Anyone hate any writers? Wonder how the hell they managed to get published when a howling dog could come up with better insight?

I have a bit of a problem with Cecilia Ahern. She's the daughter of our Taoiseach (prime minister) and seems to have been catapulted into the limelight and given massive advances on the basis of this. There are all sorts of conspiracy theories regards what kind of tax beaks or whatever the publishing company received in return.

Her writing style is basic at best, though I must admit I've never read a whole one of her books. No one I know claims to like them, though she sells a lot and her first book PS I love you is now being made into a film with two-time oscar-winner Hilary Swank.

maybe it's sour grapes, but she annoys the hell out of me.

I'm also not a big fan of Dan Brown. I read the DaVinci code and it wasn't bad, as stories go, full of action and all, though i had already long ago heard the theory behind it, that Jesus had children etc, and I'm not christian so i wasn't really bothered about the controversy. However, I then read one of his earlier books and found it was exactly the same - different situations and characters, but the same formula, to the extent that I knew who the villain was after just two chapters. I also found the writing, once the suspense had gone out of the story, to be poor - basic sentences, words repeated two or three times in a paragraph, dialogue out of a badly-acted soap opera...

Anyone care to comment or add to the topic?

I absolutely loathed the Da Vinci Code and was amazed when so many people took it all to heart. To me it was the worst sort of storytelling, with lame characters, dodgy twists and a seriously ropey ending. Although I'm sure Dan Brown's laughing quite happily whilst sitting on a big pile of money these days, grrrr

I have a major problem with so called "chick lit" - this is inevitably a problem when i end up in an airport (as I tend to quite regularly) then realise I have nothing to read on the flight. A quick peek at the shelves of the bookshop usually reveals nothing more than Dan Brown (which is how I came to read the Da Vinci Code in the first place) and various novels about a girl who works in publishing and is surrounded by taller and thinner people and whose only ambition in life is to snare a particular man and lose weight...Bridget Jones I'm talking to you! (well, Helen Fielding I guess!!)

yeah, bridget jones annoys me as well, i don't mind books written in and seet in the nineteenth century being focussed on looks and marraige, but surely in today's day and age there's more to life for the average woman? I also think it is damaging to the image of female writers in general - we all get labelled as chick-lit writers if we create female characters, even if it's much more literary. So many women have to use an initial instead of their first name, because otherwise men won't buy the books, thinking they'll be silly airplane reads like helen fielding or cecilia ahernSo maybe we haven't come so far from the nineteenth century after all...actually, from that era I always loved Louisa May Alcott's Little Women, Jo was my favourite character, a woman with ambition at the time having to struggle against a male-dominated world of publishing, and it's more modern and relevant than anything the two aformentioned chick-lit writers have come up with! Hven't read it for years but my train of thought has just taken me there, so I might dig it out!

Urgh! I despise chick-lit! not read any Dan Brown, so I can't comment on him. I personally can't stand JK Rowling! I've not read Harry Potter so I can't actually comment on her writing, but I've seen her in interviews and she just comes across as a horrible person!

I've read a few of the Harry Potter books, they're okay, sort of beach reading....doesn't require much brainwork at all.
Ooh, Mills and Boon novels in any form are also eeevil!!!

yeah, I don't think they're even real books...put it like this, if i was snowed in and running out of fuel I'd be loathe to burn books, but Mills and Boon would be on that fire...except I don't have any so this is actually a moot point....

I don't mind Harry Potter, though the character of Harry is kind of annoying, I like Hermione and Ron more, but it's pretty easygoing reading. I haven't seen JK Rowling in interviews, so I can't comment on that, but she's one of the richest women in Britain now so i'll admit I've envious of her millions!

She's just evil. Eeeeeevil! Take my word for it.

i used to like the Harry Potter books until they made the films. I hate the way they have portrayed the characters. Harry is too posh and Hermione just makes me cringe.

I'm still going to read the 7th book though to see what happens!

Yeah I'll be reading it too, but I couldn't be bothered buying it and once it comes out I've a feeling it'll be hard to stay away from spoilers as to the end....I'll still read it though, once I've started a series of books I'll always want to know how they end up.

I reckon I'll read the 7th, although I don't really care what happens now! I can't actually remember a lot of the last book, apart from the lake full of zombies...can't wait to see how they get away with that one in the film version...

I've only seen the first three films, the first two were positively awful, the third a bit better, I haven't bothered with the fourth at all...

I don't like the films at all

Can't wait for the book though, not actually sure what will happen! Would be quite good if he died though! (harry i mean)

Yeah I can't say I'd be sorry really...

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