Further inquiry regarding female taste in sci-fi & fantasy

[The Procrastinator]

I don't care for horror, but I do like thrillers. Not so keen on the supernatural, either, though I love fantasy. Who can say why, but that's how it is...

 

[Daisy-Boo]

I'm very selective when reading (or watching) anything horror/supernatural. My imagination works overtime and I end up scaring myself witless.

For example, it took me a year to finish reading Stephen King's The Regulators. I kept breaking off every time I got too scared and I never read when it was dark.

Yeah, I'm a scaredy-cat.

 

[jennyjj]

thats a good one! my dad got me into fiction v early, david eddings n all that and i was hooked. Personally i do like chicklit sometimes, especially if its not pretentious ie doesnt try to save the world or impart moralistic messages. I see the purpose of good clean mindless escapism but i wouldnt read a book like bridget jones, i'd watch the film but reading takes attention and time and although its my fav hobby i dont want to waste my time watching colin farrell

 

[jennyjj]

i meant firth! lol guess that says it all

 

[jennyjj]

Daisy B im the same, stephen kings insomnia is the scariest i've read..give it a go if you dont need sleep x

 

[Anne Lyle]

Looks like I'm one of those rare female SF&F fans who doesn't like horror

I don't think of myself as the least bit girlie - I'm an IT geek who vastly prefers computers to babies! - but OTOH I don't mind the odd rom-com on film, though I don't read them (apart from Jane Austen). OK, OK, so I did read "Bridget Jones' Diary" (my mum's copy) ages ago after a breakup, but I was in a very emotional female place at the time *lol* The only other romance I read is the very occasional gay historical by a member of my writing group

Outside SF&F I mostly read non-fiction and historical fiction (Sarah Dunant is especially good), and when it comes to films I like comedies or anything with a good balance of action and drama: Master and Commander, Zatoichi, etc. Non-stop Michael-Bay-style action movies bore me!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I don't read modern horror novels, but I do enjoy some Victorian horror (at the risk of starting JD off on the differences between Gothic, horror, ghost stories, etc.). I think I read a pretty wide range of fantasy -- I don't care for excessive violence, which makes it particularly odd that I have been reading Carol Berg lately -- but not nearly so much science fiction as I used to. I read books written for adults, for teenagers, for children.

If I look at my bookshelf of favorite books, I find that I lean very heavily toward women SFF writers. As a gross generalization, they tend to focus more on the mental and emotional lives of the characters than the men do, which is what I like, and in the way that I like. With the YA and children's books, it's probably a 50/50 split between male and female writers.

 

[Anne Lyle]

If I look at my bookshelf of favorite books, I find that I lean very heavily toward women SFF writers. As a gross generalization, they tend to focus more on the mental and emotional lives of the characters than the men do, which is what I like, and in the way that I like. With the YA and children's books, it's probably a 50/50 split between male and female writers.

Same here. I have a few favourite male authors, like Terry Pratchett and Tim Powers, but I like strong, complex characters combined with a good plot, and as you say, women tend to do more of that kind of thing.

As for gender of the protagonist, I tend to prefer male (in both reading and writing), but maybe that's because it's harder to write a strong but realistic female within a pre-modern culture whilst avoiding the "amazon" stereotype. And let's face it, cute guys are fun to read about

 

[FaerieMajikk]

this is interesting to read... me personally i like thrillers and supernatural style books other than fantasy, i am not big on SF though, I don't like chik lit, this includes romance unless...its tragic. Not necessarily romeo and juliet style but even something where- the guy does NOT get the girl, much the same as movies too, i hate romantic movies unless it's tragic or similar for example - Love Story and I love Chasing Amy!

But i prefer Fantasy novels although sometimes i feel like a fraud as I can not get into any Tolkien books, i have tried but I find the writing very 'flowering' almost to the rambling stage.
(will now sit back and wait for the hate mail)

 

[Lacivetta]

I actually find the question kind of meaningless. It implies that women are a homogenous (?sp.) mass, which seems a bit odd. Yes, sure there are female and male cultures (or maybe natures, who knows) but as individuals, we're more different than the same.

To put it one way, do you think you are more similar to most people of the same sex, or most people with similar tastes to you? Or do you think that these two groups of people would be the same?