hosted by Booking Through Thursday
This week, Amy and Sarah both asked about genres:
Amy asks: Name a book you love in a genre you normally don’t care for. What made you decide to read it? Did it make you want to try more in that genre?
Bookish Sarah asks: What genre do you avoid reading and why?
I suppose Presumed Innocent by Scott Turow is a good example of a book I liked in a genre I avoid. It was a crime fiction. I enjoyed it because it was descriptive and well written. But looking back, I’ve read a few crime fiction novels that I’ve truly enjoyed, such as pretty much everything by Richard North Patterson, but my favorite was Silent Witness.
I read Presumed Innocent for the Eclectic Reader Challenge hosted by Book’d Out and I needed to read a book in the mystery/crime genre. I took some great advice from a friend and picked that one. Back before I got tired of crime fiction, I read Richard North Patterson because the synopsis on the back of all of his books wowed me and the content of his books did the same.
As for the genres I avoid, I’m tempted to say mystery and romance, but I don’t think that is necessarily true. These genres are really wide and there are books within the genre that I won’t hesitate to read, while there are books that I would definitely avoid. I don’t want mysteries that remind me of Clue or romances with predictable plots or embarrassing covers. So, there are certain kinds of books within the genre that I avoid, but I won’t avoid the entire genre.
There is a genre that I do avoid like the plague and that is Christian fiction. I would include inspirational fiction, but I suppose I’d be willing to make exceptions for a spectacular book. I would not do that for Christian fiction. I won’t bash the genre because it does have a lot of things going for it and the covers of the books are pretty awesome (I frequently shelve these books at work). I’m just not into the genre at all. I think the main reason is that I’m not Christian and if I’m looking for Christian or religious literature, it’s from a scholarly point of view and I’ll pick up some nonfiction for that.