I have come across two different blogging prompts/link ups this week that are asking the opposite questions to each other, so I thought I’d combine them into one post.
First up, Weekly Wednesday Blogging Challenge! is asking Favourite Book Genre and why and while I’m not sure I can articulate the why, I can definitely enthuse.
I do love me some horror. Nothing particularly gorey but something that can make me scared (in a safe way) and keep turning the pages. I discovered Stephen King when I was in my early teens – I actually remember the librarian ringing my mum to ask if I was allowed to check one of his books out. He still remains one of my favourite writers, especially his older stuff – Firestarter, ‘Salem’s Lot, Misery, Carrie. So much love. Notable shouts also to Anne Rice and Poppy Z Brite, also Dean R Koontz and Richard Laymon.
My other main love is chick-lit. As much as I love escapism, I also like stories about people like me where everything works out fine, real people with real lives that we can recognise with a fantastic cast of characters and a happily-ever-after. Cecilia Ahern, Jaimie Admans, Christie Barlow, Marian Keyes, Belinda Jones, Ali McNamara, Mandy Baggot are among my favourites.
I also really love urban fantasy – and this actually ties in a little bit with this week’s
Book Blogger Hop which is asking
What genre do you refuse to read and why and oh, unpopular opinion time so I’ll probably going into witsec after saying this but I Do Not Like Fantasy. Specifically, high fantasy. It just… I have no patience for world-building, they all feel exactly the same and they bore me. I’ve tried so many (Tolkien, Eddings, Pratchett, Le Guin, Brooks, Goodkind) and I just can’t get into them.
But urban fantasy? I love it. It’s our world but just that little bit different. I love magic and magical realism, I love vampires, I love were-creatures, I love – to quote a beloved tv show – ‘vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness’. I grew up on Buffy and Charmed, fell headlong into Harry Potter in my 20s. Give me Ben Aaronovitch, Kelley Armstrong, Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Cassandra Clare, Rick Riordan, Rachel Vincent…
I’m trying to expand my horizons a little and am giving some of the currently popular YA fantasy a go. I’m really enjoying Sarah J Maas’ A Court of Thorns and Roses and Holly Black’s The Cruel Prince. So possible I need to add ‘fae’ as a niche. I tried Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone but only got about 15 pages in before noping out, too fantasy for me.
Am open to more recommendations of this type of book
I struggle with comics/graphic novels/manga. Although as a child, I read a LOT of comics (Beano, The Real Ghostbusters, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and I had a definite manga phase in my early 20s (mostly yaoi). I’ve tried the Stargate, Sandman, Buffy etc graphic novels as well as trying to dip into Marvel but the style doesn’t work for me and I struggle to follow the story. The layout doesn’t make sense to my brain.
I don’t get on very well with a lot of humor – like I don’t get on with the style of Pratchett or Adams.
While I love chick-lit, I don’t like Mills & Boon/Harlequin style romances.
I can’t see me ever reading westerns.
So yes – loving horror, chick-lit and urban fantasy with science-fiction coming a close second. Also we need to give mystery, thriller and medical dramas a honourable mention. Ooh, and historical fiction, alternate history and steampunk
But not really into fantasy, harlequins or graphic novels.
Do you now see why my answer to “What type of book do you like” is ones with words in them? LOL
