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21+ Most Popular Book Genres Explained – Find Your Favorite Genre

Do you get confused between different book genres when you want to start reading books?

Whenever someone starts or wants to start reading books they get a big question “Which book I should start with?” or “what type of book I’ll like?”. This is the case with all the readers, especially with new ones. There are so many genres and categories that people often get confused.

What Is Book Genre?

Every work of literature is divided into genres. They are categorized by their style, tone, target audience, time period, and various other factors. All these are the factors that differentiate fiction and nonfiction. Which are also divided into genres and sub-genre.

Books On The Basis Of Genre

Book Genre is a vast topic and one book can have a mix of different Genres and Sub-Genres. It may sound confusing in the beginning but once you start reading books these things will become more clear to you. It’s quite easy to understand as genres are the same everywhere whether it comes to movies or books. 

The Two Major Category

All the books are divided into these two major categories. Readers mostly choose their books on the basis of these categories that is Fiction and Non-Fiction

Fiction

• In Fiction books plot, setting, and characters are created from the imagination of the writer. They are not real. Places and Some incidents can be real and also made up.

Examples – Game Of Thrones, Hunger Games, Harry Potter, The Girl On The Train, Percy Jackson

Non-Fiction

• Non-Fiction books are literature based on facts and true events. It provides accurate information regarding a real-world topic.

Examples- The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind, Unfinished by Priyanka Chopra, Steve Jobs, Wings Of Fire(Autobiography).

Genre That Comes Under Fiction Category

Fantasy and Mythology 

It’s a whole different world created by the writers, which can also have Mythological stories from different parts of the world. It features magical and supernatural elements that do not exist in the real world. It can have mix of real-world with non-real elements.

Examples:- Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Percy Jackson, The Shiva Trilogy 

Crime and Mystery

It follows crime like murder mystery or disappearance, detective story or any kind of Mystery and Crime. It mainly focuses on the investigation. How, why, and when the crime was committed.

Examples:- Sherlock Holmes, Good Girl’s Guide To Murder

Adventure/ Action 

In this, the protagonist (main character)  goes on an epic journey, either personally or geographically. It’s exciting and involves danger and risk. 

Examples:- Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Life Of Pie

Science Fiction (Sci-fi) 

It typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel universes, and extraterrestrial life.

Examples:- The Martin, Dune 

Thriller and Suspense 

It’s a fiction that gives you chills and excitement because of its intriguing and suspenseful story. It can be any type of novel Crime, Romance, Fantasy, or Science Fiction which gives a thriller experience. 

Examples:- The Girl On Train, The Silent Patient, Verity, Gone Girl

Romance

As the name says it centers around love and relationships as its primary plot elements. But it’s not always just a casual contemporary love story. There are twists, Thrills, Suspense, and Fantasy in Romance books too. 

Examples:- It Ends With Us, The Love Hypothesis, Fifty Shades Of Grey,  From Blood, And Ash

Horror 

Horror is a genre of fiction that is meant to frighten, scare, shock, or disgust. The story is written in a way that creates a feeling of fear in the reader. It has supernatural and paranormal elements in morbid stories.

Examples:- Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Children Books

The literature is written for entertainment and to provide information to the children. It can be fiction, non-fiction, stories, poems and sometimes it also includes illustrations to attract children.

Examples:- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis,’  The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi

Young adult Fiction/ Y/A

It’s written for readers between the age of 12 and 18. That doesn’t mean adults can’t read them nowadays this Genre is popular among adults too as these are not children book it’s for young people. They have characters that are young teenagers and it includes their experiences and journey in that story. It can have elements of Romance, Adventure, Crime, Thriller, and Fantasy.

Examples:- The Fault in Our Stars, The Book Thief, Harry Potter Series

Dystopian

It’s a speculative fiction or imaginary world that offers a vision of the future. Where people lead fearful life as there is injustice in society. 

Examples:- The Hunger Games, 1984

Historical Fiction 

In this, the story takes place in the past. It will have all the social norms and manners of that past time period. The characters and other details will be made up. They’ll just be based on that past era.

Examples:- The Thousand Splendid Suns, Wolf Hall, Girl With a Pearl Earring

Classic Novels 

Novels that have withstood the test of time and remained popular years after their publication. It can be any novel. 

Examples:- To Kill A Mockingbird, Pride and Prejudice, The Great Gatsby

Comic Book or Graphic Novel

The main part of the storytelling is done through panel-style illustrations. The dialogues are written in cloud or dialogue boxes. Most Comic books have a humorous tone in them. Meanwhile, Graphic Novels cover a wide array of genres.

Examples:- Graphic Novel– Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller, Watchmen by Alan Moore

Comic Books– Amazing Spider-Man by J. Michael Straczynski, New Avenger by Brian Michael Bendis 

Genre That Comes Under Non-Fiction Category

Self-Help & Motivational

These are written with the intention to help people solve their problems and take immediate actions which will be achieved with self-improvement.

Examples– Atomic Habits, The Almanck Of Naval Navikant, Eat That Frog, The Power Of Your Subconscious Mind 

Autobiography

It is written by authors about their own life. 

Examples– Wings Of Fire by APJ Abdul Kalam, The Story of My Life by Helen Keller

Biography

It’s about a person’s life but it is written by someone else.

Examples– Mother Teresa, Steve jobs, 

Memoirs

They are collections of some incidents of a person’s life, not their whole life story. 

Examples– Unfinished by Priyanka Chopra, Becoming by Michelle Obama

Historical Non-Fiction

The book states facts about history. It can be any history book that talks about real historical facts. 

Diary or Journal Novels

A person shares their personal records by using their Diary or Journal in the same format which has been written at the time when the incident happened. 

Examples– The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

True Crime

There are books that have stories of crimes that are real.

Business Books

They talk about investments and entrepreneurship.

Activity Books

This includes many books which tell us about a particular action.

Examples– Travel Books, Cooking Books, Health Books, Spirituality Books

This is the simplest way to understand Book Genres. The genres mentioned here are the most popular ones there can be more.

I hope this helped you find your favorite genre.

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Prakriti Kajaria

Prakriti Kajaria

I love to talk about books. So I started my Book-Tube channel and then this blog, where you’ll find book reviews and suggestions of different genres mostly thriller, suspense, romance, mystery, and non-fiction.

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