What prejudices do you take with you into the bookshop?

[Pie 1]

 

[sojourner]

Re the pastels, it's usually accompanied by a cursive embossed 'amusing' title. Makes me want to burn the place down.

usually accompanied by an exclamation mark too

 

[Lea]

Although I read romances I never buy Mills and Boons.

 

[The Groke]

Avoid anything with the words "Dan" and "Brown" written on the cover.

Avoid anything in the "self-help" section.

 

[quimcunx]

biographies generally.

I'm 30 and I'm single oh noes, my life is ended, oh look he was right under my nose all the time. mostly because, as with crime thriller type books, you read them in 2 days then need to spend another £7.99.

anything with a bookclub sticker, but I try not to. Even if I buy and read the book my enjoyment still feels a bit tainted.

 

[ViolentPanda]

... when browsing or looking to buy?

Could be anything -- genre, cover, format, title, anything.

*Anything endorsed by the Mail or Express, unless counterweighed by a proper paper.

*Large format ('B' size?) trade paperbacks, which usually have a flimsy blurb on the back and no endorsements.

*Anything that looks like it's been written for a book club.

*Novels with look-at-me titles like 'Fell-Running in the Urals'

*'The Post-It Note: How One Man's Dream Changed The World' and other pseudo-sociological bollocks.

I have two very strong prejudices in bookshops, so strong that I haven't broken them in 30+ years.

1) Fuck anything that is Mills & Boon-ish or even looks Mills & Boon-ish.

2) Fuck any self-help pseudo-psychological babble-fest.

Other than those exceptions, I'm open to reading just about anything, even instruction manuals.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I only go into bookshops when I know what I want. Otherwise I'll end up eating pasta with butter for the month

Butter?
You fucking posho cunt!

 

[ViolentPanda]

The book I'm currently reading by Hilary Mantel had a Daily Mail Reading Club (or similar) sticker on the front of it when I first spotted it in the charity shop. So I didn't buy it on that basis. After a bit of research about how good it was I went back and bought it. And immediately removed the sticker. Or most of it - bugger to get off.

Ronsonol (liquid lighter fuel for Zippos etc) is totally excellent for getting stickers off without staining, and you only need a couple of drops.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Any fantasy with a terrible fantasy cover.

Good:

Baaad:

(and those are for the same book!)

Second cover is very obviously the Yank version.
They seem to need stuff spelling out on the cover, don't they?

 

[IMR]

Avoid anything in the Self Help section - why isn't Machiavelli's The Prince in there?

Avoid anything with too many bright colours, metallic effect lettering, or the author's signature printed on the cover (eg Bruce Fortsyth's autobiography Didn't He Do Well, Jimmy Tarbuck's Book of Golfing Anecdotes etc).

 

[story]

Anything that says "hilarious" in the blurb.

And most of what has already been flagged up on this thread.

 

[Fictionist]

That anything by Martin Amis or Salman Rushdie is going to be pretentious shite.

I defy you to read 'Success' and come away thinking Amis is pretentious. And read Rushdie's 'The Enchantress of Florence' to rediscover the fact that he can actually write a good story - if only he would do so more often.

 

[D'wards]

Was gonna say this

 

[D'wards]

Not keen on modern crime thrillers, or "holiday" books.

 

[rosa]

Especially when accompanied by a picture of a stiletto. or a handbag.

 

[Fictionist]

Mills & Boon.

Absolute tosh.

 

[Dirty Martini]

I can literally skip over entire sections

Good picture that. They ever complain?

 

[Ich bin ein Mod]

Anything where the author's name is larger than the title of the book...

anything with raised or embossed lettering, esp if it's gold

Often found together in a double-whammy of shiteness

 

[feldbach]

i go for non-fiction, all those "does my bum look big in this" chicklit books make me laugh...

 

[D'wards]

Especially when accompanied by a picture of a stiletto. or a handbag.

Always a cartoony drawing

Maybe we should all fight prejudice and set aourselves the challenge to read something you never would normally - would be a pastelly handbag book for me.

 

[Fedayn]

Steer clear of the sci-fi, romance, true crime and non football sports sections a cert.

 

[ShiftyBagLady]

Nothing with shoes and handbags on the cover, I want to rip them all up
Stupid fucking covers.

 

[mentalchik]

Mostly only go to the sci-fi section..............


don't know if that's a prejudice !