My two cents as a reader...
I nearly gave up on The Hunger Games, half a page into the first book, because of the tense.
It took me two months to decide to give it another go, and that time I persisted long enough to more or less tune out the present tense. Also, it did get me more used to it, which is, I suppose, a good thing, as at one point it seemed every single YA dystopia was written in first person present tense.
So by now it's not a problem for me any more, but it does depend on the writer's skill - the narrator has to have a strong voice, and the author has to have a good hold on the narrative. Too many of the books I've read lately, using that tense + person combination, have come off... whiney, and affected, and breathless. That can be really irritating.
Still, it's better than third person present tense. Now
that is something I dislike. Fortunately I only see it in pretentious literary fiction and fanfic written by pretentious teen girls who think they are writing literary fiction and are
deep.
Seriously though, no offence meant to anyone who either enjoys reading or writes third person present tense. I'm sure that in good hands, it can be a strong tool to wield, and if the author feels a story demands a certain tense and person to come across exactly as intended, then that's what the story demands. I don't think I've ever read a third person present tense story I've enjoyed, but that's likely to do with me throwing a book down / backbuttoning out of a story in disgust as soon as I see the tense & person, so I wouldn't really know if any of them have actually been awesome.
Third person past tense is my favourite, although I don't mind first person past tense either.
My two cents as a never-been-published writer: I think doing some short stories in present tense, even if you prefer past tense (and vice versa!), is excellent practice. It's really quite interesting how much the tense can change the feel of the story, and it does teach you to pay attention to different things when writing.
And, of course, a writer should keep in mind that whatever tense & person combination he/she/xe/zhe chooses, there are going to be readers who will be put off by it. There are plenty of readers (especially in the YA target group) who've become avid readers on a steady diet of first person present tense, so being presented with third person past tense is something a lot of them don't like, or so I've gathered.