Why I read what I read...

Different people read different things for various reasons. Some people only read a certain genre, like crime or history, some people only read non-fiction or biography. I tend to read pretty much anything, although there are some writers, and some genres that I stay away from, generally because I don't like the subject matter or the writer leaves me cold. If it doesn't hold my interest I can't read it, so I don't.
Having said that, even within a genre I read a lot of (like fantasy or historical fiction) there are some authors and books I go out of my way to avoid. There are also some classic novels I can't stand even though other people adore them (Jane Austen, the Brontes, Dickens, Hardy).
So, it all boils down to personal preference. I love certain fantasy novels/writers (for example) because of their writing style, content, humour, and mostly their ability to draw me in and keep me reading, and if there's a series, to make me want to read more. I've read every Terry Pratchett Discworld novel, because even though they're not exactly sequential, they are so funny, and so clever that I can't wait to read another one. I had to ban myself from reading his books in public as they make me laugh so much, and there's very few writers who can do that to me. Yet some people have probably never read one of his books and have no inclination to.
For me it's Harry Potter, I find them boring, derivative and just frankly, weak. Nothing about them appeals. I did try, I read the first few, but when I realised I could read one of the really thick ones in an hour and a half, I decided not to bother anymore. When I'm really enjoying a book I linger over it, and try to resist finishing it too fast, as with the latest Tamora Pierce, I read it in more or less one sitting, but I tried to pace myself, to wring every tiny bit of good writing, of the fantasy world she created. Potter just doesn't hold me in it's spell in any way.
I know lots of other people adore Potter, but a lot of people would think the same of some of the books I hold dear, Potter's popularity is encouraged by a really good publicity machine, not all writers get that lucky, but perhaps they are the ones people treasure more, the writers and novels we think we have discovered for ourselves, and that only we love. That is one of the reasons I read, perhaps the most important reason, the books themselves and the place they can end up occupying in my heart.