The Next Best Book Club discussion

As I am going through my bookshelves, I am trying to distinguish my books into catagories. I am having a hard time with some of my Stephen King books.

In looking up the definition of fantasy it is:

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting. Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of scientific and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three (collectively known as speculative fiction).

So I am thinking if it has gruesome parts, but that is not the entire premise of the book and it can't be explained by science then it can fall into the fantasy catagory. Does that sound right?


For instance I am thinking the Green Mile, Eyes of the Dragon, Regulators, Desperation...

-Heather

Hey chicka, since this is about books, well... sorta :)
I moved it to the reading habits thread.
Hope you dont mind!!

oh, btw, everything King to me is Horror! hee hee.. He is the KING of horror!

I LOVED Eyes of the Dragon. My favorite from him by a long shot!

Opps, I wasn't sure since it's not a specific book. That's what I get for assuming. Chalk it up to being a newbie.

Doloris Claiborne and Shashank Redemption aren't horror though...not fantasy either...kwim?

Welp, thats one reason why I never shelve things by genre, I suck at sticking a label to my books!
Hopefully some other members will be able to shed more light on that for you.

In the bookstore world authors are generally shelved for what they're best known. So in the case of Stephen King he is primarily known for his horror writing, regardless of the few non-horror books and stories he's written. Also keep in mind that with horror (and especially with King's horror in specific) there is often the element of psychological horror. Splitting multi-genre authors into different sections in a bookstore truly creates chaos, so while I see your point about some of King's writing being more fantastic than horror, he is (like Lori said) considered the king of horror and therefore will always be put in horror.

Also keep in mind that fantasy and science fiction are often shelved together. When you look at it that way it's harder (for me anyway) to imagine putting King anywhere near there.

This is very true! Thanks for responding. The concept of "psychological horror" really helps.

Yeah, Koontz is also way up on the psychological horror scale too!!

Lori wrote: "oh, btw, everything King to me is Horror! hee hee.. He is the KING of horror!

I LOVED Eyes of the Dragon. My favorite from him by a long shot!"

I love that one, too! But for some reason, every time I try to read it (about 4 or 5 times now) the books gets lost or just disappears on me. I have never actually finished it. But as far as I have gotten, I love!

5peas, King is my favorite author, so maybe I can help you by telling you how I have his books shelved in my own shelving system. :)

I believe that the majority of his books I consider fantasy. There aren't many that I consider sci-fi, because in my mind, there has to be a preponderance of technological or scientific elements to the story, and I don't really think a lot of King's books have that. Some are cross-overs, though, so I will have them on both lists. These would be books like "The Stand" and "Cell", etc.

Anyway, here's my list. Sorry in advance for the length, I have a few OCD tendencies myself. :)

*A note, I'll only specify my fiction shelf if I do not have it on a fantasy or sci-fi shelf.

.The Bachman Books (including Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork and The Running Man) - Fiction
.Bag of Bones - Fiction, Hauntings
.Black House - Fantasy
.Blaze - Fiction
.Carrie - Fantasy
.Cell - Fantasy, Sci-fi
.The Colorado Kid - Fiction
.Cujo - Fiction
.The Dark Half - Fantasy
.The Dark Tower series - Fantasy
.The Dead Zone - Fantasy
.Desperation & The Regulators - Fantasy
.Different Seasons - Fiction
.Dolores Claiborne - Fiction
.Dreamcatcher - Fantasy, Sci-fi
.Duma Key - Fantasy
.Everything's Eventual - Fantasy
.The Eyes of the Dragon - Fantasy
.Firestarter - Fantasy, Sci-fi
.Four Past Midnight - Fantasy
.From a Buick 8 - Fantasy
.Gerald's Game - Fiction
.The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - Fantasy
.The Green Mile - Fantasy
.Hearts in Atlantis - Fantasy
.Insomnia - Fantasy
.It - Fantasy
.Just After Sunset - Fantasy
.Lisey's Story - Fantasy
.Misery - Fiction
.Needful Things - Fantasy
.Night Shift - Fantasy
.Nightmares and Dreamscapes - Fantasy
.Pet Sematary - Fiction, Horror
.Rose Madder - Fantasy
.Salem's Lot - Fiction, Vampires
.The Shining - Fantasy
.Skeleton Crew - Fiction
.The Stand - Fantasy, Sci-fi
.Storm of the Century - Fantasy
.The Talisman - Fantasy
.Thinner - Fiction
.The Tommyknockers - Fantasy, Sci-fi

First, it is important that we each shelf our books in a way that is most comfortable to us.

But, although it is theoretically possible to shelve books by genres, it is becoming more difficult as fiction writers expand their range of talents; and write more books that span genres. This is, of course my own opinion.

For example, using Goodreads and Wikipedia has provided me with an ever increasing list of books I'm interested in reading; so I have been compiling typed lists of books and authors that I bring to the library with me so that I don't have to searh my memory when I go through the shelves. But more and more many authors are listed among many genres in the libraries; and I am increasingly unable to predict where a particular book will be. After I assume that the book is out or unavailable, I will stumble upon it in an unexpected genre.

There are four libraries more or less equidistant from my home. And about two weeks ago, I went to the least frequented, smaller branch library. And I discovered that the librarian there had given up and shelved all the books alphabetically by author--no mystery shelves, no science fiction shelves, no fantasy shelves, etc. (of course Reference and Young Adult still remained) Now I could find the books I was looking for very easily; I didn't have to guess which genre this librarian thought a particular book belonged to. I found every book I was looking for.

So, personally, I think genre gets in the way.

Mosca- That is how my library is sorted too. Except there is a seperate section for bio/autobios. It's fabulous isn't it??

For my personal library, I group my books by authors, in loose genres. For example, I have fiction, non-fiction, YA, childrens, and reference type books (this is where many of my school books that i want to hold onto go). This makes it so much easier, because I can keep authors together and not get into the specific genre dilema that it seems like you're in, and I was in too.

I find that there's so much overlap between fantasy and scifi that I put them together under the heading "speculative fiction." I do have genre shelves for Goodreads, but they aren't hard and fast - sometimes I'll see a book in my read list and recategorize it on the fly. I mostly use them as a rough guide to try and get books shelved with ones that are similar.