Friday, October 19, 2012

Follow Friday - If You Are Caught Between the Angels of Light and Death, You Might Be in Artemis 81


It's Friday again, and this means it's time for Follow Friday. There has been a slight change to the format, as now there are two Follow Friday hosts blogs and two Follow Friday Features Bloggers each week. To join the fun and make now book blogger friends, just follow these simple rules:
  1. Follow both of the Follow My Book Blog Friday Hosts (Parajunkee and Alison Can Read) and any one else you want to follow on the list.
  2. Follow the two Featured Bloggers of the week - Kinx's Book Nook and Shelf Addiction.
  3. Put your Blog name and URL in the Linky thing.
  4. Grab the button up there and place it in a post, this post is for people to find a place to say hi in your comments.
  5. Follow, follow, follow as many as you can, as many as you want, or just follow a few. The whole point is to make new friends and find new blogs. Also, don't just follow, comment and say hi. Another blogger might not know you are a new follower if you don't say "Hi".
  6. If someone comments and says they are following you, be a dear and follow back. Spread the love . . . and the followers.
  7. If you want to show the link list, just follow the link below the entries and copy and paste it within your post!
  8. If you're new to the Follow Friday Hop, comment and let me know, so I can stop by and check out your blog!
And now for the Follow Friday Question: When you step out of your USUAL genre what do you like to read? Best books in that genre?

When I step out of my usual genres of science fiction and fantasy, I usually turn to nonfiction, specifically science or history. I read history because, well, I like history, which would be the reason why one of my undergraduate majors is a B.A. in History. One notable advantage that reading a lot of history gives me is that I am usually able to spot when an author steals from actual history to fuel the plot of their story. I should note that I generally include reading about mythology in the ambit of "history", because having an understanding most mythology is intimately tied to being able to acquire an understanding of how people in historical eras thought, which is critical for understanding why they took certain actions and forewent others.

I read science books both because I like reading them, and because a working knowledge of science is incredibly helpful when reading science fiction, and often makes the stories much better. A lot of science fiction obviously involves bending the rules of science to make the story work, but having a basic grasp of the scientific concepts involved usually helps make a story more enjoyable. For example, knowing just a little bit about imaginary numbers, Klein bottles, and antimatter makes the explanations Catherine Asaro gives in her books about the Skolian Empire that much more interesting than they would be without that knowledge.


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16 comments:

  1. Good picks!

    I'm a science fiction junkie myself! PNR and steamy romance is what I read out of my genre! :)

    New follow via GFC.

    Julie~ New Adult Addiction

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  2. New Follower. I haven't touched a non-fiction book since I graduated from the U of Iowa. Kudos to you. Here is my FF: http://contagiousreads.blogspot.com/2012/10/ff-3.html

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  3. I love science fiction an fantasy but I also love historical fiction. I have a ton of history books too and mythology books too mainly Greek mythology. Also maybe you can help me out with a query in my answer on my blog? (some adult sci-fi recommendations :)

    New follower via GFC!
    Becca @ Lost in Thought
    http://lostinthought-becca.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/feature-follow-2.html

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  4. I'm definitely a history junkie! :D New follower via GFC. My FFs are at Musings on Fantasia and LKHill. Happy Friday! :D

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  5. I occasionally read nonfiction, normally funny or how-to books to learn specific skills.

    My follow friday! Please visit!

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  6. Quite intelligently put!
    I like how you explained the allure of Historical fiction. I have a fascination with History too. But haven't read much in that genre (Deborah Harkness doesn't really count!)
    It would be cool if you could suggest some books.
    And yep, I agree with your view on the Sci-fi genre too.
    Like your answer!

    New follower!
    Will visit your blog often now :)
    My post - F&F

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  7. Nice, I don't really like reading about history, but it's nice that you have something you enjoy enough to read about. :)

    New Follower! My FF @ Pink Fluffy Hearts

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  8. I said non-fiction too :D I think it has to do with my sci-fi addiction....

    I'm a new follower! Here's my blog: http://www.onstarshipsanddragonwings.com/2012/10/21/feature-follow-friday-1/

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  9. @Julie: I rarely read paranormal romance, but I have read a few. I pretty much avoid romance novels in general, but I'm reasonably sure that makes me like a lot of other men.

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  10. @LoriP; I find that reading nonfiction every now and then helps refresh my brain and resets my mind for fiction reading again.

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  11. @beccabooklover: I tried to answer your book query on your blog, but my browser got weird on me, so I'll answer here. Try getting some books by Ursula K. Le Guin, C.J. Cherryh, Robert Silverberg, or Clifford D. Simak.

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  12. @veela-valoom: I have a decent chunk of humor books on my shelf, but not so many how-to books. I usually only get how-to books when I want to figure out how to do something specific, and often, what I want is so specific that I need to hunt for instructions on the internet.

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  13. @Aditi Gupta: For historical fiction I suggest Bernard Cornwell or Conn Iggulden. Their material is pretty well-researched and enjoyable to read.

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  14. @Corina Lombardi: I have found so many examples of authors pulling material from history that it has become almost a hobby of mine to identify when an author is pulling from our past to fuel his fiction.

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  15. @Anya @ On Starships and Dragonwings: I think science fiction readers generally have a lot of cross over with people who enjoy reading nonfiction. I don't know what that says about science fiction readers, or if it says anything in particular at all.

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  16. @Liesel K Hill: I find history endlessly fascinating. It seems that the twists and turns of our actual history are often so convoluted that if similar events were to be described in fiction, no one would believe them.

    Also, the links in your comment are broken.

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