Tuesday Thingers is a weekly meme hosted by Wendi at Wendi’s Book Corner. This week she has posted a poll to go along with her question, which is:
Do you have a specialized blog where you only review a certain genre or type of book? If so, what is your favorite thing about that type of book? If not, what is/are your favorite genre(s)? What makes that genre(s) a favorite?
My answer: My blog isn’t specialized in the sense that I write about one particular genre. I do try to limit my posts to book-related topics. I’ve been known to stretch that definition in order to include some personal stories 
My favorite genres are literary fiction, history, and personal memoir.
Literary fiction is a slippery fish to define. I’ve been met with raised eyebrows when I profess a preference for it (as in, “literary fiction, eh, is that what you people say when want to sound superior?”). IMHO, literary fiction focuses more on writing style and character development than on narrative and plot. Some examples that come to mind are Bel Canto, In Hovering Flight, and Olive Kitteridge.
My preference for non-fiction is social history and memoir. I enjoy Malcolm Gladwell’s books, and like to read about social movements (history of education, women’s history, Civil Rights movement) as opposed to strict military history. Military history grabs me more when it’s embedded in a narrative format (novel), or memoir/diary.
As far as reading the genre of memoir, personal memoir, that is, like Beautiful Boy, and Infidel. I don’t care for celebrity “tell-all” books.
Why do I like these types of books? I think it’s simply a love of learning. I can learn about other time periods, personalities, different cultures and classes; all this helps me to understand (and appreciate) the here and now. Even with historical fiction I get a bit of the true setting as a background for the entertaining narrative.
These are the types of books I read almost exclusively before I started blogging. I’ve since expanded my horizons, by reading graphic novels, romance, more entertaining/lighter novels (I want to say “chick lit” here, but I’m afraid some will read that as derogatory!), and even so-called “self-help” books (The Vigorous Mind and The Artist Within) and have been pleasantly surprised.
What about you? What types of books take up most of the shelf space in your home library?
If you like military history, please read The Things They Carried if you haven’t already. I thought it was wonderful and gave me a new insight into the emotional life of VietNam vets. My brother-in-law, who never really left VietNam must have carried many, many things with him for way too long. He died recently and I hope he is finally at peace.
I loved your response as it is so very close to how I feel about reading choices.
LibrarysCat
Oops forgot that !
I’ve expanded my reading since I started blogging too. It would be easier to tell you what I don’t like than to tell you what I do like.
I like literary fiction though I read far less of it since I began mentoring young people. I like memoirs, too. I read Infidel for a book club. The book elicits really strong opinions.
I will admit that I am not totally sure what defines literary fiction. Is it sort of like that famous quote about obscenity, that “I know it when I see it”?
Yikes! I wanted to let you know that the poll wasn’t working on my original post, so I deleted it and redid it – it IS working now!
Wendi
I sometimes enjoy memoirs, too. I also think there are different kinds of “tell-all” books – for example, I loved John Barrowman’s “Anything Goes”. He talks a lot about celebs, but in the context of stories about working with them, how they influenced his career, that kind of thing. Gossip is far less interesting and it does not stand the test of time.
I read what catches my fancy. I outgrown genre only reading long ago.
I’m an eclectic reader and blogger. I like to read memoirs that aren’t celbrity focused also. I just finished listening to Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, fascinating book. I haven’t read his others yet.
I love reading what everyone’s favorite genres are. My favorites are romances, mysteries and suspense.
Paranormal romance and urban fantasy take up an entire bookcase but I also have a ton of mysteries, romances, historicals, classics, etc
Ooops, I did use the term chick lit in my response to this question!!
I always knew we had very similar taste in books, Dawn!!
I love your definition of literary fiction! That is right on! I’ve always felt there needed to be more ways to describe fiction and this is a good one!
I’m going to send my sister-in-law your way, she is a huge fan of memoirs.
Thanks for stopping by and participating in Thingers last week! I’ve got the post up for this week. ~ Wendi