# What genres do you not read? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 22, 2013, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079 "2013-02-22T14:26:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/21 "2013-02-22T18:56:16Z")
In a pinch, I’ll read damn near anything… 😃 But I generally avoid the following: - romance/chick-lit - I’ve never been a girly-girl, waiting to be swept off my feet by Mr. Right/Prince Charming (I just got lucky that way!) - paranormal romance - See above, except with vampires/werewolves/etc. _The Parasol Protectorate_ is an exception for me - the series started that way, but has become more of an adventure/thriller sort of series - self-help - I don’t believe in “easy fixes” - torture-porn horror - self-explanatory, I think (tho I toughed out _American Psycho_) - mysteries - just doesn’t generally appeal to me - Westerns - ditto - politics - I avoid it in real life, why would I spend my leisure time with it? - High fantasy - a little fey goes a long way for me… 😃 Contemporary fiction often doesn’t appeal to me either - why would I want to read about someone whose life is just like mine? Maybe that’s why I enjoy science fiction so much… Edited to add: I’m with **AuntiePam** “Novels where the focus is a disintegrating marriage/relationship or careers in decline, especially if the characters are urban sophisticates – I just can’t relate to navel gazers and angsty whiners.” ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/22 "2013-02-22T19:21:26Z")
I really didn’t even realize Westerns were still a “thing”. I read [this book](http://www.amazon.com/The-Magic-Wagon-Joe-Lansdale/dp/1892284812/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361559125&sr=8-2&keywords=joe+r.+lansdale+magic+wagon) recently, which might be classed as a Western but I just thought of it as a kid’s book. I also liked Stephen King’s Gunslinger books, but I’d have called those fantasy. Then I looked up [Amazon’s new westerns](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=westerns#/ref=sr_nr_p_n_publication_date_0?rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Awestern+fiction%2Cp_n_publication_date%3A1250226011&bbn=283155&keywords=western+fiction&ie=UTF8&qid=1361560544&rnid=1250225011), but still have to classify _A Bargain Bride_, _Mail Order Mistake_, and _Unicorn Western 3_ as more something else. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/23 "2013-02-22T19:42:05Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Novels where the focus is a disintegrating marriage/relationship or careers in decline, especially if the characters are urban sophisticates – I just can’t relate to navel gazers and angsty whiners. I hate these too. I don’t know what genre I would consider it, other than “awful novels.” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/24 "2013-02-22T19:43:16Z")
I never read romance, espionage (e.g. Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum), mystery, or erotica and rarely read novels about "beautiful peole in NYC or LA just because it’s hard for me to relate to megalopolis dwellers. Unless I’m doing research, I also rarely read biographies because generally I find that what I want to know is better handled in 30 pages than 300; it’s enough to know that they had health problems or financial problems, I don’t really want to read the details of the disease or the letters from collection agencies. I prefer to read histories and then browse bios of people therein that I find interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/25 "2013-02-22T20:01:14Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I never read … espionage (e.g. Tom Clancy, Robert Ludlum) Not that you should change your reading tastes, but it’s worth pointing out that Clancy and Ludlum, while technically in the same genre as folks like John Le Carre and Phillip Kerr, are far from the best examples of the genre. I’ve read Ludlum and Clancy, and they are to good espionage novels as a Big Mac is to filet mignon. Which is to say, nasty and devoid of nutritional value, but sometimes a guilty pleasure. Good espionage novels are fantastic literature. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/26 "2013-02-22T20:15:28Z")
I get enough True Crime stories at work. I overhear enough about Romance at work, too. (do not ask) I avoid Westerns for the most part, for reasons that seem good to me. True Hunting stories leave me cold, too. ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/27 "2013-02-22T20:24:19Z")
Fiction: Romance, Fanfic, Post Apocalyptic, Vampire, Zombie and (most recently) any ‘catch the serial killer’ plot lines. Non-Fiction: Business, Woo, Self Help, Religion/Inspirational, Baby/Childcare stuff, Sports, Car Repair, Dieting and political axe grinding. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/28 "2013-02-22T20:28:06Z")
