "true confessions" from me. I started this classic piece of American lit last Spring and just couldn't make myself read it. The book sits on the coffee table right now with a book marker marker the spot where I abandoned it. As a Noble Book Award winner, I know it is good and I should pick it back up. Maybe this winter it will be time to try again?

4. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens---A few years ago, okay maybe more than a few, I bought the audio-CD set for this book. I have enjoyed every Dickens book I've read but this format is one I rarely use anymore.  I'll have to listen to the book in the car, where I still have a CD-player yet other books keep crowding it out.

5. Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs by Wallace Stegner---I am currently reading another book by Stegner, Crossing to Safety. As I was reflecting on how much I like Stegner's writing I remembered one of his books purchased years ago and never read, Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs. I am going to go scour the house looking for this book and move it to the top of my list.

6.  A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry--- This book has been on my Goodreads TBR list the longest. It was highly recommended by Seattle librarian, Nancy Pearl, so I added it to the list. I am not sure why I haven't gotten to it. Maybe the real reason is I don't actually want to read it.

7. Anne of Avonlea by J.M. Montgomery---This is the second book in the famous Anne of Green Gables series. I own the whole set but haven't gotten past book one. Anne is calling my name. (Oh, it is my name!)

8. Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor--- I loved the first book in the series, Strange the Dreamer, and I want to read the sequel but just haven't made the time. Now that I am retired I don't feel that urgency to read books before I make them available to students. I think I'll request the audiobook. That would force me to read/listen to it when it become available at the library.

9. Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones--- I'm not even sure why this book is on my TBR. I wanted to read it years ago, around the time that the animated movie came out and I've never taken it off the list. What do you think? Should I read it or just take it off the list?

10. 188 other choices on my 'want-to-read' list on Goodreads---I am pretty sure that I started the year with 143 books on the list. It seems like all I do is add books to the list at a faster pace than read them.

What about you? What books have you been avoiding?

-Anne

Sunday Salon with a focus on humor

Weather: Right now (Saturday night) we are experiencing a thunder and lightning storm with rain.

Funny: The news out of Washington, DC is always so awful I just have to find some distractions; something to laugh about. Today I will focus on humor to lighten both my heart and yours.

Homemade treadmill: In this video, a man makes a homemade treadmill with soap and water on the floor. I can't understand his language but humor is international. Be sure you watch to the end where he turns up the speed on the treadmill. Hilarious. (Click on hyperlink.)

#SharpiePresident: As you most likely know, Trump doctored a photo of a weather map to show Hurricane Dorian's possible path to include Alabama. People on Twitter went crazy doctoring other photos with sharpies. This is a hilarious collection of the best of them. I love the centaur. (Click the hyperlink.)

Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: Eric Idle from Monty Python sings with the symphony. This one has been around for years but it stands up to the test of time. Go ahead. Sing-along! It will increase your endorphins today!



Sand Castle winner from Texas Sand Fest: (It speaks for itself.)

Photo credit: Damon Langlois

How would you die in a Shakespeare play? I will just disappear but I wish I was born on the 29th so I could be pursued by a bear.

Bill Nye the Science Guy on All In With Chris Hayes this week: I needed this SO-O-O much. It is less than 8 minutes long. Watch it. I appreciated the message and it is a little bit funny. Innovate. Let's go!



Love Them First: (This one isn't funny at all but often very sweet.) Don and I caught this documentary on Thursday night and want all of you to watch it, too. It is about an incredible school in Minneapolis which is really trying to make a difference in the life of their students against all the odds of poverty and racial divide. Click on the link and you can find out when it is playing in your area. (It seems like most areas are showing it on September 12th.) Then watch the trailer. Oh my. Such an amazing principal and school.

A rare situation: This week, twice actually, I experienced an hour or two when I wasn't reading any book (print, e-book, or audiobook.) I usually have two or three books going at once so when one is finished I still have several in progress. Not this week. Just one, so before I started it and after I finished it, there was a void. Weird. The book read and finished this week was The Library Book by Susan Orlean. Click on the hyperlink for my review.

I hope you have a good week---

-Anne

Review: The Library Book by Susan Orlean

On April 29, 1986 a fire started in the Los Angeles Central Public Library. Over seven hours and 400,000 books later the fire was finally extinguished. Right from the beginning firefighters believed that the fire was started by a human with a flame in his hand, but thirty years later no one is certain who or if the fire was set deliberately.

"In The Library Book, Orlean chronicles the LAPL fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings...to their current status as a cornerstone of national identity; brings each department of the library to vivid life through on-the-ground reporting; studies arson...and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting the fire"(Book Jacket).

What starts out as a book about a library fire with all the related topics of the arson investigation and book recovery and restoration, ends up becoming an homage to libraries and jobs librarians do cheerfully everyday in service to their patrons and society in general.

In The Library Book we met a whole cast of interesting characters. There were the librarians like Mary Foy, who in 1880 became the head of the LAPL even though she was only eighteen years old and Charles Lummis, who was a wildly eccentric adventurer and journalist determined to make the L.A. library one of the best in the world, to the modern-day librarians who, in the course of their daily jobs, make contact with the homeless in society with all their uncertainties and erratic behaviors.

Readers also meet Harry Peak and his family. Harry was in the library the day the fire started. He was acting strangely and had interactions with seven different people just prior to the fire. After he left the library on that fateful day he told friends he was there and had set the fire. But every time he told the story his facts changed. His friends chalked it up to 'Harry being Harry' since they all knew him to be a fibber and a tale-teller. All the evidence that investigators were able to gather was circumstantial so he was never brought to trial for arson though many believe he did set the fire.

