How widely do you read?

I've read a fairly wide range, if not deeply. From wordless picture books to Moby Dick, science books to humor. Specific genres include: chiller/horror, action/adventure, fantasy, historical fiction, mystery, general and literary fiction, graphic novels and comics, poetry, picture books, romance, sci-fi, western, and a scattershot of nonfiction subjects including science, nature, psychology, mythology and folklore, art, lettering/typography, history, and writing. I'm sure I'm forgetting something... Given my druthers, though, I tend to return to my F/SF roots (leaning more F than SF.)

The oldest book I believe I've read is The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. (Oldest fiction was probably Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.) Newest was a pre-order of a Harry Potter book that arrived the day before the official release.

probably easier to state what I don't read. I don't read SF/Westerns/adventure

I have read a tonne of true crime, but will go years without touching it for the mental break, some real stories are worse than any horror ever written, and I'm a King fan!
I like horror, romance, urban fantasy, paranormal, suspense,thriller,humour

I would say my reading habits are pretty eclectic. The only genre I can think of off the top of my head that I don't think I've ever read is westerns. My taste within genres can sometimes be limited, though. For example, I don't gravitate much toward epic fantasy or secondary-world fantasy, so there are a lot of popular books that I don't pick up. But I would still say that fantasy and science fiction are two of my favorite genres. I also read a lot of young adult, mainstream/literary, and classics. I usually read nonfiction if it's a topic that I'm specifically interested in or trying to learn more about.

That's a good question. I write crime and I had thought that I read more of that than anything else, but my book list tells me that crime fiction makes up only 25% of my reading so far this year. The other 75% is split between lit fic (in the loosest sense), biographies and autobiographies, and non-fic. This year's non-fic (excluding work-related stuff) includes a book about atomic testing in Australia, how the story of Eliza Fraser helped to construct Colonial myths of Indigenous Australians, and a critical analysis of the literature of Thea Astley.

Sometimes I go on little reading sprees about particular topics or genres -- ten classic westerns, ten books by Caribbean writers, ten novels set on Scottish islands, that sort of thing.

I HAVE read widely, but I'm pickier now. My last 20 books include Romance (which I write), Southern Gothic horror, historical fiction (I read any time period except US Civil war, and any part of the world) contemporary mystery/suspense, SF, a short story collection, and a noir crime. I also love creative NF, or whatever you'd call books like Devil in the White City and Boys in the Boat. The only genres I don't read are Western and much in the way of high fantasy, space opera, navel-gazey LitFic or memoir. I've read enough classics for a lifetime (English major) so I think I'm done with those, although I never say never.

Pretty much, if it's a good book, I'll read it. It's just that I'm not tuned in to some genres (and subgenres) enough to know what the "good books" are. I'm entertained by a lot of stories, and I figure, as a writer, I can learn from any well-written book in any genre.

I read science fiction, some fantasy, modern and classic literature (English and otherwise), the occasional contemporary thriller or horror, and lots of non-fiction (particularly life sciences, but also on geography, history, linguistics, ethics, etc.)

A lot of my non-fiction reading (particularly of short form journalism, current events and the like) is done online these days. I wonder how much of the average reader's daily diet of words comes from the Internet?

My reading is split about 50/50 between fiction and non-fiction. In both cases, it usually has a psychological bent to it. I've also read a lot of stuff that's almost, but not quite, science fiction. Like Angela Carter, for example. I've read a bunch of her books, but I still can't figure out what genre she is. I think it's Surrealism or something.

These days I prioritize reading #ownvoices fiction and poetry by authors with marginalized identities, especially those which intersect with mine, whenever possible.

Usually I try to read in the genres I'm interesting in writing (YA, SFF, literary, erotica) but that's not always possible. If it's fiction or poetry written by a Native, trans, queer, and/or autistic woman or femme, I'll probably read it though.

I rarely read non-fiction, but I make an exception now and then.

kuwisdelu said:

These days I prioritize reading #ownvoices fiction and poetry by authors with marginalized identities

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YEAAAH, fist bump! Recently I've been reading loads of #ownvoices books across different age categories and genres. They've largely been excellent, and have exposed me to so many different cultures and worlds that are vastly different from ones I've come across in the past.

Before this I read pretty much everything...adult, MG, and YA alike. Fantasy, spec fic, romance, thriller, lit fic, contemporary, scifi, and more. And now that wee hippo is really into books, I've also been reading a bunch of PB, many of which are astoundingly good. Like, good enough that Mr. Putt and I sometimes sit back without wee hippo and just read the PB for our own enjoyment. I'm so jealous that I didn't have such interesting, diverse PBs when I was little. The only genres I don't read are hard scifi and...hrmm. That's it, really.

Probably not as widely as I should. I read almost entirely literary fiction and continental philosophy. I read some literary essays as well, and some poetry, but those are few and far between. I'll read a YA novel on occasion if certain friends of mine keep pestering me to read it.

I read a lot of genre fiction when I was younger, but at some point I kind of lost interest. Then again, readers tend to go through "phases" so maybe my horizons will broaden again one day soon.

I read a bit of everything, with a few exceptions. I tend to NOT read Westerns, SF, Mystery. BUT...I have on occasion read from all three. If a book interests me, that's my deciding factor. I don't love those genres, but I read in them if the story sounds good to me...because story ALWAYS trumps genre.

I read a lot of what I write, in particular. YA, MG, and, Literary. And I'm always reading plays, as I'm always writing them.

I read marginalized stories quite often, particularly LGBTQQIP2SAA.

I don't read much in the way of male-centric action/adventure/spy novels. I haven't read a single Bourne or Bond novel.
I don't read erotica except in the rare case where I'm doing research.
I seldom pick up a book of poetry.
I never read the hot tell-all books.

