Weird genre obsession

[Roos]

Originally Posted by Ricky D'Angelo

Judging by the cryptic post most likely the suspense/mystery genre.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by crich70

I rarely pay more than that myself. The main exception being book bundles that catch my eye here at Mobileread on occasion. I mean where there are say 8-9 books in a given genre or topic (if non fiction) for $15.00 or something. Or sometimes the Phoenix Pick monthly deals.

Multiple books is a different story. I'd have to work out the price average of the number of books I was actually interested in.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by barryem

If I decide I really want to read a book I'll pay whatever I have to. But since most of my books cost a dollar or two I can afford to splurge now and then. And reading is the most important thing to splurge on.

Barry

Stubborness can pay off. I really wanted The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison but it was going for a silly price. So I put it on my Ereaderiq list and waited. Ignored price drops to levels that were still too high. I paid 1.99 in the end and it was a great read!

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by crich70

You have me curious. What genre is it?

Yes, I'm curious too. I fall into Fantasy a lot myself but sometimes just have to read other things.

[Ricky D'Angelo]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

Yes, I'm curious too. I fall into Fantasy a lot myself but sometimes just have to read other things.

Curiosity got the best of me also so after looking for clues in the cryptic post and doing some investigative keyboard work. . .

Originally Posted by Amiieey

Looking to find some good true crime books. I'm not a big fan of books that like to play things up with the fear factor, but more of a fan of facts and stuff like that. So books like Killer Clown by Terry Sullivan, etc. I'm just a forensics student who'd love to get more of an insight on the investigation and motivation part of true crime.

Although having never read the detective genre before I think I'll give it a chance after going through this process.

[DMB]

Originally Posted by KevinBurke

Not, really , the only series , I finished , were the three freakonomics themed books.

I read alot of math books, currently, if that counts.

Seriously, I avoid fiction, not because I have aspergers, but because it is the easiest kind of book to read, generally, so it tends to ingrain lower level reading bad habits and I don't gain as much knowledge and understanding.

I only read non-fiction and if I want to be entertained I will go to a Broadway play or watch a movie.

Most of my reading history belongs to before ebooks, but it had a lot to do with age, experience and money.

I began mostly with libraries, and I did a certain amount of binge-reading then. I remember that when I was 15 I read my way through the complete works (a hell of a lot) of George Bernard Shaw. I also read round books that were set at school. For example, we were set one book from Spenser's Faerie Queen, so I read the rest, We were set the Prologue from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, so I read the rest, and so on. My Oxford college had a marvellous library that contained a lot of out-of-print 18th-century books, and so I read my way through them (nothing to do with my subject, which was maths).

I started buying books seriously when I was 16 and a very hard-up student. So I haunted second-hand bookshops, where one could pick up lots of Victorian books for next to nothing. I also bought paperbacks, mainly classics that I thought ought to form part of my general education. I didn't but any genre books for many years. In my late 20s I started to buy non-fiction, mainly history (which I felt very ignorant about) and then lots of sciency books. I started to buy some literary fiction but OTW just wasn't attracted by most modern fiction.

I finally arrived at a point where I felt I had read most of the English-language classics. I got rather frustrated at not being able to read ancient Greek and Latin classics in the original languages but did read a lot in translation. I made an effort to read French classics in the original language, though my reading speed in French is quite a bit slower than in English.

Only in my 50s did I start reading some genre fiction. I have never given up on non-fiction, but have broadened my interests to include philosophy and politics.

I got rid of my dead-tree book collection (about 5000 volumes) once I got really committed to ebooks. I now alternate between what I think of as serious reading (mainly non-fiction) and entertainment, which includes some genre fiction (detective stories). So if I look back over the years, it is obvious that my reading habits and motivation have changed a great deal. I suggest that for most people this may be so and wherever you are now may not sum up where you will end up.

[QuantumIguana]

I think it's perfectly normal. When you find something you like, it's natural to want more like it. It's good to now and then read something from a different genre than you usually read, but that takes some effort. It's like restaurants - the default is to go with what you're used to, and there's nothing wrong with that. You know what you like. It takes some effort to try out a new type of food. You might like it, or you may not. If you like it, you have something to add to your list of restaurants you habitually visit. I went to a Chinese restaurant and ordered the bitter melon. It was bitter. I didn't care for it, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I have restaurants I've been going to for 20 years. I know that the food I get there will be good. I still like to try new restaurants from time to time, but I still keep coming back to my old favorites.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

I think it's perfectly normal. When you find something you like, it's natural to want more like it. It's good to now and then read something from a different genre than you usually read, but that takes some effort. It's like restaurants - the default is to go with what you're used to, and there's nothing wrong with that. You know what you like. It takes some effort to try out a new type of food. You might like it, or you may not. If you like it, you have something to add to your list of restaurants you habitually visit. I went to a Chinese restaurant and ordered the bitter melon. It was bitter. I didn't care for it, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I have restaurants I've been going to for 20 years. I know that the food I get there will be good. I still like to try new restaurants from time to time, but I still keep coming back to my old favorites.

