For the record, Hunger Games is an okay book. I'm just saying that maybe your reading influence is weak if you're declaring that stories with dead parents contains 90% of what you know. And its not so much that stories with Dead Parents sell, as much as stories that sell tend to have Dead Parents.
When did I declare that 90% of what I read had dead parents? I just said it bothered me. Also, I haven't read much in a while actually which is actually somewhat embarrassing. Last book I read was The Martian which is a pretty big cop out answer. Notes From the Underground is one of my favorite books. Walt Whitman is also a guy who I enjoy a lot even though he only does poetry to my knowledge. Again, it's not like I'm some hipster garbage who thinks anything popular is bad. I just think every author should at least have some sort of...personality in their work, some sort of significance. I myself don't see a shred of personality in a guy who can't create anything original. There is originality and it stems from broad horizons. People can create unique things, not by inventing new, unheard ideas, but by adding personality to whatever they do.
Anyway, I've been focusing a lot more on writing and creating at this point, so reading (or even entertainment of any kind really) isn't even in my radar or peripheral.
Mainstream audience isn't idiotic. It's not even real. It's just usually the most marketable thing. I feel like that's because there's preconceived standards in society of what should be accessible. Like listening to drone or other underground shit immediately makes you think of some pretentious, hipster douchebag who can't listen to a normal thing. When it comes to creativity, that's the one thing I wish that everyone had a clean slate. Sure you'd get redundancies but no one would have any idea of what to make. No doubt, it would result in a torrential flow of absolute garbage, but you may find some new creative things as well.