Do you have a favourite genre?

[desertgrandma]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

When the machines here misbehave, my SO says "You wait till Dennis gets home! He has a screwdriver!" and claims near 100% success in getting them to work as expected.

When they still don't work, well, I do have a screwdriver...
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Dennis

Mine just laughs at me and runs away........

[Falbe Publishing]

Thanks for the poll. They are always fun. I voted SF/Fantasy, but it would have been nice to include a "nonfiction" choice. I suppose that's not necessarily a genre, but it is a big category that many people read. I read as much nonfiction as novels, maybe more.

[Elsi]

Most definitely Science Fiction. I'm just now getting into Fantasy, so I've been catching up on some titles that many people read long ago. I have a large collection of older SF titles dating from the 1950s -- but most particularly from the 1970s. I find myself very surprised at how short the typical SF novel from that timeframe is.

If you were to look at my reading statistics from 2008 (to date ...) you'd think that my favorite genre were mysteries. I participate in an online book swapping group, and have been more active with swapping mysteries than SF/Fantasy.

Another genre that I am new to is that of historical fiction. I became interested in HF when I read Confessions of a Pagan Nun by Kate Horsley in 2005.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Elsi

Most definitely Science Fiction. I'm just now getting into Fantasy, so I've been catching up on some titles that many people read long ago. I have a large collection of older SF titles dating from the 1950s -- but most particularly from the 1970s. I find myself very surprised at how short the typical SF novel from that timeframe is.

Blame technical reasons for a good bit of that. Hardcover sales were mostly to libraries. The mass market paperback was the dominant form, and the PB publishers were engaged in a losing battle to keep prices under $1.

Length restrictions were a matter of "What could be fit in a given number of pages".

Another genre that I am new to is that of historical fiction. I became interested in HF when I read Confessions of a Pagan Nun by Kate Horsley in 2005.

One you might look at (if any are available) are works by Kenneth Roberts. Roberts did historical fiction set in the American Revolution period. One I was fascinated by (and hope to find and read at some point), is _Oliver Wiswell_, told from the viewpoint of a Tory. We forget that a lot of colonists were loyal subjects of the crown, and had mixed emotions at best over the effort to make the United States an independent country.

Back in 1976, a poster appeared on lampposts in Philadelphia. It was the run up to the bicentennial celebration. The poster said that 200 years was long enough to hold a grudge, and it was time for the colonies to resume their rightful status as subjects of Her Majesty, and part of the British Empire. Britain would get a massive economic shot in the arm, and the US would get the benefit of a thousand years of tradition and history.

I was tickled.
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Dennis

[Mom of 4]

O.K. I have to admit my favorite is romance. That's a great thing about e-readers, no one can see my covers! But, as with most of you, I'll read almost anything. This summer I read Steven King's "The Stand", Ken Follett's "Pillars of the Earth" and am just starting George R.R. Martin's "Game of Thrones". But always with one or two romance/paranormals thrown in between.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by lmarie

http://www.powells.com/psection/psection.html

This is the bookstore that I've spent most of my life lurking about in (btw highly recommended -- there are branches, but the mother store is in Portland, Oregon). "Crime" and "Mystery" are separate sections.

When I click on crime I get to "true crime" and other non-fiction sections. Are you sure that fiction books are under crime? As I understand it powell is kind of special. I usually visit a lot of book stores when I am in the US and all the shops I have been in have shelved fiction mystery/crime under mystery (in the UK they are shelved under crime). Only special mystery bookstores have sub sections but the sub sections are more specialized then the distinction you made between mystery and crime. They can be cosys, "food mysteries", and so on.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by tompe

When I click on crime I get to "true crime" and other non-fiction sections. Are you sure that fiction books are under crime? As I understand it powell is kind of special. I usually visit a lot of book stores when I am in the US and all the shops I have been in have shelved fiction mystery/crime under mystery (in the UK they are shelved under crime). Only special mystery bookstores have sub sections but the sub sections are more specialized then the distinction you made between mystery and crime. They can be cosys, "food mysteries", and so on.

I concur. "Crime" over here, is generally "True Crime", and is non-fiction. Crime fiction is under Mysteries.

And I can't agree with lmarie's classifying "police procedurals" under Crime, unless they are specifically non-fiction accounts. Police procedurals are one of the sub-categories of the Mystery genre.
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Dennis

[arvsinha]

Shit. Rudely made aware that I was in one of the most exclusive clubs. I like thrillers.
I thought there would be more who would like that stuff - I was mistaken.
Though I have recently started reading Fantasy and Science Fiction and am quite liking it - Still the preference remains for Thrillers.
Its a lonely world

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by arvsinha

Shit. Rudely made aware that I was in one of the most exclusive clubs. I like thrillers.
I thought there would be more who would like that stuff - I was mistaken.
Though I have recently started reading Fantasy and Science Fiction and am quite liking it - Still the preference remains for Thrillers.
Its a lonely world

I'm another thriller fan, so don't feel too left out.

(And some of the techno-thrillers verge perilously close to SF territory.)
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Dennis

[lmarie]

To clarify: for many people here, "crime" has the connotation of "true crime", as in the Dewey Decimal classification of 364 (Crime). That is also the way Powell's classifies it. Public library spine labels for fiction genres here use the word "Mystery", not "Crime".

A classic "whodunit" is less about "crime" than about puzzle. Perhaps that is why we disagree. I never tell people I read "crime" -- I read mysteries!

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by lmarie

To clarify: for many people here, "crime" has the connotation of "true crime", as in the Dewey Decimal classification of 364 (Crime). That is also the way Powell's classifies it. Public library spine labels for fiction genres here use the word "Mystery", not "Crime".

A classic "whodunit" is less about "crime" than about puzzle. Perhaps that is why we disagree. I never tell people I read "crime" -- I read mysteries!

Which is what I tell folks as well, and why "Crime" is misleading in the poll, because I think most people assume the poll refers to fiction, and not "true crime".

Note that mysteries may extend far beyond "whodunit". In one of the later Nicholas Freeling "Henri Castang" mysteries, for instance, who did it was established from the onset (though the waters were muddied by disbelief that the murderer could have done it ). The book was a meditation on motive, as Castang pieced together not only why the murderer committed the crime, but also why he freely confessed to it, when he had an excellent chance of escaping penalty simply because of who he was.
______
Dennis

[Joerg_Mosthaf]

Well, I voted SF/Fantasy, but it's more like 80% SF and 10% Paranormal and 10% Fantasy.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by lmarie

To clarify: for many people here, "crime" has the connotation of "true crime", as in the Dewey Decimal classification of 364 (Crime). That is also the way Powell's classifies it. Public library spine labels for fiction genres here use the word "Mystery", not "Crime".

A classic "whodunit" is less about "crime" than about puzzle. Perhaps that is why we disagree. I never tell people I read "crime" -- I read mysteries!

My point was that it depends on in which country you live. In an UK bookshop the categories are "Crime" and "True Crime". So I assumed that the person doing the poll had used the UK terms.

Of course it is better to write Crime/Mystery instead in a poll.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Until this thread, I hadn't realised that what we in the UK would classify under Crime in the fiction section of a bookshop would be classified as Mystery in the US