And that's why the genre's exist in the first place. Just as some people prefer Italian or Thai food over French for example everyone has their own literary palate as well. And separating books into genre's makes it easier for people to find what they really want among all the other books out there.

[Roos]

Originally Posted by QuantumIguana

I think it's perfectly normal. When you find something you like, it's natural to want more like it. It's good to now and then read something from a different genre than you usually read, but that takes some effort. It's like restaurants - the default is to go with what you're used to, and there's nothing wrong with that. You know what you like. It takes some effort to try out a new type of food.

I have read tons of books in other genres, liked a whole lot of them, love SF, Detective, Thrillers and the occasional non fiction or historic novel.
It feels like the cycle is about to break, i think over the past 3 years i have read most of the best series in Military-SF, started today in some steam-punk, not a lot of risk i will get in the same cycle there, as the amount in this genre is not as chock full and ceiling high as the M-SF one.
I think i add in some detectives and fantasy to see where the role of the dice drops this time

[Roos]

Originally Posted by Roos

I think i add in some detectives and fantasy to see where the role of the dice drops this time

I have broken the cycle, Cat Detectives it is (for a while at least) ;-)

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by Ricky D'Angelo

Curiosity got the best of me also so after looking for clues in the cryptic post and doing some investigative keyboard work. . .



Although having never read the detective genre before I think I'll give it a chance after going through this process.

Great investigative work on your part! How appropriate...

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by Roos

I have read tons of books in other genres, liked a whole lot of them, love SF, Detective, Thrillers and the occasional non fiction or historic novel.
It feels like the cycle is about to break, i think over the past 3 years i have read most of the best series in Military-SF, started today in some steam-punk, not a lot of risk i will get in the same cycle there, as the amount in this genre is not as chock full and ceiling high as the M-SF one.
I think i add in some detectives and fantasy to see where the role of the dice drops this time

If you like Steampunk and investigative/detective stuff, have you read the George Mann series (Affinity Bridge, The Immortality Engine, The Osiris Ritual) or The Wake of the Dragon by Jaq D. Hawkins? Both of these have crime solving involved. If you find good cat detective stories, please let us know!

[Roos]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

If you like Steampunk and investigative/detective stuff, have you read the George Mann series (Affinity Bridge, The Immortality Engine, The Osiris Ritual) or The Wake of the Dragon by Jaq D. Hawkins? Both of these have crime solving involved. If you find good cat detective stories, please let us know!

I ordered both (first) books you mentioned by Kindle, still have some Cat detectives (first parts of series) to go trough, i dismissed Cat in an Alphabet Soup, by Carole Nelson Douglas. Not my style.
Just started The Cat, the Quilt and the Corpse (A Cats in Trouble Mystery, #1)
by Leann Sweeney, so far so good.
And finished Wish You Were Here (Mrs. Murphy #1) by Rita Mae Brown, that one i loved.
As this last one is a looong series, i am covered anyway for a while
Oh and some of the M-SF writers are awfully productive, 4 new parts of series i read in two days! I am spoiled for choice at the moment.

[ekbell]

Originally Posted by Roos

I ordered both (first) books you mentioned by Kindle, still have some Cat detectives (first parts of series) to go trough, i dismissed Cat in an Alphabet Soup, by Carole Nelson Douglas. Not my style.
Just started The Cat, the Quilt and the Corpse (A Cats in Trouble Mystery, #1)
by Leann Sweeney, so far so good.
And finished Wish You Were Here (Mrs. Murphy #1) by Rita Mae Brown, that one i loved.
As this last one is a looong series, i am covered anyway for a while
Oh and some of the M-SF writers are awfully productive, 4 new parts of series i read in two days! I am spoiled for choice at the moment.

Rita Mae Brown's books are fun.
Another fun cat mystery series is The Cat Who.... series by Lilian Jackson Braun.

(I also have a fair collection of cat oriented science fiction and fantasy anthologies as well)

[Ricky D'Angelo]

Originally Posted by ReadingManiac

Great investigative work on your part! How appropriate...

Thanks, in regard to my own reading preference I think I can subdivide a wide genre to smaller subcategories in the following order. . .
I. Science Fiction

A. Dystopian
___i. transrealism

(yes, I have been thinking about this). . Can anyone else subdivide their preferred reading genre?