My Favourite Genres of Fiction!

HiReaders! How are you all? What are you reading? Well, for me, I am currently stuck in the Chaos Walking Trilogy. ‘Stuck’ being the keyword. I read the first book, which was okay. But, now I am not able to find any motivation to read the second book. But, more about that later! Apart from that, I am also reading bits & pieces from Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming’ at tortoise pace. All these feelings of being stuck in books & reading crappy books finally lead me to write this post!

There are a lot of genres of books; categories & sub-categories & just so much! But, I won’t get into detail, partly because I don’t know the details of the Genre Family Tree. So, based on the books I have loved & liked so far, I made a list of my Top 5 Favourite Genres! As you all well know, I always read fiction, so all these are fiction genres. While I have read Non-fiction, in the form of memoirs, biographies & such in the past, I cannot say they are my favourite. I have read books of poetry, also not a favourite. I have come to realise that I only like particular kinds of books & so below goes the list! Hope this helps if you are stuck somewhere too.

~~HISTORICAL FICTION~~

The first & the most obvious favourite is Historical Fiction, which anyone who reads my blog even a bit, must know. I think this genre constitutes about 70% of my favouritism as compared to the rest on the list. It also happens that extremely good historical genre novels end up winning Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, which is another criterion I incline on before picking a book up.

Historical Fiction to me is basically a story stretched over a long period of time, the plot of which is based in the past, extra points from me if it is based in the World War period. (I know, but I can’t help it.)

My Favourite Historical Fiction novels are All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini, Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Some others on my TBR, which I am dying to read are A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, The Underground Railroad & The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead, The Song of Achilles & Circe by Madeline Miller.

~~CONTEMPORARY FICTION~~

This is basically the opposite of Classics, which I am not a fan of, with a few exceptions. Contemporary or Modern fiction is basically stories post World War II. There isn’t any better way to describe it. When I read a few books which became my favourites, I did not know that this was contemporary fiction. As much as I love historical fiction around World War II, I also love post-WWII literature.

Some of my absolute favourites from this genre include A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. And, I also have a lot of books from this genre on my TBR, including The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell, Pachinko by Min Jin Lee.

~~MYSTERY/CRIME/THRILLER~~

Well, who doesn’t like Mystery? And by Mystery, I am also allowing myself to include Crime & Thriller in this, because one is really incomplete without the other. The thing with these novels is that they are a page-turner. I start reading one & in just a couple of days or sometimes even in one day, I have finished it. I like that about it. But, the main aspect with mystery novels is that they need to be good, not just a page-turner. I mean, what’s the point if I read all day because it is so gripping only to end on a predictable end or not as satisfactory? That happens with me a lot. My expectations are set so high, I am never TRULY pleased with any mystery novels.

The only ones that did include Tell Me Your Dreams by Sidney Sheldon, The Dry & Force of Nature by Jane Harper, Inferno by Dan Brown, My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing. I know how hyped Alex Michaelides’ ‘The Silent Patient’ was, but I expected more from that novel. I also really tried with Gillian Flynn, but it wasn’t for me.

In mystery & thriller novels, usually the best books are underrated, as in the case of Jane Harper. My favourite authors in this area are Sidney Sheldon, Dan Brown & Jane Harper. I definitely need to find & read more good authors of this genre! For now, these are on my TBR; Pretty Things by Janelle Brown, The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn, The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware.

~~FANTASY/MAGICAL REALISM~~

Before you expect too much from me, let me translate. Fantasy = Harry Potter & Magical Realism = Murakami. Yes, there are other novels in each of these genres, but for me, these are the winners.

Some of my favourite Murakami books are Kafka on the Shore & A Wild Sheep Chase. And, those on my TBR are The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, The Elephant Vanishes, IQ84, Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage & many more!

~~HUMOUR~~

I can’t say that humour is my preference. But, given the kind of dark novels I like to read, I need to maintain some balance, so here it is. For me, Humour can be anything. It could be funny memoirs by funny people or actually humourous novels by P.G. Wodehouse or just a badly written YA novel that is so bad, it becomes funny.

Some of my favourites are The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling, I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron. I plan on reading a lot more of Wodehouse!

I honestly have read my fair share of bad books & I do not intend to go down that lane. So, from now on, I am strictly going to choose books from the above five genres. And yes, some of those could also be bad, but I will feel less miserable because I tried my best! Anyway, tell me what genres you prefer in the comments below!

Until next time,