When choosing a book to read, do you purposely avoid a specific Genre ?

Question

Have you ever read a book, only to find that it was a type of fiction you wouldn't normally have picked - and ended up liking it ?

What was the Genre / Book / Author ?

Dan - I read the same book. I was hooked after the first page & loved it.

Answer 1

Usually, when i get a new book, i usually try to keep to the same authors, not genres, However, as i am a male, i tend to avoid romantic novels. However, sometimes you see a book which you would have never picked up (shadow in the wind) but got it because there was a sale and ended up loving it...

Answer 2

Hi there.
I avoid the chick-lit books like the plague, Bridget Jones etc. give me the horrors. The same is true of the longer romance favoured by the ladies too BUT -
when the BBC Big Read came out, I decided to read all the top 200 books as a challenge to myself and in the hope of uncovering a gem or two.
I am happy to say I got well and truly put in my place by some awesome books!
1. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith, romance.
2. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCullough, epic romance.
3. Flowers in the Attic, Virginia Andrews, fantasy/romance.
4. The Cruel Sea, Nicholas Monserrat, war.
5. Holes, Louis Sachar, childrens.
These were the biggest shocks to me, every one a cracker!
Cheers, Steve.
PS Bridget Jones Diary was on the list and sucked worse than my worst imaginings had believed possible, so genre avoidance is not always wrong.

Answer 3

no. I love reading, and I read about 20 books a month. I'm 28 years old and own around 3000 books. I like fiction the best (Fantasy). My favorite author of alltime is George R. R. Martin. he has a series out called "A Song of Ice and Fire." with the first book titled "A Game of Thrones." He is an absolute genious, and I highly reccomend these books. another good series genre Christian Fiction is a series written by Tim Lahaye called "Left Behind." another highly reccomended series. Piers Anthony's fantasy Series Xanth is great too. I'm not really into Science fiction but Orson Scott Cards novel "Enders Game." was brilliant. Honestly I could type great books and series all night, but here is a few that you wouldn't be disapointed in reading. in fact you would fall in love with reading.
One more book I highly reccomend is a book on success called "The Richest Man in Babylon." written by: oh I can't quite recall, and don't feel like going to my book shelf and tracking the book down. anyways this book will change the way you think and approach how you pursue success. it's the best book on financial success I've ever read and I've read them all. the nice part is it's not repetitive. it's written in story form and not real long so it's easy reading. everyone shoul read this book more than once. it should be read in schools.

Answer 4

Twice-both were romance novels I absolutely hate for it's corniness & obvious plot & climax.

One was called Always (not the movie book) & it was about this guy haunted by a ghost & obsessed with an old time movie star. Turned out it was a lover from another life. Sounds corny but it was well written. It was on the NYTBSL back around 1979. But I haven't been able to find it again & don't remember the author.

The other was Jane's House. It was written by a guy & it amazed me the amount of insight he had into how a woman would feel marrying a widower only to discover he was still obsessed with his dead wife & he basically only married her for the sake of the kids & she'd always be second best. It was heart wrenching but had a great twist ending which I won't spoil. lol!

I'm 51 yrs. old & those are the only ones I've read more than a chapter of in romance novels & these 2 kept my attention from start to finish.

Answer 5

I used to stay away from historic books which portrayed a character in the reality of the past, but then I read a book called Number The Stars which was based on the Holocaust and the Nazi regime under Hitler's rule, and I really liked it. Ever since reading that book, I've begun to take an interest in a whole new genre.

Answer 6

I'm an avid reader, and usually have 3-4 books on the go at any one time! I avoid romance books like the plague, mills and boon books are only good for fire-lighters. Wasn't into war stories, but picked up a Sven Hassell books at a friends and thoroughly enjoyed it, and have read more in that particular genre since.

Answer 7

I don't like science fiction, as a general rule, but I love the Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card and the A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle. I had to read them for school 10+ years ago and still love them.

Answer 8

Yes, that's me!!

Science Fiction.

I always thought that sci-fi was for geeks or people who loved Star Trek and Star Wars. But I read "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle, which is really sci-fi and creepily accurate about science. I loved that book, because it wasn't all tech-geeky, it was a great story with a great ending that left you eager to read the next book.

I guess this is what they mean by, "Don't judge a book by its cover."

Answer 9

i myself envy the persons who can study almost something. they could get plenty style. i'm not that fortunate. i'm intellectually impaired in the experience that i will not be able to soak up technological awareness-fiction or epic fantasy. Having too plenty to renowned, undergo in innovations or comprehend in a special is principally situations overwhelming for me. yet another impairment is my undesirable interest-span and short-term memory. If I study paragraphs upon paragraphs of thoughts, description, or communicate, then i will many times fall 0.5-asleep till now that's executed or purely ignore completely what they have been speaking approximately. So in that experience, a marvelous fraction of older Victorian-type writing and classic literature isn't my first determination. i like thrillers and crime novels, as a rule because of fact they are many times paced properly, and that they make for properly-weighted entertainment. not something too gentle like a YA paintings, not something too heavy like a kin novel.

Answer 10

I tend not to pick up anything that's considered a Western, or too heavy of a realistic lit. fiction piece. I did pick up, "The Town That Forgot to Breathe," which was a literary horror, and enjoyed it immensely, though, so what do you know?