[Cadfael]

Okay... I snooping here, we all read fantasy, and sci/fi as well. But is this all we read? I do read more fantasy/sci/fi than I do other genre's, but I also read a lot of detective books, thriller's (ie. Cussler), I have even been known to devour the Herman Wouk(sp) Winds of War books in 2 days. I also like non-fiction books, especially history, alternative history, anything to do with Formula 1.

Maybe I am out of order asking what other genre's you read, but I hope it will dispel the myth that we think fantasy is the be-all-and-end-all of literature, and I fully support and respect members who only read fantasy.

[Pluvious]

I was an English major in college and read quite a bit of literature during that time. Besides that I have almost exclusively read fantasy fiction. However, in the last couple years I read mainly non-fiction for research purposes. History and numerous other topics.

[FitzChivalry]

I'm 22, until the age of 18 i read action, detectives, westerns, adventures,history, sci fi and fantasy... but since age 18 i kinda lost interest in the other genres and continued reading only sci fi and fantasy.

There are two reasons for that, the first is i started to get bored really fast and it seemed that only fantasy and sci fi had the wild imagination that kept my interest.
The Second is that i have interest in history and after reading most of the history of our planet (in the big sense, big wars and stuff) i can't read a historical book without already knowing the end... so i get my alternate history in sci fi and fantasy.

[wynterfel]

Well I don't think I'm narrow minded dennizm but feel free to measure me head if you want *grin*

Like Fitz, I've been on a somewhat strict sf/f diet ever since I developed a taste fer it. For some variety I munch on poetry, or theosophy books like Zen, Buddhism, *ahem* and even the Conversations with God books http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif

I enjoy reading about history too, especially about ancient civilizations and archaeology, and I love reading science magazines too. Oh yeah I've been known to lunch on the occasional Greeley or Caldwell books. Strangely these two non sf/f authors are the only ones I can stomach.

[Lani]

Well, I read a lot and I can say I'm definetely not narrow minded on fantasy.
Before I read my first book on fantasy I used to read lots of detective stories (Agatha Christie is my fav) and fiction sometimes. Also i read some classic authors, but I never developed any taste for it...
After I found fantasy and sci-fi for myself the major of books I read was it... but after several years of reading only sci-fi/fantasy I got tired of a number of books with pretty much the same plots, so I also started to read other books like fiction and detective, but still the major number of books I read is fantasy...

[Rob B]

Like Pluvious, I was an English major in college. I met my wife in the Science Fiction Lit class I enrolled in.

That aside, I like horror, (Stephen King, Peter Straub, Robert R. McCammom); Suspense (Jeffrey Deaver, Robert Ludlum, and older Dean Koontz.)

Occasionally I will read a biography.

I also love ANYTHING by Mark Twain, whom I think is the best American writer, EVER.

I am also getting into reading some non-fiction historical type stuff so I have a good background for my writing.

But I enjoy Fantasy Literature the most.

[Liselle]

I read quite many genres - if not for interest, then for school. Here we discuss fantasy and sci/fi (I must confess that I dislike scifi), because this is a board especially for these things - we can be sure to find people interested in the same things as we are. Thus I think your impression is wrong - we read other things, though we don't discuss them, at least not here.

[Cadfael]

Liselle... the reason I posted this topic was to attemp to prove that the suggestion we are narrow-minded about the genre was a myth, obviously, we on this section of the forum read more fantasy than other books, but I am intrested in other genres as well.

I am not suggesting we discuss other genres on the forum, just let it be known that our taste are many and varied.

[This message has been edited by dennizm (edited January 07, 2001).]

[Ntschotschi]

I`ve read loads of books which are not fantasy - I just love good books.
But I've a special interest in fantasy as a genre.
I wouldn't say fantasyfans are narrow minded.
But in my mind fantasy is a kind of escapistic literature, sf even more.
So I tend to read more fantasy when I'm under stress. It's easier to dream yourself away with fantasybooks.

[wynnyelle]

That's why I read them.

Animal stories have always been a favorite with me, although I guess in some cases that *is* fantasy. However, my most favorite book in the world is Watership Down by Richard Adams, which I selected to read in school when i was 14 and have probably re-read about 20 times since. ^_^