Difficult to understand

I have a difficult to understand father. He never appreciates what I do. For example, I love reading, and he never acknowledges how good and healthy it is for my brain and personal/intellectual growth. He knows it is healthy, but instead decides to focus on the most trivial defects or quirks I have, and makes them look as if they were crimes.
I never cared about fashion, and I always get shooking heads from him when J dress in a peculiar way. To be honest, I just want to dress to cover myself up, and go back to thinking about other matters. And he makes me feel as if I am doing something wrong, or as if I was disappointing.
Despite my excellent grades (for which he never reacts positively in the least degree), he continues to call my love for learning an addiction.
He used to make reading seem very profitable, and a necessary action, but now he always implies it is useless, and that he already knows more than what professionals or other thinkers have to say.
I have noticed he is a contrarian. He loves Golden Corral, and I used to hate it with a passion. The moment I started liking it and actually loving it, the moment he started taking us to the place less and less until he eventually stopped.
It is just beyond imagination!
He reads one thing and believes it, and next time reads something else contrary to what he read before and believes it, rejecting his previous belief. For example: he reads a book which says money and material possessions shouldn't matter in marriages and love, but when he finishes the book, he rejects that notion and believes the contrary, specially after I open up about my agreeing with the irrelevance of such things to love.
He recommends me authors, and insists heavily that they are good, and the moment I start reading them and acknowledging what he said is true, he starts criticizing them and pointing out their character flaws and focusing on the things he doesn't agree with them. It happened with Carl Sagan. He recommends me his books when I was into UFOs, and quite young and dumb. I read Carl's books later, starting with Cosmos, and it saves me from the pseudoscience of UFOlogy. When I showed my enthusiasm for Sagan, my dad starts constantly pointing out he was a marijuana smoker, and saying that astronomy is useless.
I honestly don't get it. He has recommended me good stuff, and the moment I like it he dismisses it, and if I never actually like it keeps dismissing why I like. I never do as he says when I see what he recommends is not to my taste, but man, it is getting quite old already...
Today, he was criticizing how society always changes the names we use to refer to people with disabilities. He mocks the fact that the blind aren't called blind anymore, that now they are called something less offensive, or that people who we referred to as mentally retarded are now called people with intellectual disability. I don't agree with his position at all. Words can be offensive and hurt others, whether you want to or not. I, however, agree to a certain extent, and pointed out to him how in our country we have since recently let very trivial things offend us. His response was: "let those who have nothing else to do think and talk about such things". After that I thought: "umm.. Hello...?!!!!!".
Now you see what I mean by contrarian? He is not just contrarian, he is too practial to the point of being incurious, even though he has plenty of time for being curious. Incidentally, he mentions all his practicallity bable when I start talking about subjects that interest me like astronomy. After I finish talking, he sometimes responds "and how does that help one in daily life?".
I just resolved to the tactic of not talking to him about what I like or am interested in, because he doesn't care, and will never stop saying such hurtful things.

Sounds like your father definitely has a problem. I think by changing your tactic in the way you talk to him and subject matter, may help with the issue. But if you are in a room with other people and he starts this it would probably be best just to ignore him. You can't change him. He probably would benefit from counseling but would never agree to it. Good Luck

I would do for my father what I would like him to do for me, appreciate him. It sounds like you understand the way he is; I would tell him when he recommends something you enjoy, "thank you" and just think when he is contrary, "that's the way he is".

Some people get anxious when they feel others are too close to them, have to go opposite to "get away". If you just thank him when he suggests something that turns out to be something you enjoy and listen but do not comment on what he suggests or seems to like at the moment and do your own thing, he might not be so contrary. Do not tell him too much that you "like" something, just thank him for telling you about something and then you like it or not on your own. Be attentive to him but not the "same" as him.

If you liked Golden Corral but did not tell him, just were thankful for being taken out to dinner (no matter where) and being with him, he might not have to change to something where you were like him; he may not feel he is a good enough father or good enough person for you to like what he likes so when you agree too much with him, he gets afraid and goes somewhere else?