What is something you hate? What is something you love?
The thing about opinions is that somebody always disagrees with you. There is somebody that loves what you hate and hates what you love.
What does this have to do with the Fantasy genre? You might have guessed by now. If you hate it, there’s somebody that likes it. If you like it, there’s somebody that absolutely despises it.

So, now that we’ve got all of that understood, let’s discuss. You might be thinking “Why in the world would anybody want to read about pointy-ear creatures, complicated magic tricks, and lots of boring battle scenes?” And then, on the other hand, you could be quoting some line from Lord of the Rings and wanting it to be written on your grave when you die (hopefully in some Fantastical event, if you were able to choose.)
There are, like any genre, some things that people on the outside-looking-in get wrong. What are some of those? I’ll tell you, from what I can tell.
First of all, there seems to be an idea that Fantasy is all about magic, battle, elves, weird creatures, and that some of the elements are just so bizarre that nobody could ever truly write a good book! You’re thinking, “Have you seen those covers?? What am I even looking at!”

Well, let me clear things up. There are some unbelievable elements in Fantasy (as in every genre ever written), but there are many great books that are captivating, entertaining, and enjoyable… and they have elves, dwarfs, magic, complicated covers, etc. If you don’t believe me, it’s probably because you’ve never even tried a Fantasy book.
Another thing people have accused the genre of is being too repetitive. They say everybody is trying to copy someone else. Whether it’s Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, or one of Stephen King’s forays into the category, there are certainly some books that have a legendary status (depending on who you ask.) But even if some authors try to copy these books almost word-for-word, the best of them make their own trail through the genre.
Why should you like Fantasy, or at least give it a try?First of all, if you like maps, this genre has tons of maps. Maps in the stories, maps on the back cover, maps online, they’re everywhere! And along with those maps comes worldbuilding.
This is one of the few (if not the only) genre where you can see worlds literally being built in front of your eyes. From the ground up, you see all the chaos and disaster of our own world history, but on a different stage, with different actors, and with a few unique elements thrown in.
I’m not saying you have to love Fantasy, but hopefully, in this short article, I’ve shown you that there are plenty of good sides to the genre -and to every genre of books ever written. If a book has a good author, no matter what the genre is you will find things that you enjoy.
We all have adesirefortheFantasyintheworld, for the unique and different aspects of life. We all love a good adventure story, or a coming-of-age tale, or a treasure hunt. And all of those have heavy roots in the Fantasy.
So why not give it a shot?What do you have to lose?If you ever get lost, there’s plenty of maps to help you find your way home.
Why the beep do people like Young Adult? by a YA Writer
What is Young Adult fiction? Is it a genre? Is it an age group? That’s a tough question and not the one I’ll be answering today.
What I’m more interested in is why people like and dislike the (for sake of time, we’ll call it this) very controversial genre. There are many people online who write that it is unacceptable and almost sinful for adults to read this. And then there are those who think the opposite. It seems like the book sales and the movies being made agree with the latter, soI’ll try to give you some reasons why people find these books intriguing.
First of all, these stories are written for younger audiences, clearly. So the themes in them are more innocent, more simple. That’s one thing that appeals to people: the clear, black-and-white good-vs-evil conflicts, or even the somewhat murkier stories that have been coming out recently. As adults read more YA Fiction, the genre becomes more suitable to them, and more like the Literary Fiction works that adults used to find the most entertaining (according to some article I read. It said that YA was like the new Lit Fic. I don’t know about that.)
The other thing is that characters in these novels go through tremendous growth, both physically and emotionally. Not to mention, the characters themselves are younger, and I’m sure adults get tired of reading about other adults doing other adult things. So YA books are different, and that can be refreshing.
So why should you read YA books? Well, they always have happy endings, at least 99.9% of the time (not an actual statistic, although you probably know that.) Along with the endings, there is normally a long series of books for any given story. So that’s nice if you’re looking for a long project of reading.
And one of the most important reasons, especially for some people, is that they keep making movies of these books! If you’re the type of person that loves to say, “Hey, I read that book!” when watching the previews of a movie, then this is definitely your genre.
No matter what genre you read, don’t be afraid to try others, and to always keep an open mind when you’re deciding which next book is worth your attention! Chances are, it has a young adult in it (even if it’s not this genre.)

Our thanks go out to David Kummer for sharing his viewpoint on these four genres and what draws readers to them.