What is your favorite type of fiction book?

Chris, I'm assuming that you're asking the question in part to guage interest in what sort of books we'd like to read as part of a BookTalk fiction discussion, so rather than misrepresent myself by just clicking one of the options you've provided, I'm going to give a slightly more nuanced view.

Is everyone properly shocked? Good; down to business.

The short form answer is that I'll read just about anything, so long as it's really, really well-written. I like crime fiction, but I'll only read about 5% of what's out there, because the rest of it is so -- not amateurish, but mediocre. I'll reread a James Cain novel rather than bother with a James Petterson novel I've never read before. Even an author like Thomas Harris, who not too long ago was supposed to be the avant garde of the literary crime thriller, isn't of much interest to me. It isn't that he's bad, he's just so rarely great. And there are too many great books out there to be wasting time on books that aren't. About once a year I'll read something that I expect to be total fluff, but the rest of the time I'd rather talk a walk than read a book

The long answer is that, for that reason, I typically read older books, which probably isn't going to sit well with your ambitions for starting a fiction reading. The reason I prefer older books is that less of the mediocre books survive. Society has a short memory and very little patience for last year's less-than-best books. That isn't to say that some great books don't get passed over, but for the most part, if a book's reputation survives a decade past its publication, it's because there's at least some merit to it. If it survives the lifespan of its original readership, there's probably a lot to recommend in it.

To that end, I read a lot of "classics", although, that name has been stretched beyond just about any immediately recognizable meaning. The "Illiad" is classical in the original sense of the word, but what about "Gilgamesh"? Even as recently as the 19th century I don't think many people would have regarded "The Song of Roland" as a classic, despite its reputation, influence and antiquity. Is "Catcher in the Rye" a classic? What about Cormac McCarthy's most recent novel, "The Road"? I guess what I mean by the word in this specific context is simply books that have maintained a high reputation for a good 40 years of more -- longer, that is, than you would generally expect a book to remain in the public eye.

Beyond that, it doesn't much matter what genre it belongs to. I like the science fiction of Philip K. Dick and William Gibson (mostly his shorter stuff); the horror fiction of Lovecraft, Algernon Blackwood, and some of the Gothic writers; the romance/melodrama of Thomas Hardy and Victor Hugo; children's fiction, straight drama, Greek tragedy, so on, so forth ad infinitum.

Uh, I have a question. Are you seriously considering Wicked and Atlas Shrugged, and while we're at it Come On People and I Did It as future book choices, or are they just up there for the time being?

I love Sci Fi and Fantasy...though less Fantasy unless it is dark. I will try anything though...but tend to always come around to Sci-Fi or related stuff.

Those books are indeed the offical readings Rose! I am halfway through Atlas Shrugged...I started it in 2001...Serious. I got real tired of the books paper thin characters (Dagny just makes me want to puke, as well as that Reardon guy...) and plot halfway through. TOOO long a read for no good reason.

Mr. P.

....because my favorite is not in the list. You need a selection "all of the above as long as it is well written" Which unfortunately excludes most of the books on any best-seller list. Of course it makes sense that the most popular books are not going to be the best written. When has popularity ever been equal to quality? (that's a real question if anyone has an answer/opinion)