View Single Post
Old 05-23-2013, 06:34 PM   #807
barryem
Wizard
barryem ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.barryem ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.barryem ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.barryem ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.barryem ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.barryem ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.barryem ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.barryem ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.barryem ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.barryem ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.barryem ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
barryem's Avatar
 
Posts: 2,459
Karma: 68781975
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: Arkansas
Device: Paperwhite 4
I think the only way they can be really accurate with genre is to have the writers follow the "genre rules" more closely, and I'd sure hate to see that happen.

I'm not much of a fan of genre, either the genres themselves or the concept of genre. I'm 72 and when I was younger, probably till about 1985 or so, bookstores had sections for fiction and non-fiction. The only thing in fiction that was segregated was science fiction; usually kept in an obscure part of the store so decent people didn't have to be exposed to it.

In the fiction section nearly all book stores shelved everything alphabetically by the author's last name. Mainstream (not a known concept then), mysteries, fantasy novels, romance, westerns, etc, were all mixed in the same shelves together. Well, there were a few stores that had shelves for westerns but most didn't.

Genre is a marketing thing. I really hate that readers have bought into it.

I read novels. I don't care for most romance novels although I have read a few to find out what was there. I'm not bothered by the kinds of stories they are but the gimmicky writing does bother me. I enjoy an occasional western and probably about 1/4 of the books I read are mysteries. I don't care for thrillers but I read a few.

I wish books could just be books again. I'm bothered by the idea that authors feel a need to fit their books into a predefined structure. Not all, of course, but many do.

Barry
barryem is offline   Reply With Quote