Everything else, sure. Primarily fantasy and scifi, but also romance, YA, westerns, suspense, horror, action/adventure with female protagonists, crime and mystery novels, science books, economics books, biographies, classics... almost anything. I love short stories of all genres, from flash on up.

I just finished "Parallel Worlds" by Michio Kaku, and before that, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. I have a romance novel on my side table that I started on vacation, but I can't remember the name of it.

I'm not one for pure romance novels or erotica, but besides those, there's little I won't at least consider as long as it gets my attention somehow. A good cover, a good hook, a recommendation from a friend, a recommendation from a favorite author... a good sale...

I tend to prefer nonfiction as interesting memoirs and behind-the-scenes information.

I'm not a reader of pure romance or erotica, either; likewise self-help. My fiction reading is otherwise eclectic, though I do tend to go on binges in certain genres or novels by certain authors. For the past couple of years, I've concentrated on translated works and non-U.S. centric works. I read a few memoirs and autobiographies, but my non-fic reading leans heavily toward history, language and literature, and science (I devoted last year to astrobiology and this year I'm working on quantum theory for the layperson). I also read poetry and own quite a few collections. So, I'm definitely not the most widely-read person around, but what I do read does help stave off fossilization to a certain extent.

What fiction genres do you read? Do you read nonfiction as well? Things published in various time periods? Or stick to very recent?

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I am working my way through several large on-line collections of public domain works, such as manybooks.net and Google ... skipping a few areas (most poetry, plays and religion, some politics, some philosophy, also "westerns" and most works for children).

I downloaded hundreds of them, fiction and non-fiction, and am reading them alphabetically by title. It almost guarantees a good mix.

It's been interesting. I found out I absolutely hate the "sentimental" novels of the mid 1800s, Arnold Bennet (the Five Towns novels) wrote one of the best medical sleuths ever, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote some schlock potboilers.

I really don't read outside of the sci-fi or fantasy area much. I might read other stories set in a fantastic setting or speculative fiction though. I'm not a fan of romance unless there isn't a love triangle involved, which I have to know going in. Alternate history fiction set thousands of years after of the fact is something I like too read as well. I also read novels reccommended by friends on occassion.

At present, not widely. I read mostly contemporary romance, and some historical romance as well. I do read other things (mostly fiction) on occasion, but the majority of what I read is romance.

Another eclectic reader here. Much like my taste in music! From Chopin to Eminem to Tammy Wynette... but I digress. I read: Christian (mostly contemporary, not Amish because I live in Amish country so the inaccuracies drive me *insane*), category romance, erotica, YA (yes, I know, that's not actually a genre), horror, thriller (mostly medical or military), some literary but it's not my fave, classics (especially Austen/Bronte et al), a little sci fi and fantasy, I've read a couple steampunk that were ok... I'm sure there's more.

For non-fiction, I read funny/serious/overcoming issues stuff (like Jim Gaffigan's Food: A Love Story, Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy or Allie Brosh's Hyperbole and a Half) or Christian lifestyle stuff.

Errrr...embarrassingly narrowly. **hangs head**

I mostly read fantasy, with a tiny bit of science fiction and horror scattered in. Occasionally I have tried reading more widely than that, but I generally put those books down afterward and think, "Okay, that was good, but I didn't enjoy it particularly."

There have been exceptions. I once got sent someone else's order of books from Amazon, and they never figured out whose order it was, so I got to keep everything. Whoever that person was, they had killer taste in books. That's where I got my copies of The Life of Pi, The God of Small Things and Memoirs of a Geisha.

I'm a voracious indiscriminate reader across all kinds of genres, biographies, non-fiction, historical fiction, sci fi, fantasy,, science, travel, politics etc, but when I reread I tend to stay with literary or experimental fiction. And I try to keep up with new fiction, some in translation, from around Africa, the developing world, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America. Can't live without poetry every day and I have numerous poetry websites bookmarked: right now I'm immersed in Anne Waldman's Jaguar Harmonics, Claudia Rankine and dipping into the “Because We Come From Everything: Poetry & Migration” project.

That said, I have stacks and lists of unread books I intend to read one of these days and books I need to reread because I missed so much the first time around. And then there is the little problem of finding time to write --

I read across a fairly broad spectrum, but I don't read everything. I read a lot of lit fic (contemporary and classics), non-fiction, poetry, thriller, suspense, some sci-fi/fantasy (though more when it's just elements, not epic), occasionally mystery. Over the past couple of years I've reread quite a few books I read when I was young that had a long and lasting impact--really interesting to see how differently I read them now, btw the changes in our world and, errr, my own advanced age.


I don't read much romance, no erotica, no Western, no graphic novels.

My main genre is fantasy, but I can and will read just about anything if it interests me enough. It's easier to list things I don't generally read: literary, romance, classics. I keep trying to read classics but the older writing styles just put me to sleep. I will read books with strong romance elements, but I prefer it to not be the main plot. Literary, I've yet to come across one that appeals to me enough to pick it up, so while I don't discount the genre out of hand, I'm not really going out of my way to seek it out either.

In fantasy I don't really read much contemporary or low fantasy--I'd rather just read straight historical fiction in that case.

I also don't really actively look for science fiction, which I sometimes feel is really unusual for being a speculative fiction fan. I just really prefer my science fiction on the screen. I do read it occasionally, maybe one book every other year or so.

I cannot function properly if I don't read. Many times I've been in places and situations where the only literature around was stuff not at all to my taste, and I had no choice but consume it, so I grew up into an absolute literary trashcan. I'd read anything, fiction and nonfiction, lexicons, theological treatises, plays, novels, from any period and place in history, and in four languages.

I've just wasted a good chunk of time trying to identify my genre of choice, and failed.