Crossing the Genres
Following on from yesterday's post about fiction vs. non-fiction I'd like to talk to you today about genres.
When I first graduated from purely children's books I was definatly a science-fiction gal. Most of the books I read were of this genre, with a few crossing over to fantasy. Then, I discovered the joys of humour, contemporary fiction, travel writing, autobiographies, Christian fiction..... etc, etc. No longer could I describe my book interests simply by saying "I like science-fiction books". The question, "what sort of books do you like?" became a lot more complicated!
Things got even worse when I discovered Jasper Fforde. Now those of you who know this man's works will know that they are hard to describe and even harder to fit into one genre (in-fact he recommends you don't even try). As he became one of my favourite authors I realised that more and more off the books I enjoyed were not easily squeezed into one genre. Sure, Terry Pratchett is mainly fantasy, but his books are also social commentraries, humour and even, sometimes, science fiction, historical fiction or religious criticisms.
Ask me what my favourite genre is nowadays and I'm more likely to tell you the genres I don't like (horror, chick-lit). Push me further and I'll probably list off my favourite authors (Jasper Fforde, Terry Pratchett, Christian Jacq, Ursula Le Guin). Insist I tell you and I'll resort to "science fiction and fantasy is my favourite, but I'll read most things).
How about you?
