A good book is a good book, and genre doesn’t matter. I do not consider myself a “fantasy fan”, even though some of my favourite authors are fantasy authors. Is it well written? Does the language sing? Is the plot coherent and interesting? Is there at least one character I like? And is the worldbuilding good (yes, “real world” fiction needs worldbuilding too, though a lot of the heavy lifting is done for you)? Then I’ll like it.
The novelist Kit Whitfield, on her blog, has said that categorising books by genre is a tool for booksellers, and that as an author she ignores it.
by QBaseX
27 Comments
Um, cause it’s helpful to get an idea of what you can, potentially, expect.
That goes for every genre. It goes for various types of jazz, blues, hiphop.
It breaks down even further into other sub-genres. It exists in anime and movies, in poem and theatre, art of every kind.
It’s a helpful tool.
Does /u/QBaseX like Wu-Tang Clan?
Why do you care about people wanting to read genres that they like? It affects you in no shape or form.
Well, that’s one opinion. If you have no use for them that’s fine, but I personally find genres helpful to categorise books. I’m unlikely to enjoy crime novels no matter how well the language “sings” or how coherent the plot is, because I don’t particularly like reading about murders, heists, police procedure, etc, so I’ll avoid that section of the bookshop or library. I’m far more likely to enjoy fantasy or sci-fi novels, so I’ll head towards those instead.
Some people have specific things they want and do not want from a book (or a film, or an album, etc.) and, for whatever reason, those expectations often align with genres.
I’m somewhat sympathetic to the idea of genre=marketing but I think that genre conventions and expectations are very much at play during the writing process itself.
>Is it well written? Does the language sing?
There are some genres that place less emphasis on this than others, IE ‘ideas’-based science fiction. No one has ever accused Asimov of being a great prose stylist. For some readers, singing language would be a distraction, not a plus; read Goodreads reviews for any classic or literary book and be prepared for a deluge of critiques of ‘overly flowery language.’
> A good book is a good book, and genre doesn’t matter.
I disagree. I might consider a book a good book and you might not like it. And vice versa. Book quality is subjective. Even well-loved classics have lots of critics.
> Is it well written? Does the language sing?
To me this sounds very subjective.
> Is the plot coherent and interesting?
I suspect a coherent plot isn’t that subjective, but what’s interesting to one person may be very uninteresting to someone else.
I’m pretty sure I’ve never read a book where I 100% liked it, and even in cases of books I have that I DNF I doubt I could say I 100% hated it.
Reading an uninteresting book is a pretty negative experience, so many avid readers avoid doing so. An easy way to do that is to avoid genres you don’t normally find interesting. I don’t find romance books to be interesting, for instance. I’m sure if I read one hundred romance novels I might find one or two to be interesting, but I’d rather read a thriller or speculative fiction book where I’m sure I will like at least half of them. It’s just a better use of my time.
It’s a useful initial filter when choosing my next read from the 17,462,815 novels that exist.
Wait, 3 more were just published.
once again r/books with the wildest of takes
Because right now I only have enough brain for popcorn and I am in the mood for action not romance. Next week I might be able to try something complicated again.
>Why do people care so much about genre?
I have a limited amount of time left on this planet, and it gets shorter by the minute. I want to read as many books that I will potentially like as I can.
Knowing what genres I do and don’t like helps me narrow down potential books a lot.
I don’t care how “well written” a book is. I don’t care if the language “sings”. I don’t care if the plot is “coherent and interesting”. I don’t care if there’s at least “one character that I like”. I don’t care if the “world building” is good. I have never, nor will I ever like Christian Romance novels, and eliminating that genre from my searches helps narrrow down future potential reads.
I’ve been a big reader since I was 8. This was in the days before the internet and what you got in your local library was basically it. I’d read a lot of stuff, some I really liked, some was okay, some I hated.
But now with the internet, I can read just the genres I like. I go through phases of which genre I like that year.
So I went through a phase where I really liked urban fantasy and I’d read an awful lot of it. Even some stuff that was just romance writers replacing soldiers and bikers for vampires and werewolves because urban fantasy was a big thing for a decade.
OTOH, there’s a bunch of genres that I hate and I don’t enjoy reading – like biographies or spooky horror.
A book can be objectively good. But I still won’t enjoy reading it, and life is too short to be doing stuff I don’t like unless I’m being paid to do it.
If we just tried to compare books based on the aggregate of the words that appear in them, we would all get very confused very quickly over what it means to have 300 “the”s.
Instead we create these higher-order virtual categories in an attempt to better articulate what about a book is actually, usefully meaningful to us.
Since you just wielded the genre paintbrush to reference fantasy authors whose work you enjoy? Even though you are not a “Fantasy” Fan?
