Showing posts with label genres. Show all posts
Showing posts with label genres. Show all posts

April 26, 2013

Picking Your Next Read: Creature Comforts VS. Branching Out


Fact: I don't like coffee. I just like saying Coffee Clutch in my best and deepest New York accent. Considering I'm a New Yorker, I'm pretty freaking good at it. So I've got my tea and I hope you have your heated beverage of choice, because it's time to gab the day away.


Sometimes I feel like the order in which I'll read the next couple of books on my TBR are similar to my eating habits.

Me too, JLaw, me too.
I bet you're wondering: Huh?

Well, there are people (mostly kids, but also some grown ups), who can eat THE SAME THING every meal, every day. When my brother was younger, he couldn't get enough hotdogs.When I was a kid I consumed so much mac and cheese I can't even tell you (this is still true today, but I try to moderate. With breakfast foods and sushi. CALL ME. LET'S GET DINNER). 

Patrick picks hamburgers.
Then there are people who CANNOT eat the same thing twice in one week. They just get sick of it. It's either TOO MUCH pasta or TOO MUCH chicken or TOO MUCH whatever else. Someone once told me we couldn't get pizza because they'd had that for dinner the night before. I was like... SO?


I feel like these tendencies are similar how people choose their next read.

Some people who like to read contemporary novel after contemporary novel. And then there are others who eat up every paranormal book they can find. They like a genre and they STICK WITH IT. Every now and again they'll read something else, but they're comfortable consuming the same genre of book over and over again and never get sick of it.


But then there are people who CANNOT read the same genre over and over. They'll read a contemporary, then a fantasy, followed by a paranormal, a dystopian, maybe some sci-fi or a historical and then maybe come back around for some more contemporary (not to say people have a schedule like that, but you get the gist). Whether it's a boredom thing or other, they just can't read the same genre two books in a row.


Where do I fall?

I have a tendency to mix it up A LITTLE. Basically what happens is I'll read something that needs SERIOUS world building (dystopian, fantasy, paranormal...) and then need to go back to something a little less magical (contemporary, historical...). Y'know, to help my brain distinguish between worlds and stories or whatever with a dose of reality. But there are no hard-fast rules. If something interesting pops up, I'll skip whatever else is in my immediate TBR pile and read that, regardless of what genre my last read was. Or if I suddenly decide I want to read these three awesome looking (non-series) retellings in a row, I'll do it. So basically what I'm saying is:


I WILL say that I can't bringe read too many series in a row. It's like, y'know how some people can go out and drink Thursday, Friday and Saturday night? Yeah, I can't. Feels are akin to alcohol and I don't do hangovers for either.

TALK TO ME, MY PRETTY READERS! Do you stick with your creature comforts, do you branch out or do you do a mix of both like I do? Let me know all about your food/book picking habits in the comments below!

February 22, 2013

Genres - They Shall Be My Undoing

Fact: I don't like coffee. I just like saying Coffee Clutch in my best and deepest New York accent. Considering I'm a New Yorker, I'm pretty freaking good at it. So I've got my tea and I hope you have your heated beverage of choice, because it's time to gab the day away.

Recently I decided to organize my life on Goodreads (feel free to go friend me and whatnot). Honestly, I blame Cassie. She posted about TBR piles and I suddenly decided life would be be SO MUCH EASIER to pick my next book if I had lists. Lists of genres that is. Y'know, that way I can decide what I'm in the mood for and then find the right book to read without scrolling through an unspecific list.

David Tennant approves of my brilliant idea.

However, this whole shelving by genre thing failed on epic proportions. There are just SO MANY SUB- GENRES these days: high fantasy, urban fantasy, paranormal, supernatural, contemporary, steampunk, dystopia, thriller, horror, romance, sci-fi, historical, mythology, fairytale retellings... Not to mention things like romance, horror, thriller, mystery and other classic genres can be folded into other genres like dystopian, steampunk, mythology, fantasy, etc.

Dean Winchester is overwhelmed. You should be too.

But I think the worst thing about these genres is that no one tells you what's what anymore. I mean, when I was little, everything was explained in simple terms. There was the make believe stuff, the scary stuff, the real stuff, the old stuff and a couple other bits and bobs. Now, as an older person, I feel like I don't know who to turn to in order to suss out what's what in the genre world anymore. I'd have to read the book first before I could tell you what genre it falls under, and that kind of defeats the purpose of the lists I'm making.

FRUSTRATION

Aside from my DEEP FRUSTRATION over how to categorize certain books (and how is there NO official list of book genres compiled by someone even reputable-looking), since books today can't just live in ONE genre anymore, I ALSO have to question the genres I've listed above. I mean, some of them really seem to overlap. Take, for example, Paranormal and Supernatural. I had a whole conversation with Daphne the other day about the difference between the two - because I really feel like there is one - and basically what I came up with is that they both revolve around characters/story lines that defy nature/science but Supernatural is supposedly miraculous whereas Paranormal is darker. So like, angels vs. vampires, really.

The Angel vs. Vampire paradox. 

And while it seems like there's really no distinction in what I just said, based on what I'm trying to do here, there REALLY IS. You see, in case it wasn't clear, I'm trying to separate the 959 books on my Goodreads shelves into specific genres I can refer to in order to find THE BOOK I'm in the mood for. And I guess I could make distinctions like ANGELS, MERMAIDS, WEREWOLVES, GHOSTS, ZOMBIES... but that's not the point is it? The point is to find that specific FEEL I'm interested in feeling in that moment. So is that all a genre is? A FEEL? As in, for as long as I FEEL a difference between paranormal and supernatural (which I do, I just couldn't really tell you about it. It's like when there's a word in another language that doesn't have a translation into English. Only that language is the language of feels), then there's a difference?

Aaand a Mean Girls gif. Of course.

Ugh. This whole post makes my head hurt. But I hope it makes some sense to all of you out there in the Great Wide Interwebz. And I hope that SOMEONE can please help me make a more definitive list of genres. Or just take my Goodreads shelves and organize all the books so that when I want to read a book that reminds of Doctor Who, I can easily find THAT and when I want to read a book that'll creep the pants off me, I can easily find THAT as well. And then when I need something a little more normal feeling to calm me the heck down, I'll have a whole list of suggestions for THAT too.

If Sherlock's asking for help, you know it's serious.  Or a ploy.

Okay. I'm turning this over to you guys. CAN YOU HELP ME? Or are you just as frustrated as I am? Let's talk about our issues. The comment box below is a SAFE SPACE, I promise.