Wow.. you guys have some great insights on literature! I could identify at least one thing that I liked in everyone's posts.

I've got some more questions for you all though. Nobody mentioned anything about dramatic monologues. Does anyone here like that style? It's an interesting way to write, but I don't that kind often.

Also, does anyone here like second person? Haha, that stuff is funny. I remember the "Goosebumps" series had a few books published where you chose what would happen.

I'm sorry Nostalgicdemise, I should have elucidated on that. I said third person limited, but I meant third person (multi-character) limited, where chapters are focused on one specific character, and the next chapter could be about a different character.

My favorite books are from the "Dark Materials" trilogy. 'The Golden Comass', 'The Subtle Knife' and 'The Amber Spyglass' are some of the most well written books I've ever read. I love them beause it has my favorite POV; I also like them because you can find a little of each genre in them. Does anyone else agree?

I like histoical romances. Especially if they take place in the 19th century. I'm sure why i gues i just think they're interesting. I like to learn things form the books I read.

__________________
It's not the fear forgeting...but the fear of being forgotten

I'm reading a great book right now. It's "The Penultimate Peril", by Lemony Snicket (real name is Daniel Handler). Anybody read his works?

The series is called "A Series of Unfortunate Events". It's kind of interesting, because with each book I feel that it's made for a slightly older audience. I don't know how many little children would know that the Baudelaire children is actually a mock off the poet, Baudelaire. There's other great euphemisms and symbolic details in these books.

The style of Mr. Snicket is mock-victorian, and he's a master at writing in this style. I like to call his books, "tragic comedies" because they really are quite funny, even though the lives of the Baudelaires' is so depressing.

I would like to think, that I'm able to enjoy all kinds of literature. But my favourite would be the kind where the characters' inner world collides with the outside world. So to speak.

For example: in "Lord of the Flies" a group of ordinary boys are stranded on a desert island, and as a result, they do things they would normally never do. J. G. Ballard is a master of this genre; whether he deals with car crashes as a sexual fetish ("Crash") or the isolating effect of living in a skyscraper ("High-Rise"), he creates worlds where the characters' inner obsessions have a profound effect on the outside world.

I also like writers who understand, that in order to have a deeper understanding of the world, you sometimes need to take a more or less skewed perspective on it. Franz Kafka is propably the best known such writer.

As for pure genre-literature, I like the kind, where the writer takes the conventions of the genre and moulds them to serve his/her own purposes. Philip K. Dick does that for science fiction, Jim Thompson does it for crime stories.

As for style, I don't really have a favourite. As long as it works for the novel as a whole, I'm game.

[quote=Ice Blue Fire]I'm reading a great book right now. It's "The Penultimate Peril", by Lemony Snicket (real name is Daniel Handler). Anybody read his works? QUOTE]

I have read all the books in teh series, including "The Penultimate Peril"; that series is one of my favorites, and I love Snicket's sense of humor. Did you like the movie as much as the books? Personally for me, no movie made from a book is better than the book itself, although I do enjoy the Harry Potter movies.

My favorite genre is fantasy, and my favorites include the Inheritance Trilogy by Christopher Paolini, and the Redwall Series by Brian Jacques. Third person is my favorite perspective, and I do like books that teach me about the world, but I prefer books that challenge my way of thinking; "The DaVinci Code" and "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown were excellent.

I'm glad you like him too! He has such an amazing sense of humour, I agree. I like how he uses a lot of older authors in his stories as characters you know, like "Baudelaire" and such.
Fantasy is quite a good genre. I have heard quite a lot about Mr. Paolini as well as Mr. Jacques. I have never read their works though. I have only read one novel by Dan Brown, and that was the hugely controversial "The Davinci Code". I thought it was entertaining to read, although it was too easy to figure out what was going to happen next. For me at least.

__________________

I LOVE to read, but I can't really say I have a favorite genre. I read some of everything. Modern stuff, bestsellers, classics, all different subjects, as long as it's good. I do read a lot of romance novels, though...such a guilty pleasure

Personally, I like first person narrative a lot...you really get to know the main character inside out, and kind of get close to them. But third person omniscent is also good because you see everything, even things the characters don't, and sometimes you see into the antagonist's heads and know their motives and whatnot. I always like it when that happens.

__________________

The latest book I've been reading in my English class is actually a play, but whatever. It's Lorraine Hansbury's, "A Raisin in the Sun". It's about a a family that lives in Chicago's southside ghetto. Anyone else read this book?

We haven't gotten too far into it, so I don't know if I'm going to like it yet.