Favourite Genre...and Why

[MagicNakor]

Have at it. Of course, the discussions are usually more interesting than the polls anyway.

[TRshady]

I see no option for 'education' .. or similar. Only books I read are instruction manuals, tv guides and the odd revision book. Would read more .. but reading an ebook from comp just isn't the same for me.

[MagicNakor]

It's there now.

[hobbes]

Horror is the best genre.

The reason is rather simple. The author is either using the story as a vehicle to explain his concept of God/ the meaning of life or he is attempting to find what scares us the most and to figure out why?

So the story is a pretense to discuss a deeper concept.

Also, when we consider the story of the "Haunted House", notice how the possiblity of the ghost is much more terrifying than the ghost itself.

Humans fear the unknown and the uncontrollable.

[chalice]

I tend to steer clear of genre novels altogether.

I've pumped for poetry. Though, not a genre; more a dicipline.

[longboneslinger]

Thats a damn hard choice, but I'll have to go with Heroic Fantasy. This is a genre not seen to much today. A good example of HF woulf be the Conan series by Robert E. Howard.
As to why, I'm just a little tired of 'Your every day guy turns hero'. I like to ocasionally read about heros that are larger than life like Conan. THese are take charge, kick ass warriors that do what needs to be done. They don't look for fights but sure as hell won't run from one. These are also

a pretense to discuss a deeper concept

. though some are pure escapist fantasy. Sometimes those 'deeper concepts' are just the author up on his/her personal soap box, which is tiring and sometimes annoying not to mention ruining an other wise good story.

3 last examples:
1: Peter Moorwoods Aldrick Talvalin. He lost everything, including his family to an undead sorcerer. He goes through hell to regain his title of High Clan Chief of Clan Talvalin-about equivilent to a grand duke- and goes through more hell to keep it.

2avid Eddings Sir Sparhawk and his fellow knights. Bad ass knights of the church who must save the world from a power mad elder god.

3:The most militarily accurate-Robert Adams HorseClans series in general and his best character, Billy the Axe, in particular. Billy is the eldest son of a Clan Cheif-here about equal to a baron-who returns home to stop a rebellion in progress. The late author made his own historically accurate medieval costumes including armor and swords and was a student of middle age warfare.

[alpha]

I love humorous sci-fi like Douglas Adams, Harry Harrison and Robert Shekley(sp?).
Why? I cant say.

[100%]

Humor -terryPratchet - Douglas Adams -
anybody know something like that - contemporary
(no im not into wizards n stuff)

[pusher]

I love reading educational books. My favorite is the Langenscheidt Pocket Guide to English Usage and Word Power. I also like cookbooks and some horror books.

[uNz[i]]

Comic Fantasy for me too. Science Fiction a close second - if it manages not to take itself too seriously.

I used to go for the epic varieties of both genres, but it became a chore rather than a
pleasure to read those thick-as-a-phonebook tomes after a while.

I became bored with the same old good versus evil battle in every epic I was reading,
regardless of whether the fight was set in space or a castle.
It all got so damned inevitable.

So I made a conscious decision to enjoy my reading, not endure it.
When I read, I look for wit, humour and original concepts.

Edit:
@ MagicNakor - I just realized that you haven't said what your favorite genre is!
Come on... spill the beans.