Books - What are you reading?

Paul Auster's terrible. As is Zadie Smith. Auster in particular is one of those writers that I suspect people like for the wrong reasons. I am unlucky enough to have had to read almost his entire output at one point, for work. It gets much, much worse than NYT, believe me. I don't mind his non-fiction writing, though.

I suppose Roth would fall into your college-circle-jerk thing too; and Coetzee. It is pretty unforgivable.

I read Disgrace a long time ago and wasn't sure I remembered it well enough to include on my shortlist, but otherwise would have put it up. On the strength of Boyhood, I'm going to read more of Coetzee's stuff.

Thanks for the tip about Auster. Saved me more excruciating tedium. Assuming the rest of his output is as boring and averagely-written as NYT, what are the "wrong reasons" that get people to bother?

A lot of modern "literary fiction" comes across like an old boy's / girl's club. Most of the "establishment" can write well (or very well), but the themes they choose to deal with are only of interest to themselves and people with lives near-identical to their own. Our forum about fixed-gear bikes in London shows more interest in the real world than most of the last decade's novels.