Give us a chance

First off, I do not believe that genre fiction is in any way less worthy of literary fiction. I like to think that genre fiction is the literary fiction of the future. To me, genre fiction is what keeps me reading and is what fits in with our society. Yes, the classics are great, but also the new upcoming works can be considered great too. Have you ever thought about the fact that at the time all the literary fiction was written it could have been considered the genre fiction of the time? Also, I do think that popular works are able to be great. Just because something is "popular" doesn't mean it's some trashy child/teen novel about pointless drama that no one cares about. Recently, I read the book Room by Emma Donoghue and I would consider that to be genre fiction. Even though it's genre fiction to me I would still say that it could be considered great, I mean it hasn't been on the NYT best sellers list for 36 weeks for nothing! Also, as a side note, I believe that just because a book receives all these high honors and awards doesn't make it great. Each individual person can interpret a book in their own ways which is why just because one person thinks it's great and gives it an award doesn't mean that it's amazing and that everyone should read it. Going along with this, also just because a book does have a lot of awards and honors doesn't mean it's a completely boring "literary" fiction book. Get what I’m saying? I believe that you and only you are the person who gets to decide what "good" writing is. Your own personal opinion is the only one that really counts. Yes, you can use what other people have said and thought about the book to help you make your decision but you should not solely rely on their opinion to decide for you. Pick the book up, read it, and decide for yourself.

I do believe that schools should at least try to include more genre fiction works. Especially when teaching at the younger ages. While in school, kids get their first real taste at reading and picking out books and if they are only given the bad experience of reading books from literary fiction then they will be driven away from wanting to pick up another book and read it. I was raised by my mother especially to love reading, which is why as a young child I loved all different kinds of books and pretty much gave everything a chance. If we were to incorporate more genre fiction then kids would actually want to read again and the book business would pick back up instead of traveling on the failing never ending path the doom it’s stuck on now. Give kids a chance to really get into reading and to love it before you push all the classics and “boring” books on to them to read. Give us a chance.