I really hate westerns, eurgh. And non-fictional history, bleh. I don’t know if this counts as a genre, but the really extreme “unreliable narrator” stories are a major turnoff. Hated _Crime and Punishment_. Hated _American Psycho_. Hated \*Fight Club \*(only the book, loved the movie). ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/29 "2013-02-22T20:36:25Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > I really didn’t even realize Westerns were still a “thing”. I read [this book](http://www.amazon.com/The-Magic-Wagon-Joe-Lansdale/dp/1892284812/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1361559125&sr=8-2&keywords=joe+r.+lansdale+magic+wagon) recently, which might be classed as a Western but I just thought of it as a kid’s book. I also liked Stephen King’s Gunslinger books, but I’d have called those fantasy. Then I looked up [Amazon’s new westerns](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=westerns#/ref=sr_nr_p_n_publication_date_0?rh=n%3A283155%2Ck%3Awestern+fiction%2Cp_n_publication_date%3A1250226011&bbn=283155&keywords=western+fiction&ie=UTF8&qid=1361560544&rnid=1250225011), but still have to classify _A Bargain Bride_, _Mail Order Mistake_, and _Unicorn Western 3_ as more something else. 🙂 Yeah. I have two shelves of novels set in the American west, but none are by Zane Grey or Louis L’Amour. I don’t like to call them “westerns” but “historical fiction” doesn’t seem to fit either. Novels like _Shane, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Desperadoes, Tie My Bones to Her Back, Heart of the Country, Anything for Billy, The Searchers_ and Cormac McCarthy’s _Border Trilogy_ are miles above what we think of when we think of westerns. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/30 "2013-02-22T20:39:02Z")
Bodice rippers, and usually westerns, unless they’re exceptional, a la _Lonesome Dove_ or some of the McCarthy novels. Also porn. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/31 "2013-02-22T20:47:26Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > Westerns – although I love novels set in the American West of the 19th century. _Lonesome Dove_ is a western. And you didn’t like it? > [@AuntiePam](#): > > I have two shelves of novels set in the American west, but none are by Zane Grey or Louis L’Amour. I don’t like to call them “westerns” but “historical fiction” doesn’t seem to fit either. Novels like _Shane, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Desperadoes, Tie My Bones to Her Back, Heart of the Country, Anything for Billy, The Searchers_ and Cormac McCarthy’s _Border Trilogy_ are miles above what we think of when we think of westerns. Oh, I see. So in fact you love westerns, you just have a funny idea that “westerns” only refers to the dregs of the genre. ---
**Author:** ![yanceylebeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yanceylebeef/32/12290_2.png) [@yanceylebeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yanceylebeef)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/32 "2013-02-22T21:12:04Z")
Other than Pratchett, I don’t read much fantasy. I read Tolkien and Pullman when I was a kid, but have moved away from the genre mostly. After time in the disc world, I just can’t take wizards, trolls and dragons seriously. Also, there has been a trend in the last few years, which started with I guess the True Blood Sookie books, and the Twilight books to have romance with a slight fantasy edge. It bums me out that they are shelved in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy Section, and that they are selling so well that they are pushing out other books that I’d like to read. There is usually a woman with a sword or crossbow on the cover, and they have names like “The Siren Depths, book five in the Siren series.” Nonsense like that. Also steampunk has never really tickled my fancy. I’ve dabbled, but that’s about it. Now it’s Hard Sci-Fi, Space Opera( i.e. Stross, James S.A. Corey, Banks, and Reynolds), Post Apocalyptic (Atwood,McCarthy, Heller), Cthulhu mythos,(Stross again, Tregliss) Mystery(Fforde, Ellis, Letham) Weird Tales(Prunty, Parsons, Leyner). In non fiction, it’s everything from Saga, Roach, Gould, Greenblatt, Sobel. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/33 "2013-02-22T21:28:19Z")
