Tuesday, July 13, 2010

What are your favorite genres?


Participating in a fun question posed by Lost in Books. What are your favorite genres to read? (Everyone has at least one favorite type of book that they gravitate towards, even if they read widely.)

1. Mysteries. I love them! I generally prefer cozy mysteries (ones without a whole lot of blood and guts), but have been known to read gritty ones.

2. Historical novels. I am embarrassed to say that I don't necessarily enjoy reading books written during the Victorian era, but I love to read books that are set in that time period. I don't limit myself to that time period though. Early 20th century, the regency period, and even the renaissance, middle ages, or ancient Greece/Roman times have all made appearances.

3. Fantasy. I don't really go for high fantasy so much, but I love magic and myths and that sort of thing. I should amend that statement, I'm picky about my high fantasy.

4. Memoirs. I love to read about people's lives and when they are written from a first person point of view they are even more fascinating.

9 comments:

Enbrethiliel said...

+JMJ+

I can relate to your thoughts on Fantasy. Ever since I discovered J.R.R. Tolkien, I've been extremely picky about my High Fantasy reads as well. I'll still happily read less ambitious Fantasy like The Spiderwick Chronicles, but anything bigger than that doesn't even get past the door anymore. Sometimes, that's kind of sad . . .

gautami tripathy said...

I like travelogues as well!

Read mine here!

Librarian Who said...

I also love travelogues! I did this post sort of slapdash near the end of my work day and didn't give my self an opportunity to fully think it through, but I do love travelogues. I harbor a great desire to travel the world,but finances prevent this. So I live vicariously.

Thanks for posting.

chadspurling said...

I like westerns and sci-fi and some fantasy my problem with most 'genre' books are that there so much alike. Just about every fantasy novel is a remake of Lord of the Rings and most westerns are the same basic story. I like to read 'different' stories that I've not read some version of 10 times before. I think that's what attracts me to so many foreign authors.

Enbrethiliel said...

+JMJ+

Genre fiction can start to feel the same after a while. They are called "comfort reads" by their fans, but then those who don't read them may just prefer more challenging reads. =)

Anonymous said...

Science fiction is definitely my favorite fiction genre, and I can break this down into sub-genres (military SF, space opera, hard-SF, etc). I get pretty picky about it at times (thought I do love brain-candy reads), and I really think that SF is the genre that still asks the really big questions. Love it.

History would be my next biggie, particularly ancient Roman and military history, but I range pretty widely in this genre.

Fantasy is not one of my regulars, and when I do get into it I usually like what I'm calling "hard-fantasy", where the creatures magic, etc are all present, but there is a gritty core of realism as well.

Becca said...

Great list. These are all genres I enjoy too. I like fantasy, but not high fantasy. I dabble mostly in YA fantasy. And I laughed when you explained cozy mysteries because I realized I never truly understood what the term meant. But now I know- not so many blood and guts!

Mrs. DeRaps said...

I love historical fiction and memoirs too! They didn't make my list, but if this were a top ten, they would surely be on there!

Bibliophile said...

I am also a mystery fan, with leaning towards cosies, although I also read forensic mysteries, detective fiction and noir.