For some reason, people think that writing in a genre produces work that has inherently less literary value than writing literature. Literature is the type of writing that sweeps you away with the words, rhythms, descriptions … Genre writing evidently plods along to predictable tropes without any flashes of anything remarkable.
That’s harsh. And not entirely accurate – or at least not accurate across all authors.
The same general attitude seems to carry over to what people read. There are people who only read literature – roughly designated as such by the NYT and Oprah. There are other people who read genre works as designated by genre associations.
I will read just about any type of novel. I also read a lot of nonfiction. Which leaves me knowing that those who avoid one type of book for another are definitely missing some good stories.
What about you? What do you favor?
Take our admittedly unscientific poll!