Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Are You a Genre Snob?

This week's Tuesday Thingers question is:

Do you have a specialized blog where you only review a certain genre or type of book? If so, what is your favorite thing about that type of book? If not, what is/are your favorite genre(s)? What makes that genre(s) a favorite?

I do not limit this blog to a specific genre; however, I did a quick review of all the books I've reviewed on here in the past year and here's how they stack up (In order of prevalence):
  • Young Adult Fiction, All Genres (21)
  • Literary Fiction (13)
  • Genre Fiction (Science Fiction) (2)
  • Non-fiction, Literary Criticism/Critique/Theory (2)
  • Genre Fiction (Chick Lit), Christian (1)
  • Non-fiction, Memoir (1)
So, it would seem that YA Fiction gets the most play on this blog, which makes sense because I can rip through those books generally in 1-2 days. Literary fiction is my true passion and they take longer to linger over, so you can see how the number of days/hours/minutes spent reading literary fiction is probably higher than any other category. Also, a cursory (and completely unscientific) look at the reviews shows that I rate the Literary Fiction books highest.

There you have it. I'm somewhat of a genre snob. I definitely eschew too much science fiction, hardly any true romance or mystery (in terms of that being the genre... I don't mind a little mystery or romance in my reading, but not as the driving force of a plot). Actually, I found in my book club last night that I'm drawn to those books that don't seem to have a "plot," I love character-driven novels. Let somebody wax eloquent for 182 pages about why they think the way they do, and I'm in heaven.

3 comments:

caite said...

I must say that I need a good plot and really do not like a lot of so-called literary fiction that is virtually plot less. I am all for great characters, but they have to be doing something, there has to be some conflict, some growth. IMHO

Yvonne said...

I don't read much YA at all. My favorite genres are mystery, suspense, and romance but I'll try anything if it looks like a good story.

Wendi said...

What a great way to respond - I didn't think of tallying my reviews!

Thanks for stopping by and participating in Thingers last week! I've got the post up for this week. ~ Wendi