What genre do you read the most?

[stephmcgee]

YA fantasy. I would like to start reading more urban/contemporary fantasy but I love fantasy set in entirely created worlds.

There's a smattering of adult fantasy in my reads as well. (By adult I don't mean racy.)

[sarahdee]

There's a smattering of adult fantasy in my reads as well. (By adult I don't mean racy.)

I was just telling a friend about a adult paranormal mystery I was working on and automatically assumed by adult I meant erotic (there isn't anything in it that remotely gets close to a sex scene).

I read crime, thriller, cosy mystery, dystopian fiction and sometimes SF or fantasy. Actually I struggle to get books in English so I pretty much read anything I can get my hands on. Except chick lit.

The last books I read are Onyx and Crake (Margaret Atwood), Dracula (Stoker) and one of the Kinsey Milhorne mysteries

[Falls Apart]

I read a really diverse range . . . my current favorite is the Gone series (classified as YA horror, although it never struck me as that "creepy"), but I've loved A Tale of Two Cities since reading it . . . I suppose YA is my favorite--seeing as that's what I write, it's better if I read a lot of it--but I also read a lot of adult. Right now, I'm working on The Pillars of the Earth, which is definitely adult. I suppose I don't care so much about genre--although I'm pretty disillusioned with romance, since my favorite character ends up heartbroken 99% of the time--as long as the characters are developed, the plot is good, and the writing style keeps me reading.

[Sleeping Beauty]

Working my way through the Penguin classics. I suppose 'classic' is a rather broad term for what I'm reading, since many of the books were original published in the last few decades. Can I just say I'm reading the cheap little books with the ugly orange covers?

[Although I've got nothing against orange itself, Penguin did choose what I'd call an eye-wateringly neon shade.]

[Down the well]

There's a smattering of adult fantasy in my reads as well. (By adult I don't mean racy.)

I was just telling a friend about a adult paranormal mystery I was working on and automatically assumed by adult I meant erotic (there isn't anything in it that remotely gets close to a sex scene).

I know! When did adult become synonymous with erotica? I write about grownups for grownups, but sometimes when I tell people I write adult fantasy, and oh my goodness there is a love story in it (no graphic sex), the eyebrows shoot up and I get the once over as if I'm some sort of degenerate. I think YA has taken over the world, lol.

[mrsound]

I like to read horror books. It gives you a shiver when you read the full suspenseful details of the story.

[PR Griffin]

(I also like chick lit. I'll read cozy mysteries, very occasionally thrillers like Grisham and Brown, and never literary fiction, if I can help it, it makes me very sad).

I don't understand this. By literary fiction I presume you mean Steinbeck, Kingsley Amis, Kafka etc..? By not reading these you are trying to write with only half a tool box at hand. In fact most genre material is sub par these days, as is most very modern Literary fiction I'm afraid.
But there are so many wonderfil early to late 20th Century writers out there that even were we to read five novels a week, doable but not financially I'm afraid, then we would still not exhaust them for decades.
I read all genres. But for helping me write and write well- Classic Literary fiction has no equal. The great early pioneers of genres- Conan Doyle, Hammet, R E Howard, AC Clarke and Asimov still have better ideas than most we see today. Alas we have a paucity of talent and a wealth of dross.
But do not write off (pardon the pun) Literary fiction. A writer should soldier through likes and dislikes for it is often said we read with theft in our hearts and criticism on our tongues. Yet all avenues must be pursued if you wish to improve.

[vasilisa]

Ready?
Fiction (historical, contemporary, women's, chick-lit if I want cheering up)
Literary
Historical mystery
Paranormal mystery (like Charlaine Harris)
Romance (historical, paranormal)
YA (historical & fantasy)
Fantasy (historical, urban, don't like sword & sorcery)
Steampunk

[Falls Apart]

Pretty much anything, although it preferably has at least some blood-and-guts. Currently into horror, which is convenient, since I'm writing it.

[rosepetal720]

Does no one read mainstream? (Or maybe people read mainstream but don't use that term.) That's the only thing I'll read.

By "mainstream," I mean books that everyone reads. I got sick of wasting my time with bad books, so I wait until everyone raves about a book or it wins prizes before I'll pick it up. Classics count (I love classics).

I'll read genre fiction rarely, and only if non-genre readers recognize it. Example, "Lonesome Dove" is the only Western I've read because it won the Pulitzer, and the only fantasy I remember reading as an adult is "Lord of the Rings."

Does anyone else read this way?