Quote:
Originally Posted by Sirtel
That's why I read fiction; to get away from the world I live in. So, for me, almost any novel taking place during the 20th or 21st century is automatically out. Fantasy, SF, history, alternate history etc. are fine. I also read non-fictional books about different things. But as to fiction, contemporary novels are no-no for me.
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For me, the background of a story is important. It defines the way characters react to each other and how they react to their environment. That's why I generally don't like contemporary novels: I find our current time and age boring, probably because I live in it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by barryem
I've never cared a lot about genre. I grew up before genre was a real part of publishing and writing. I spent a lot of time in book stores and libraries from the 1950's on and it wasn't till sometime in the 70s or maybe 80s, I don't remember exactly, that bookstores began to organize themselves into genres. Prior to that there was non-fiction, fiction and science fiction. Fiction included everything that wasn't science fiction, including fantasy. They were all arranged together alphabetically by author.
Some stores did have a separate section for westerns but even that was pretty unusual.
In those days novels were novels unless they were science fiction. That was considered disreputable and was usually in it's own section in the back of the store, often hidden behind a wall. I spent a lot of time there when I was young. People talked about me because I read SF. 
Barry |
I know where I'd be found in those bookstores: in that walled-off section!
About genre: I do have preferences (SF, History, Alternate History, Fantasy) and I do have general dislikes (Drama, Hard Horror [think Nightmare on Elmstreet kind of Horror], Romances) but I generally read all. But the genres that are in my dislike category need some elements of the like category. For instance, Pride and Prejudice. I love it, even though it ticks two boxes on the dislike category
