Where my authors at?

[kaitou]

Whenever I visit my parents, or have them over for any length of time we end up watching TV. Not just TV, but fiction TV. We watch Ugly Betty, Lost, The Women's Murder Club, Cold Case, ect, ect. And almost every time I think to myself, "This is a great show!" But when I'm alone again, I never watch them, even when nothing's on. Instead I always find myself riveted to Dirty Jobs, How It's Made, Engineering an Empire, Dog Genius, ect, ect. I am totally addicted to nonfiction, nonreality TV (Project Runway excepted).

And that got me to thinking about my reading habits too. I'd say maybe a fifth of my English books are fiction. And a good section of that is kids & YA books I mean to pass down someday (By the Great Horn Spoon is an unappreciated gem). The rest of it is all history, science, memoir, how-to and such. My current reading & to read shelf has a book about tracking stolen paintings, the history of salt, a book about an ancient greek explorer, and a book about supervolcanoes.

I've heard it said that you should read voraciously in the genre you want to write in. And I've also heard it said that you want to avoid reading your genre to avoid unconsciously copying. And for me, at least the past few years, it's been all about nonfiction books. So, other writers on the flist...what do you read the most?

Comments

[impfics.livejournal.com]

Hmm... I know when I'm writing in a fandom, I won't read anything in that fandom while I'm writing.
So if I'm working on a Detective Conan/Magic Kaito fic, I'll be reading Gundam Wing, or Final Fantasy, something that has nothing to do with it.
-partly because I don't want to inadvertently steal other people's ideas or versions of the characters, partly because I don't want to tangle up the plot lines.
Sometimes I'll read opposite genres as well. Writing drama and reading comedy, or vice versa.

For mysteries, I haven't been reading many mystery novels, preferring to read the 'Howdunnit (http://www.amazon.com/howdunit-series/lm/2IS50WU1FMSLU)' over the published 'Whodunnit' mystery novels. The same goes with television, the rare times I have access to it. Given a choice between CSI and a programme on historical serial killers, I'm glued to the serial killers.
It's much more fun to learn while being entertained than to be merely entertained. #^^#

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

I used to have a good chunk of the Howdunnit books before I let someone borrow them and they stopped coming to our meetings. Grr.

I totally agree that edutainment kicks ass. Way cooler when you can come away going 'and it's even true!'

[elfowls-nest.livejournal.com]

Fantasy, SF, and sappy historical romance novels. Which probably explains a lot about me. >,0

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

Ok, yeah, I love sappy historical romance novels too. (I totally have ideas for a couple of regency's in my head) My problem with them is that so many are so badly written! I listened to the smart bitches and picked up 'Mr. Impossible' by Loretta Chase....which was hilarious. I keep buying more by her, but none of them are nearly that caliber. What authors, in your opinion, should I keep a look out for?

On the other hand I'm finding fantasy less and less appealing. At least, the adult fantasy. Some of the YA stuff coming out has been really interesting. I could be wrong, but it feels like there's not a lot of innovation in adult fantasy.

[velithya]

My traditional happy place genre is fantasy (and SF, but mainly fantasy). I haven't been reading much apart from fanfic for a while, though.

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

Yeah, fantasy...or even manga hasn't been the happy place that it once was for me. (manga probably still would be if I was still in Japan) And I still chew through a lot of fanfic, but I think my happy place has definitely shifted to documentaries and nonfiction books. Other than the Daily Show & Colbert Report my tv viewing wasn't affected by the Writer's strike at all.