Favorite kind of genre?

Whats your favorite genre(s) for a book and why? I like an action story with forshadowing because it keeps me interested.

 

Forshadowing? Forshadowing of what?

 

Fantasy novels are by far my favorite but I like them to build the world slowly through the characters. Some seem to dedicate chapters in between to explaining politics, geography, history, etc.

However, I love it when I suddenly realize that I understand the world because I've been experiencing it with the characters. One sentence or scene makes me go "Of course. Because of blah blah blah - wait, that statement makes perfect sense about this fantasy world." I enjoy losing myself that deeply in a book.

 

Forshadowing of a coming event.

 

Fantasy/mythology with a strong psychological bent is my favorite genre to write. As for reading, it's somewhat different because 1. lots of fantasy out there is kind of trite to me (vampires, orcs, elves, boy wizards, *yawn*) and 2. most fantasy nowadays is in series and it's impossible for me to find all the books at once. So although I write it a lot, I don't read much fantasy.

I still like to when it's good, though ("Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell"), and if I can find all the books at once. I'm just impatient that way. *hasn't read the Harry Potter books because they're not all out in paperback yet*

Mainly I prefer reading nonfiction books about the topics I'm interested in and write about myself. No one else writes fantasy fiction about these topics, as far as I know, so I do!

 

I have always been partial to historical fiction. I like the idea of adding a face to an event.

 

I enjoy reading contemporary fiction. The type of stories where 'real' people (that is, people of our age and time) are immersed in a world bigger than their own. It's a satisfying escape it is, because i want to see how a writer will convince me to believe that there is something out there (although it's a biased thought, as writers ourselves, we tend to be more critical).

I want to see characters deal with real-life problems and other-worldly problems and seeing those two worlds crash and collide and affect each other. It's a popular theme nowadays, that's why the danger of being cliche is always a challenge.

 

I mostly read books that are - historical fiction, crime/thriller, or books about present-day life (that don't have fantasy or romance in them.)

 

Thrillers in general, but generally ones with some historical conection.

 

I love all books. Started with the Hardy Boys, Tom Swift, and Nancy Drew(Say Sumthin). I also liked any other realistic mystry fiction at this time and read a lot of Agatha Christie novels.

From there I became a D&D nut and Loved Forgotten Realm Novels, Dragonlance Novels, and that kind of fantasy.

Now it seems Asimov, Card, and Sci-fi is calling my name I will thorw Stephen King in with this crowd cause a lot of his stories cross boundaries.

 

I definitely like horror the most. Also like science fiction but not as much as the horror genre.

 

Horror and anything strange, such as most novels by Dean Koontz. I also like scifi because it is strange.

 

Fantasy. I don't like reading about things that can happen normally; it's not exciting to me. I love the idea of completely creating a world, and knights, mages, and all that fantasy stuff just rocks. Sci-Fi sometimes confuses me, and I've yet to come across a non-emo/goth horror story that I enjoyed.

 

Come on. You have to let us pick more than one... unless you're excluding sub0genres, and allowing poor SF/F to be lumped together.

 

I like science fiction and fantasy, if it's something different.

I was at the gym reading something between sets and this young guy asks what it is. It was some SF book which had a light theme, then he says in a superior tone that he's been reading The Kite Runner. Then I told him that I don't read books like that because I'm a therapist and talk to people experiencing tragedy, rape, and all kind of stuff daily. I get it, I'm not some insulated middle class person.

I didn't say that last bit to him but I alluded to it. He was only in his 20s and since I'm in my early 40s, I decided not to lower the hammer on him. He understood me well though.

I like SF that has a comment about life, but while it's doing that I like it to take me away to a different place.

 

You can chose as many as you want to. Any genres as you like, lay them down.

 

Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Sci-fi in general, Fantasy in general, historical fiction...

 

The one genre that I really can't get into is sword and sorcery fantasy. It's kinda' strange because when I was young I liked playing Dungeons and Dragons. But I lost interest in that in my twenties and I've never been into the books. But I know some guys who don't read much else. For me the horror genre has always been where it's at. Guys like Stephen King, Dean Koontz, John Saul, Richard Matheson, Robert McCammon, Clive Barker, Dan Simmons, Ramsey Campbell, etc, etc, etc, are what I like to read. And naturally it's also what I want to write.