I did explain it! I read the first few that were reasonably gripping, but also, a fad at the time. My uncle, in his 80s, recommended it to me.

By the time the last few books came out, I simply wanted to see the ending, and I barely remembered much of the last book at all.

Also, the style seemed fresh for a couple of books but got very dull by the end. And the first few books were funny, and that vanished.

Finally, as the internet has taken over, we all seem to have less time to read books. I'm not going to waste my time on re-reading 3400+ pages of twaddle.

If I were going to re-read a series of books, it'd be The Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe: I cannot speak highly enough about them. One of my literary friends called Wolfe "SF's Proust", and New Sun is Wolfe's "À la recherche du temps perdu", except it's also a gripping adventure novel.

Dan Brown - wow, now there's a writer I actively detest. He has a way with English prose, and not a good one.

I literally couldn't get through more than one page of his writing. This article makes me laugh, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

I did read some Austen when I was about 9, and I think I enjoyed it, but trying to read her again as an adult failed for me. But I still thing she's a ground-breaking writer.

I'm going to steal "Reader's Block" from you, however!