The fire and its investigation form the framework of the book but Orleans takes the reader on a historical look at the LAPL from its inception to current day. She also analyzes the role of libraries in communities and the way that the goals of libraries have shifted throughout time. My favorite chapters were the ones where she visited different departments in the library and learned the full range of services they provide. As a school librarian I wore many hats but one of them was not to be an archival service. When a book was old or spoiled, I just weeded it out and moved on. I did not keep 'old' items like maps, collections, first editions, etc. I found the work of these departments to be very fascinating.

Up to this point this review is making the book sound boring. It wasn't. It was full of inspiring quotes about books, reading, libraries, and librarians. Here are a few of my favorites with a little editorial comment from me:

The publicness of the public library is an increasingly rare commodity. It becomes harder all the time to think of places that welcome everyone and don’t charge any money for that warm embrace.

Every time I step into a library I am aware of the humanness of the place. All libraries worldwide are having to figure out how to deal with issues of homelessness because the libraries are one of the few places in society where the homeless can go to be safe and warm. Even in my school, the library was a safe place for the misfits. I called them my library kids---students who ran to the library before school started each day and spent every lunch time within the safety of the its walls.

I loved the fresh alkaline tang of new ink and paper, a smell that never emanated from a broken-in library book. I loved the crack of a newly flexed spine, and the way the brand-new pages almost felt damp, as if they were wet with creation.

Until I became a librarian I was not tuned into the smell of new books. But now I love it. There is nothing like it. I love the description that new books are "wet with creation."

"My friends think because I am a librarian, I know everything," Princenthal said to me. "We'll be watching the Olympics, and suddenly, they'll say, 'Tina, how do you score snowboarding in the Olympics?' Or out of the blue, 'Tina, how long to parrots live?' "

Students used to treat me this way, too, as if I were the font of all knowledge. My mantra became, "As a librarian I know a little about a lot of things." I guess it goes with the job.

“The library is a whispering post. You don't need to take a book off a shelf to know there is a voice inside that is waiting to speak to you, and behind that was someone who truly believed that if he or she spoke, someone would listen. It was that affirmation that always amazed me. Even the oddest, most peculiar book was written with that kind of courage -- the writer's belief that someone would find his or her book important to read. I was struck by how precious and foolish and brave that belief is, and how necessary, and how full of hope it is to collect these books and manuscripts and preserve them. It declares that stories matter, and so does every effort to create something that connects us to one another, and to our past, and to what is still to come.” 

I have long described books as things that call my name. Before I retired, I remember being alone in the library after school and having the distinct impression that the books were calling out to me---"Read me!" And then some of the oddest books I found and read became personal favorites. It was as if they picked me instead of the other way around. Stories do indeed matter. In fact, maybe stories are the best way to communicate with another person when there is something to tell. The Library Book is proof of this. I highly recommend it.

Update: I read this book for the RHS book club in 2019, and the SOTH book club in 2021

-Anne
 

Friday Quotes: The Library Book

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. Share the opening quote from the book.
The Friday56 is hosted at Freda's Voice.  Find a quote from page 56.

The book I am currently reading:

Title: The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Book Beginning: 

Even in Los Angeles, where there is no shortage of remarkable hairdos, Harry Peak attracted attention.

Friday 56: 

Once words and thoughts are poured into them, books are no longer just paper and ink and glue: They take on a kind of human vitality. The poet Milton called this quality in books "the potency of life."

Comments:
This book is about the Los Angeles Central Library fire, possibly set by Harry Peak, and so much more. "It is really about the central role libraries have always and will always play in the life and health of a bustling democracy. Beyond that, like any good library, it's bursting with incredible tales and characters. There could be no better book for the bookish" (Dave Eggers).

-Anne

An uber-classics list

My niece's husband, Bobby Powers, has a book blog. He reads a lot of business books but he has also wandered into a goal of reading the classics. Today I read through his list. I am not sure if he created the list or if he grabbed it from someplace else. He asked how many books his readers had read. I have read 57 of the 200, the number could be higher if I counted books I started but didn't complete or I read in a Illustrated Children's Classic Edition. What I like about this list is it has many modern classics on it---not just a stodgy list of books written by dead white guys from the British Empire. I don't intend to attempt to read all the other 143 books before my death, but I certainly am interested in reading more classics before I slip into oblivion.

⊗-books I've read

1. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe⊗
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams⊗
3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott⊗
4. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
5. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
6. Money by Martin Amis
7. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood ⊗
8. Emma by Jane Austen ⊗
9. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen ⊗
10. Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

TTT: Genres and topics I avoid because they are outside my comfort zone

TTT: Genres and topics I tend to avoid because they are outside my comfort zone

Genres/Topics---
 1. Formula books... you know the kind where you could write the story because you know the formula for the plot?  I cannot make myself read these type of books and I feel disgusted if I ever get tricked into reading one.
2. Biographies/Memoirs of people where I disagree with their politics or values. I also don't read memoirs about people who are famous for a short time or because they are rich, etc. What could I possibly learn from them that I would care about?
3. Gratuitous sex or foul language---I don't avoid books that contain sex or language but it makes me cringe when it is over-the-top or gratuitous.
4. Horror genre---I don't DO scary.  I mean it.  I get scared by scary books (and movies) and I actually have nightmares.  Not worth it.
5. ...and zombies; sea monsters... I'm sorry but I just don't like the books which add zombies or monsters to classics such as Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
6. Manga---I like graphic novels a lot but manga confuses me. Even with the little chart which tells me what direction to go when reading, I always end up doing it backwards and then I can't enjoy the novel at all. I give up. If the book is written left to right I will read it, if not, I can't.
7. Sappy Romances---make me cringe.

What about you? What genres/types of books do you try to avoid?

-Anne