Genre is just a short descriptor to point a reader to the types of books he/she wants to read now or next time. Or to describe to another the background of a given story.
I like historical fiction, it is more enjoyable. A book can be good, but I may not enjoy it as much if it’s a subject I’m not bothered about.
Do people care so much?
I know I don’t like romance and thrillers, books being categorized by genre helps me avoid them, and that’s about the extent of my caring.
What? This seems so random.
>Is the plot coherent and **interesting**?
I mean you’ve answered your own question, the genre heavily influences the plot, sometimes pretty much describes the plot. Different people find different things interesting.
I’m not being funny but this post smacks of a very weird superiority complex.
>The novelist Kit Whitfield, on her blog, has said that categorising books by genre is a tool for booksellers, and that as an author she ignores it.
She can afford to, as all she has to do is produce work which other people then sell and buy.
Because i have no interest in serial killers, contemporary true crime, self help, or pseudoromance with no HEA. But i do have interest in cosy detective, romance with HEA, sci fi, fantasy.
Saying there shouldn’t be a genre in books is a ridiculous as saying there shouldn’t be one in TV.
How would I find the book I want to read if we didn’t classify books by genres, but only by the author’s name?
Today I want to read about space-ships, tomorrow about magical being in a far away land, maybe another day I fancy myself a murder mystery or perhaps some romance.
Can you imagine trying to parse through thousands of books trying to find what you like when there is no categorisation?
Why do we divide food by category at the supermarket? Carrots, pasta, pizza, meat, dish – they’re all food after all.
In theory, I could choose from millions of books that exist. By genre, I can prioritise some things automatically, while I can safely ignore some. Quite large chunks, actually. It helps me by knowing which I have a higher or lower likelihood of enjoying.
You or this Kit lady can say I am a dumbass for that, but I know I do not like slashers, paranormal romances or sports biographies. So why should I pretend they are in the running for me? There are characteristics that make a genre what it is. Based on that I can decide. Easy.
Well, genre helps you find books, especially in a bookstore or online-so it’s a tool of booksellers. But this is to help narrow the options when looking. Should all nonfiction & fiction be shelved together? All nonfiction shelved simply by author & not subject? How long would it take to find something specific? Genre makes it easier to find books. Some genres have specific requirements that need to be met-mysteries need to provide a solution to main plot/problem. Try giving a mystery reader a mystery w/out a clear cut answer & they will be very unhappy because it failed to deliver on the promise of the premise. Same in romance-no hea or hfn? Pitchforks; because the #1 tenet of the genre is the happy ever after. There’s a lot of implicit trust in the tenets of genre. Don’t want to provide a solution to your mystery novel or a hea for your romance? Cool-just make sure it’s shelved in gen fiction. Now if you’re wondering why people don’t step out of their favorite genres & read everything…genres provide a safe space for escape & not everyone reads to be challenged or forced out of their comfort zones. It can be challenging when you’ve read a great story & want to share it but people won’t give it a chance based on genre etc. All you can do is spread the love & accept that not everyone is going to be open to other stories:)
i dont know about that, yes categories are used by book sellers, but its used by authors, by teachers, by review websites. That’s like saying categorizing movies is only used by the movie makers themselves. I read for fun just like i watch movies or play video games and having categories makes it easier to say im in the mood for horror lets pick something to entertain that fits that specific category. If i was in the mood for comedy and picked a movie like the exorcist that wouldn’t fit that mood would it?
It does matter, for many readers, which is why publishers categorize. I, for instance, dislike sad endings, and love f/sf, so I read some of those subcategories in romances. There are a lot of dark romances I’ve enjoyed, but they’re not gonna be tragedies, because that’s a different genre.
People who object to labels don’t need them. That doesn’t mean labels are invalid for everyone else.
If the plot is about cowboys in the old west, I will not find it interesting. If the plot contains a romance I might find it enjoyable, but if its main focus is the romance, I won’t. If it’s poetry, I really don’t care to read it. Genre is a filter.
Genre, as you describe it, is one taxonomy for breaking the world’s catalog of books into understandable subgroups, for easier perusal. There is no definitive list of genres, and any list is not mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive. Individual books often span genres.
I get the comment as an author — you don’t need to be pigeonholed into a specific genre when writing a book.
As a reader…it’s just a tool to help you navigate the endless catalog of books you may enjoy. Without categorization into genres, are you just dumping me into a list of all books in the world? How am I supposed to navigate that and pick something to read?
A pair of pants is a pair of pants. Shoes are shoes. Food is food. Why does anyone have preferences for anything?
Why do you care so much about people caring about genres?
Because regardless of how good the book is, you may not be attracted to the subject matter. I’m sure there are amazing books written about wars but that’s just not my cup of tea.
People like what they like.