I sometimes feel that I am alone here in not being into Sci-Fi or Fantasy like the rabid fangeeks out here.
Am I stating the obvious or making a bold generalization?
Probably a little bit of both.
Monstre <— reads Sci Fi / Fantasy, among other things, but at least has never dressed up as a Klingon… 
define computer geek…
I’m at the computer enough to be considered one, I’m sure. I can’t read much scifi without getting bored, but find some fantasy tolerable, although I have not finished any fantasy novels. I’m not an avid reader, which is something I need to work on. :smack:
Not all computer geeks are the same. There are Game Geeks that will know how to squeeze every iota of performance out of a computer, overclocking, RAM timings, etc. etc. There are Network Geeks who converse mostly in numbers and backslashes that I could never, for the life of me, understand. Then there are Gadget Geeks that will obsessively find out every detail and iota of information about digital cameras and Mp3 players, but lord help them if they ever get a computer virus.
Then each genre of Geek has its own subcategories. Couple this with the fact that there are subcategories to science fiction… “hard” sci-fi (I imagine it’s named such because it gives its readers hard-ons from being so much better and smarter than the other subcategories), space opera, space fantasy, L. Ron Hubbard’s books (also known as “shit”, “drivel”, “stupidly stupid”, etc.).
I think it’s the other way around. People who like to read SciFi or science-related stuff in general are probably more computer literate.
Geekitude is relative.
All the hardcore computer geeks I know are really into Star Trek or Buffy or Star Wars or Discworld. The even harder core ones want to be able to have neural plugs connected to their computer. Literally.
I would class myself as only a mild computer user, really. I do it a lot, but the real techy stuff doesn’t interest me much. But I am an avid Fantasy fan.
Sci-fi in all its forms (but not fantasy, I hate fantasy) is my favorite genre of fiction but I couldn’t tell you a thing about my computer except what color it is, where I bought it, and that it has 512 megs of RAM.
There might be a correlation to it but the inverse doesn’t hold true for me.
Hmmm… I seem to remember you reading Harry Potter. Methinks that counts as Fantasy!
I dunno Vaioman. I absolutely love to read, it is one of my biggest pleasures. But I’m not convinced that you must work on becoming an avid reader. I think you should do the things you enjoy.
As to the OP. I am a geek and I love to read Fantasy. I have read fantasy for far longer than I’ve been a computer geek. I also love a good mystery. And often read philosophy books. And occasionally will try to wrap my mind around some science theory. Even the occasional “warm and fuzzy” like All Creatures Great and Small.
I suppose there may be a correlation, but one guy who works for me loves to read mysteries and another doesn’t read at all. Out of a team of 5, 2 read fantasy, one reads mysteries, one watches movies and one doesn’t do either.
I believe Sci-fi readers and computer literacy have no correlation what so ever.
I work on a server and database team. There are seven of us, and only two read on a regular basis, both of the readers read some SF, as well as other fiction and non fiction.
It’s purely anecdotal, but from my experiences as a “computer geek” I can come quite easily to the conclusion that what kind of hobbies a person has has no relation on their desire to work in this field, or their competence.
From past years at Reader Con and BosKone I’d say that there was a slightly higher percentage of “computer geeks” there, than there is in the population at large, but only slightly.
From The Jargon File, describing the reading habits of hackers (in the sense of “computer geeks”, not “computer criminals”):
Reading Habits
Omnivorous, but usually includes lots of science and science fiction. The typical hacker household might subscribe to Analog, Scientific American, Whole-Earth Review, and Smithsonian (most hackers ignore Wired and other self-consciously ‘cyberpunk’ magazines, considering them wannabee fodder). Hackers often have a reading range that astonishes liberal arts people but tend not to talk about it as much. Many hackers spend as much of their spare time reading as the average American burns up watching TV, and often keep shelves and shelves of well-thumbed books in their homes.
On my team of 10 computer geekies, 3 read ravenously, and 2 of those (me and another) read fantasy/sci-fi.
Now, now, that’s not nice. All us fen are supposed to get along in front of the 'danes, remember? 
Regarding the OP, I think that there are a number of people who get into computers as a way trying to live out fantasies of being in a more SF environment, so I see the link as being more the reverse of what you’d suggested.
“Hard” science fiction is so named because it focuses on the “hard” sciences, such as chemistry, physics, and so on. For example, Dr. Robert L. Forward wrote several hard science fiction novels, all of them (AFAIK) having very solid grounding in hard science(s). He wasn’t great at characterization, but he could really make a believable world from very extreme conditions. During Heinlein’s early years, almost all of his SF was hard SF.
There’s also the soft or fuzzy sciences, such as psychology, economics, etc. which some SF writers use.
I could go on and on and on, but that’s probably quite enough for most people.