Well, we’re all here because of one reason: We love fantasy, science fiction and other related topics. But that can’t be everything you like. Even the most dedicated SF/F reader can afford to have a few other kinds of books that she or he likes to read now and again, so what’s your poison?
Me? I’m nuts about narrative journalism. Mary Roach, Jon Ronson, Evan Wright, Louis Theroux, Sebastian Junger, John Krakauer, Richard Grant, Steve Volk…these are my kinds of authors. I just finished Volk’s excellent Fringe-Ology, an even-handed exploration of paranormal topics like UFOs and hauntings. Loved it. I’m on Mark Pilkington’s Mirage Men now, a book that proposes that the government stirs up UFO reports (I’m on a jag, I admit it.) as a cover for experimental military technology. I don’t always read “out there” stuff like that, but I’ll get interested in something and binge on it.
I also like mythology and folklore. You know in vampire or werewolf movies where the guy goes to the old occult bookstore to research the monster and learn how to kill it, and there’s always some old guy who comes out and hands the hero a dusty old book full of creepy medieval etchings? Yeah, I have a fantasy about being that guy one day. I’ll leave the monster slaying to you. I’ll just supply the necessary research materials.
I read crime fiction sometimes, too. I’m a big fan of Elmore Leonard, Martin Cruz Smith and Jonathan Kellerman, among others. Usually the creepier, more sordid end of the spectrum is what appeals to me. Tales about gangbangers, crooked cops and serial killers are what I like.
So what about you? Let’s get off-topic for a minute. Tell me what else you like to read.
I love mystery & psychological thrillers, too. I’m a big Sherlock Holmes fan and really enjoy the Mary Russel series (she’s Holmes’s wife!) by Laurie R. King. And, being an ex-English teacher, I still pick up the occasional classic.
Reading something other than fantasy/sci-fi/horror is, to me, like a eating a sorbet with a fine meal: cleanses the pallet for the next offering!
Battle driven historical novels, the original Gothic novels, medieval literature & romances, history books, classic old newspaper comic strips like X-9: Secret Agent Corrigan, books about comics and their creators, modern science, Mark Twain and select pop culture novels.
Growing up I mostly read science fiction. Starting in my twenties I began branching out. Mainly classics, literary, biography, science, history and other nonfiction. Now at 60, I still think of myself as a science fiction fan, but of the books I read now, only one book in ten is SF.
For some strange reason, I’m very fond of books written in or about the 19th century. I’m currently reading Eden’s Outcasts, a biography of Bronson Alcott and his more famous daughter, Louisa May Alcott. Growing up I was all about the future, now I’m all about the past.
I try to read as broadly as possible, so I allow myself to pursue whatever interest I develop from reading articles and so on. This has recently meant a lot of economic and historical texts; currently I’m working on a 700-page tome detailing the entire history of the continent Africa. After that it’s onto Debt by David Graeber, which, you may have guessed, is about debt.
My true weakness, that I indulge in occasionally, is 19th century continental literature: Stendhal, Tolstoy, Turgenev, Lermontov, Flaubert, and branching into the 20th century with Yourcenar. So beautiful. So devastating. It’s possible I try to make my SF like 19th century continental lit…
Huge fan of history and historical fiction (Michael Shaara, David McCullough, Steven Ambrose, Gore Vidal), thoughtful thriller/mystery type stuff, like anything from Carl Hiassen or old Robert Ludlum. Don’t mind sinking my teeth into Steinbeck, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway as well.
Haha, I like alternating my fantasy or SF books with…
- Chicklit (especially Marian Keyes, it’s just another universe)
- Thrillers (John Grisham, Robert Ludlum, etc.)