This is My Genre (Tag)

~ Bookstooge

I was tagged by Norrie at Reading Under the Blankie.  You can read all the fake rules at her place if you so care. She also credits the creator, so there is no need for me to. Not that I would anyway 😉

I’m busy and tired and some easy to do posts are saving my bacon right now.

maxresdefault

 

1) What is your favorite genre

Fantasy, pure and simple

 

2) Who is your favorite author within said genre

Man, that is TOUGH! Brent Weeks springs immediately to mind. Ian Esslemont does as well. It probably helps that I’m in the middle of waiting for both of them to wrap up their current series and have been buying them in hardcover as they come out.

Ian Cameron Esslemont
I would kill for a chin like that!
220px-brent_weeks_28673745657929
I think Weeks likes bacon more than I do

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) What is it about said genre that keeps pulling you back

Escapism. Fun, exciting action, convoluted plots, memorable characters, those all matter but it really comes down to escaping this current world for just 30-60min.

 

4) What is the book that started your love of said genre

I don’t know.  I suspect that the Chronicles of Narnia had something to do with it, as my mom read those to me before I could read for myself. So the idea of books holding the fantastical within their pages has always been a part of my life.  I suspect that by the time I was old enough to realize what genres were, I was already hooked.

chronicles
This is the set my mother used

 

I do remember reading an excerpt from a collection of short stories that a friend of mine had borrowed from the library. It was about a young boy who learned some magic from his weird aunt and then saved his town from invaders by calling up fog and leading them astray. Years later I read the full novel, A Wizard of Earthsea, and loved it just as much.

149064
I love that woodcut style cover

 

 

5) If you had to recommend at least one book from your favourite genre to a non-reader/someone looking to start reading that genre, what book would you choose and why?

If it was a young person, I’d recommend the Hobbit.  It is short, filled with everything you could want in a fantasy book (dragons, dwarves, orcs, wizards, humans, hobbits, etc), tells a fascinating story and has the added luck of being a standalone story that actually ties into a classic trilogy for when they are slightly older.

For a more mature reader, I’d go with either something by Brandon Sanderson or Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Shadow of the Apt series.

 

6) Why do you read

icanbecauseithinkican
What a joke. Idiot thinking like this? That’s what’s destroying our world.  You don’t get to be a Ranger or Special Forces or a SEAL because you think you can but because you actually CAN. And I don’t read 150+ books a year because I think I can but because I put in the hours to do so.

 

Because I enjoy it immensely. Not everyone is going to enjoy reading like I do, I understand that.

I also read because I’m an introvert and interacting with people wears me out. Reading helps me to recharge my battery so I don’t stick a fork through someone’s eye.

Reading also allows me to review and get these words out of my system. Unlike, say, Britchy,  I don’t have a vast store of stories to amuse you all with. I have some, but I have to release them like a miser so I don’t run out 🙂  Reviews allow me to remember stories from my past, while creating current stories and it all comes together to be my memory.

 

69744_e5ba29c7a30434f4bc463a46b4983112a8f97e56_original

So there we go. A nice little tag all wrapped up in a bow. I don’t tag people, as most of you know. I do encourage anyone who reads this to take it for themselves and use it for some of those dry times when writing a review just seems a bit much.

 

bookstooge (Custom)

 

36 thoughts on “This is My Genre (Tag)”

  1. I totally relate to the whole introvert/sticking-a-fork-through-someone’s-eye thing. Not many people understand that I’m trying to escape reality and socialising when I whip out a book and start reading. They keep attempting to make conversation. Ugh.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  2. I’m really looking forward to Brent Weeks’ Lightbringer series being finished so I can read it. 🙂 His Sept 2019 release date will probably conflict with my plans for next year, though. Maybe I’ll get to it in mid-2020.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. The introvert thing is spot on… we had our Christmas party last night, and the whole time i was thinking about being at home reading… 😁

    That first guy, with the good chin, could be the doppelganger of a colleague of mine 😀

