Book Genres

Something has been on my mind lately. And that is the idea that there seems to be some kind of "stigma" behind liking certain genres of books.

In my mind there are Four main genres; Adult/New Adult, Young Adult, Middle Grade, and just General.

In each of those genres there are what I feel like calling "sub-genres".

Fantasy

Urban Fantasy

Paranormal

Sci-fi

Historical Fiction

Romance

Fantasy Romance

Paranormal Romance

Sci-fi Romance

Historical Fiction Romance

The only sub-genre that exists in only one of those main genres (For good reason) is Erotica. This is the genre that seems to get the most flack. While it's not my favorite genre by far, at the same time, I don't have a problem with it. Sure the majority of the books in that genre that I've read lack plot most of the time, but sometimes I really enjoy a trashy romance story.

The book community seem to feel that there is more of a bad stigma against reading YA books, and I don't really see it that way. Sure some people seem to think that if you are over a certain age you should be reading YA anymore, which is ridiculous. Nobody should tell you, you are too old to read any kind of book. Now people a certain age should avoid the last genre I mentioned.

I myself enjoy YA books over other genres, those tend to  have romance ties to that genre 9 times out of 10. And, for me, as long as the romance side to the story doesn't over shadow the rest of the plot I don't mind. Insta-love and unnecessary love triangles are two things that tend to make me hate some books. But as someone who is in their late 20's I am one of those people that some may feel am "too old" to be reading YA, since I am not a Young Adult anymore. My reasons for reading YA over other genres boils down to when there is a romance in the book, there is about 97% less mention of sex than in adult books in the same genre. I don't want or need to read details of sexual nature when the book is supposed to about fighting demons or whatever. But some of the most popular and well written books released recently have been YA, as far as I'm concerned anyways.

There are genres that I do avoid. I am not really partial to Historical Fiction, and lately the Middle Grade I have read feels "dumbed down" since its supposed to be for children. Harry Potter is the only Middle Grade book that I have read as someone not in the Middle Grade age group that I have enjoyed as much as the age group they are written for. And my personal belief is that the sign of a good kids book is one that an adult can pick up and enjoy just as much. Just because they are 10 years old doesn't mean they need to be spoken to like they don't understand the English language. But when it comes to historical fiction, I don't know what it is that makes me avoid that genre. Maybe it has something to do with me not knowing enough about the era most commonly used in historical fiction.

The other genre I don't read a whole lot of is Sci-fi. Books set in space can be one of the more difficult settings to work with. Not to mention if you try and explain the science of it all and muck it up, things can go worse if you just ignore it.

Not really sure where I was going with this post. I guess I just felt like talking about book genres, and since I seem to read most of them and post reviews of books that I have a lot to say about here.

So here's a question;

"What is your favorite genre, and what are genres you avoid?"