I’ll read biographies of notable historic figures and of contemporary scientists, politicians, military [del]men[/del] persons, social activists, and such. Possibly of writers; Diane Ward Middlebrook’s bio of Anne Sexton is one of my favorite reads. But never, ever of actors, singers, and other such celebrities. Not only am I not interested, but I cannot understand why people are. I’m tempted to say I won’t read romance novels, but in fact I’ve seen one or two I liked. And as I wrote confession stories (the low-paying, bastard cousin to romance novels) all through college, I’d be saditty to condemn the genre. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/34 "2013-02-22T21:45:39Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Oh, I see. So in fact you love westerns, you just have a funny idea that “westerns” only refers to the dregs of the genre. I love good fiction set in the American West. I don’t like what’s classified as “western” when I’m browsing Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/35 "2013-02-22T22:11:17Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I love good fiction set in the American West. I don’t like what’s classified as “western” when I’m browsing Amazon. I’d put the point more generally: I dislike genre fiction where it is obvious that the fact it is genre is its selling point - that somewhere out there is a sort of writing factory churning out these things, all more or less indistinguishable, because there is an audience that will buy that genre. Romance is the most obvious example. But fantasy, westerns, mysteries, science fiction … all have some version of this. OTOH, in each “genre” there is genuinely good writing worth reading as well. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/36 "2013-02-22T22:18:11Z")
I don’t really look for books that way, but I poked around and found the Amazon link for westerns. Four titles you mentioned were all in the top recommendations. Just sayin. Of course _most_ of any genre fiction is crap. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/37 "2013-02-22T22:30:48Z")
Few biographies, no westerns or politics, was never a fan of coming-of-age tales even when I was coming of age. I look askance at the pink, pulsating romance aisle. I imagine it’s moist. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/38 "2013-02-22T22:32:33Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > I don’t really look for books that way, but I poked around and found the Amazon link for westerns. Four titles you mentioned were all in the top recommendations. Just sayin. > > Of course _most_ of any genre fiction is crap. I dislike the term “genre fiction”; it implies inherent inferiority, and I think it’s unfair. Most “literary fiction” is crap too. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/39 "2013-02-22T23:10:50Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > _Biographies_: I don’t want to find out bad stuff about people I admire. I read a biography of James Herriot which nearly ruined his books for me, because it pointed out that his stories had been slightly fictionalized where it would improve the tale. Also, they might not all have actually happened to him. Also, Siegfried and Tristan weren’t quite as wonderful as they’d been written, etc. I adore James Herriot’s books, and after hearing a few tidbits like that I have refused to read any biographies of him. I didn’t even want to tell my kids that James, Siegfried and Tristan weren’t their real names. I wouldn’t read a True Crime novel or “inspirational fiction” without a damned good incentive. I don’t really like horror, or espionage, or politics, or Westerns (although I liked _Lonesome Dove_ pretty well). I don’t pick up contemporary fiction unless I have a reliable recommendation. I’m not crazy about modern mysteries, but I like a lot of historical mystery series. Place your sleuth in Ancient Rome, Medieval England or 19th-century New Orleans, and the murder mystery seems a lot more interesting. I avoid romance novels just because most of them are dreadful. I’d read more romance if they were any good, and I have a few that I really like. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2013, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079/40 "2013-02-22T23:57:56Z")
I was surprised to find out James Herriott’s real practice had ANOTHER partner never mentioned in any of his books. Left out completely to keep things simple? Integrated into the personalities of Tristan and Siegfried? Didn’t want to be in the books for some reason? I like non-fiction and biographies, but I must not be very bright because I’m bored by politicians, military, and sports as a rule. (I could, however, sit down and read tacky/scandalous/puff piece/or keepin’-it-real celebrity biographies around the clock. Autobiographies are even better, and tell-all books by employees and relatives have my interest. I just found a book in a thrift store by Frank Sinatra’s butler!) I have not read a bodice-ripper or Harlequin romance in decades, after (very) briefly giving them a go. One kidnapped heaving-bosomed spitfire is just like any other. On vacation once I tried a Harlequin romance I found in the lounge, out of sheer desperation. Gawd! I leafed through it and out of sheer ennui underlined every sentence with the word “blush(ed)” in it. I made it up to 27, and then the sun came out, so I quit. I just can’t get into sex-n-shopping, the marital problems of the well to do, or single-gal-in-the-city. And they’re everywhere. I feel like I should turn in my woman card. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-genres-do-you-not-read/651079.md?page=3)