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Our Christmas work party is coming up and for the last 10 years we’ve done lunches. I’ve loved it. This year our old office manager is gone and the bosses daughter is in charge and she’s a very social person. So a dinner it is. I expect lots of awkward silence as I pretend to enjoy dealing with work people outside of work hours :-/

      Who knows, maybe Esslemont moonlights when the books aren’t quite paying the bills? 😉

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  4. I used to read on the bus coming back from work and it was a guarantee that somebody would decide to annoy by asking what my book was about and if it was good. I’d be able to answer those questions if these idiots would leave me alone to get on with the reading!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Yep, so true! I’ve never had to take public transportation, but if I did, I’d be tempted to print up a ton of business cards with my blog address and something along the lines of “I’m Reading. Follow Me Online”. I would hope that would be enough of a hint 😀

      Like

      Reply

    2. Yeah, I deliberately picked a rather pudgy looking pix of him. I don’t know if he’s slimmed up now or not. Honestly, I rather doubt it 🙂
      Being an author isn’t exactly a very physical occupation. Just look at Brandon Sanderson, poor guy. I expect him to die of heart disease before I die of my diabetes 😉

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  7. Nice one, man 😉 The image of a fork in an eyeball stays with me.
    Wizard of Earthsea, Hobbit and Narnia are all great starting points, though I tried to sell Shadows of the Apt to some of my friends and curiously, the concept of a WWII in a world filled with enormous insects and insect-inspired magic clashing with very modern artifice didn’t convince them 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. When I talk about Apt, I leave out the whole WWII thing. That aspect doesn’t interest me one iota and in fact would have been a turn-off if I’d known about it when going in. I think it sells better as a straight up fantasy 😉
      But hey, if the barbarians don’t want to read good books, well….. 😉

      I call them “forkballs” and am thinking of marketing them as a meatball alternative for the very discerning gourmand 😀

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  8. “In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself. Like the night sky in the Greek poem, I see with a myriad eyes, but it is still I who see. Here, as in worship, in love, in moral action, and in knowing, I transcend myself; and am never more myself than when I do.”

    C S Lewis in “An Experiment in Criticism” the finest 20C of literary criticism.

    If people like you didn’t as much, there would not be hope for the world…we’d all be YouTubers… Or as someone wrote (tried to) on my blog: “Get pissed, books area a load of crap.” How can we respond to that??? Fortunately I have my spam square ticked on… Otherwise I’d my career as a book reviewer fucked, then! I told this to get pissed too and discuss a good book with a good friend…

    Loved your other answers, namely the one with Ursula’s book. My story is simliar. I just published a review of one of her books that influenced me the most when I started doing book reviewing.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Wow, someone had the gall to write something like that on your blog? I know you talk about getting spam comments, but my goodness, I’m rather shocked.

      Thankfully, I don’t seem to get those kind of people. I wonder if it has anything to do with where else you publish your reviews?

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. Maybe. I get all sorts of “people”… Because I don’t want to loose my stuff, I’ve got to publish my reviews in certail disrespectful sites…I could name it, but I won’t.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

  10. That’s exciting to hear Brent Weeks is one of your favourites, cos I’ve got one of his books lined up on my kindle- I’ve wanted to read something by him for years… so I better just get on and do it 😉 I love the escapism of fantasy too 🙂 So great hearing how you got into fantasy as well! And the Hobbit is always a fabulous rec. I absolutely love what you said about why you read and review as well- amen to all that!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Which books by Weeks? The Night Angel trilogy or his Black Prism series?

      Parents are great influencers on their children, for good OR bad. It makes me glad sometimes that Mrs B and I will never have to face the consequences that parents have to.

      I think the Hobbit should be required out-loud reading in first grade. Let the teachers read it out loud, a chapter a day or something. Something to fire the imagination and show the kids that imagination is good.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. I own a copy of those Narnia books, but when I became more monied, I bought a full set of hardcovers. One for memories, one for being a trophy on the shelf 🙂

      And that “I Can” will probably turn into a full blown post some day. So many rants, so few years 😉

      Like

      Reply
  12. Pingback: December ’18 Roundup & Ramblings | Bookstooge's Reviews on the Road

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

Gravatar
WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )

Cancel

Connecting to %s