Weekend Assignment: Book Boosters

Karen, at Outpost Mavarin, deals out the weekend assignments. While it is technically Monday, I don't consider the weekend over until I have to go back to work, so here goes...

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.

I've always been an avid reader, but the Internet sometimes gets me out of the habit of actually picking up a book and reading it. There are several genres that I like, but it would be hard to settle on a favorite. I like horror novels a la Stephen King or Dean Koontz, some science fiction, some mysteries, some political novels, historic novels. I'm making an effort to read some of the classic literature. I also like to read non-fiction books about politics or history, especially books about the Civil War. I'll read the occasional biography, but it's usually about someone like Ty Cobb or Braxton Bragg, never celebrities. I don't have a favorite genre. In fact, when I finish a book, I usually pick up something entirely different to read next. I've recently read Old Man's War by John Scalzi, Children of Men by P. D. James and Cell by Stephen King. Right now, I'm wading through Sketches from Boz by Charles Dickens. What will I read after that? Who knows? If you held a gun to my head and made me choose a favorite genre, I'd probably have to go with the horror novels. Most of them are pretty fun.

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

When I finish a book, my only reasons for keeping it are that it's so fantastic that I think I might want to one day read it again (which I rarely do, although I've read Catch-22 by Joseph Heller about five times) or that I think of someone I know that might like to read it. So, yes. Otherwise, I save them up and trade them in for new books (new to me) at the used bookstore.