I so agree with you about different books for different readers, and definitely Mitchell is a specific taste. I'm one of those who likes him very much, starting with Ghostwritten. I like his view of the world and I find his characters intriguing, and love the ways his books fit together. I rarely write fan-fic, but did do a Yuletide on one section of Cloud Atlas.

I definitely liked the book better than the movie, which made some strange changes. I could understand why those worked in a movie, but they were strange.