Following Erin’s lead, here are my confessions:
Things I shouldn’t admit I don’t like, but I don’t:
- Classical and orchestral music – with very few (and very pedestrian) exceptions, I find it unappealing. Not offensive, just not interesting. I know I’m a philistine in that respect, and I’m actually pretty OK with it.
- Onions. And peppers. And mushrooms. And olives. And, often, tomatoes. – I was a very unsuccessful and unhappy vegetarian. I end up unhappy in a lot of food-sharing situations, with such a long list of foods I don’t like.
- Zombies. – Sorry, folks. I just… the gross factor, combined with the brutality factor, is a bit too much. I understand the appeal and all, but it’s not my thing. I’ve been semi-faking liking zombies for a while, but here I am, finally admitting that I don’t like them, as a story element, at all; what I like is post-apocalyptic/dystopian future stories.
Things I don’t like as much as I feel like I should:
- Nonfiction books. – I can get into a well-written biography or history (by “well-written,” here, I mean “it could pass for fiction”), or anything with enough narrative element to it to feel like “fun” reading. But most non-fiction is kind of a slog for me. I rebel against book club when we have nonfiction to read. I do read books about design and techy stuff for work, but I always put it off.
- Wireless standards and gadgets – Sure, for a librarian, I do fine. But for a former wireless engineer with techie friends, it’s embarrassing not to have all of these details at hand, anymore. I just can’t make myself stay up on it.
- Boardgames and card games. – I’m simultaneously too competitive and not competitive enough. I find most boardgames and card games more stressful than fun. I’ll play the hell out of Apples to Apples, Zendo, and Mafia/Werewolf, though! (Those last two aren’t actually boardgames or really card games, either…)
- Babies. – I mean, I’m delighted for people who want them and then have them. Life is a miracle and all that. But, cute though they are (when they sleep), I find the prospect of being left alone with one, for long enough for it to wake up, really scary. They cry. And drool. … Actually, drool is the most pleasant of their outputs. And I’m always afraid I’m going to break them, when they’re given to me to hold. Baby pictures: great. Actual babies: scary.
Things I love, but should never admit to loving:
- Stupid vampire and werewolf books. (I don’t mean Twilight, though I did read those, and I did find elements in them that I enjoyed—mostly the inter-vampire politicking and the big vampire throwdown at the end. Also, the chess game. But since I loathed the ingenue, the weird morality, and the offensively wrong definition of “romance” in those books, it goes in the “dislike” pile. Anyway…) – “Urban fantasy,” is it called? I think I’ve read all of Anita Blake, most of Sookie Stackhouse, all of Kitty Norville (probably the best heroine of the bunch, but only because the Blake books got so weird), and both of the supernatural steampunk series I know of. I also like the Buffy comic books. It’s all fluff (some of it weird fluff), but it’s fluff I enjoy, for some reason.
- Astrology. I think astrology is fun and harmless, like fortune cookies, which I also enjoy. I don’t encourage making life decisions based on it, nor do I follow it closely at all, but still I get vaguely irritated when people wax miltant about their dislike of astrology and everyone who pays it any attention whatsoever. (So-called “skeptics,” in general, could probably go in my “dislike” pile, because so many of them are so very evangelical about their views. They call everyone else stupid, which annoys me.)
- Tabletop roleplaying games. – Around most of my friends, this is not an embarrassing thing to like. Around a lot of my professional colleagues, it is. But I am playing in a really excellent superhero-themed GURPS game, right now (we’re doing GURPS-lite, not being all crazy into the rules), plus two not-entirely-regular Dungeons & Dragons games, plus, apparently, Rifts(?). And I think they’re all great.
- Bad pop music. – I mean a wide range of genres, here, probably. I like music with a pretty high BPM, and I am not really put off by crappy lyrics (unless they’re horribly sexist) or overblown emotional content in a song. I’m not giving it its own bullet point, but I also like operatic heavy metal with female vocalists. Turns out, that describes more than one artist! (Pandora, by the way, goes into my “I love it, and I’m happy to tell you about it” post, if I ever make one. :))
- Brightly colored things that normal people probably write off as tacky. Parrot earrings? Love ’em! Crazy-colored houses? The best! (Dale and I have a deal, based around my tenure and our house color. :))
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