Weekend Assignment #213: Book Boosters

Restored from last week:

I'm dipping into my Weekend Assignments-in-Waiting for this week's topic. I had an alternate idea at the last minute, but this one is better, so:

Time and again, readers of this blog have proven to be a pretty literate bunch, which is hardly surprising considering how many of you found the Outpost by reading blogs by a certain well-known writer. That fact, plus the requests for books in March's "birthday" assignment, has me wondering:

Weekend Assignment #213: While it may be difficult to choose your favorite book of all time, there's probably a certain genre or category of books you prefer over other kinds. Do you love a mystery, or would you rather read about dragons? Are you thirsty for a good vampire tale, or is science fiction more your style? Do you mostly stick with the classics, or look for the latest spy novel? Are you a biography buff? Do a lot of your books have the word "Dummies" in the title? Do you like to read about real-world politics, science, history or sports, or would you rather escape the real world with a good romance? Tell us! And while you're at it, tell us your second favorite category of books.

Extra Credit: Do you ever loan out books to friends or family?

I don't know what to list first in my own case, fantasy novels, as exemplified by Tolkien, Lewis et al., or science fantasy, mostly by Madeleine L'Engle but also including all those Doctor Who novels in the front room. Let's lump 'em together as speculative fiction, that handy catch-all into which I can cram Old Man's War, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Dragonsinger, The Once and Future King and the novelization of Remembrance of the Daleks. If it involves magic, time travel or non-human protagonists, there's a good chance I'll like it, subject to the following conditions:

1. The characters should be likeable and for the most part well-intentioned, but flawed and fallible; and

2. The prose should be accessible, neither too flat not too flowery.

The books nearest my computer at this moment

That should cover about 70% of my personal library. The rest mostly falls into three categories:

Also at my desk: Disney, sf, science and school stuff

1. "Making Of" Non-fiction about my favorite writers, films, tv shows and theme parks. I guess that's my second favorite. This category includes a bunch of books about Disneyland, Walt Disney, Disney films and Disney tv, and a bunch more about science fiction films, the Marx Brothers and various aspects of Doctor Who. I also have several books about the writing of Madeleine L'Engle.

2. Humor. Actually, this category consists almost entirely of books by James Thurber.

3. Kids' books. If you want to be really lax about that speculative fiction category, you can skip this one and show my children's and YA books in with the other sff (science fiction and fantasy). I'm talking about Mary Poppins and Winnie the Pooh, Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish.

And no, I never lend my books to anyone. But I do need to return some!

Off you go, then! Write a blog entry about your favorite kinds of books, and be sure to include a link back here. Then leave a link to your entry in the comments below. The roundup of responses will be posted next Thursday night as usual. Happy reading (and writing)!

Karen

Tomorrow: Preparing for "One Last Round." Here's a picture by way of a teaser: