I have a feeling I'm going to be posting on this new blog a lot---probably way too much. But since anything except autism is a pretty broad range of topics, I keep thinking of things I want to write! I'll have to hold back, as it probably looks tragically nerdy or weird to post multiple times a day. This is the last post today (I think!)
I've always liked to read science fiction. Or I thought I did. I like actually a fairly narrow range within science fiction, mostly just short stories, and most ones that involve something weird happening, or an O. Henry type surprise ending. I don't like overly sciencey ones, or ones that are what I guess is called space opera, or ones that are so literary it's hard to get what is going on. I mostly read anthologies, because if I read too many stories by the same author in a row, I tend to get burnt out of their style. Picky, picky, picky. When I find a story I like, it feels like a huge treat. If for some reason you'd like to read what I consider the most perfect collection of stories I've ever read (although right away this breaks my rule, as it's all by one person), here's the link to a collection by Jack Finney. I like stories that start out as part of regular life---I don't like fantasy worlds usually much at all. Although the Narnia Chronicles or Alice in Wonderland or the Oz books aren't really considered sci-fi, they are all examples of what I like. Everyday people are in their everyday world, and then something bizarre happens, and they react to it.
Lately I'm thinking that what I like might not be really considered sci-fi. I don't know if there is a category for what it is considered. I was very surprised one time when I bought a collection of horror short stories on a whim, and realized I really liked a lot of them. I'd never have thought of myself as a horror fan, but the stories were close to what I liked---weird things happening. I didn't really like it that all of them had hugely upsetting and sad endings, but hey---they do call it horror for a reason. I've found a few collections over the years that fit my bill---just stories of uncanny things happening. I even like to read "true" stories like that, of people disappearing in thin air, or doubling themselves, or floating, or finding artifacts from the future. I don't believe any of them, but if you read them as realistically written fiction, they are very cool.
My mother reads mysteries, and likes mostly what are called "cozy" mysteries. It's strange, as mysteries for adults are just about 100% about murder, so it's hard to picture how they can also be cozy or domestic, but they are. The person that dies is always someone bad, and the person solving it is usually a novice with another real passion in life---knitting, cooking, book collection, cats---and the mystery solving is just kind of a glue to hold the book together, from what I can gather. I don't read a lot of mysteries. But I guess that intrigues me because it's a sub-genre, and my kind of sci-fi is a sub-genre. I wish I could figure out exactly what it is named, if it has ever been named, because I'd like to read a lot more of it, without having to pick through a lot of what I don't like. Although, to be fair, that is how most of us get exposed to writing outside our comfort zones.
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