The Book

FIND OUT

ABOUT BOOK GENRES

All books are supposed to be divided into two classes, nonfiction and fiction.

Nononfiction books are in prose and based on facts. They tend to inform and teach rather than entertain. Some nonfiction book genres are:
• autobiography - a written account of a person's life written by that person ;
• biography - a written account of a person's life written by another person;
• history - writing based on historical facts about real life, events, people of the past;
• travelogue - a written account on travelling to or in a particular place;
• "how-to" book - a book teaching people how to cook, garden, etc.
• reference - writing with highly reliable, official information. The reference sub-genres are, among many others:
• an encyclop(a)edia - a book or a series of books, the contents of which are articles in aphabetical order dealing either with the whole of human knowledge or with a particular part of it;
• an atlas - a book of maps;
• an almanac - a book listing facts published every year;
• a thesaurus - a book of synonyms and antonyms;

Speaking of fiction, there is not a very clear line between genres and sub-genres, which makes it difficult to tell a genre from a sub-genre. There are also cross-genre books, a blend of two or more genres.
Some of the most common fiction genres are:
• romance - romantic stories, usually novels, about relationships, love between two people with a happy end;
• western - stories set in the American Old West frontier and typically, from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century;
• science fiction - stories are often futuristic, about future science and technology, set in space;
• fantasy - stories about magic and other supernatural phenomena;
• horror - stories, often with elements of supernatural phenomena, are meant to horrify the readers;
etc.

AUDIO SCRIPT

Q: What's a book for you?

Anja: For me, a book is an opportunity to peep at people and places, take part in events and enter relationships, which I could never do in real life. It is like a time machine, taking me to a new, magic world as well as letting me sneak into different mindsets and points of view to broaden my mind and understand the world better.

Marjanca: For me, a book is someone else's story which, no matter how unusual it is, turns out to have something in common with my own experience. It is a way of understanding reality from another point of view and see how different or surprisingly similar it can be. Of course, a book can also be a cookbook, for example; and that means a lot of yummy challenges to explore.

AUDIO SCRIPT


B: You kidding? You... reading a book? What is it? A Harry Potter?
C: Sorry, but of that genre I find The Ask and the Answer better. Patrick Ness's books are really worth reading. My view.
A: Noooooooooo, no fantasy books for me, no science-fiction either. I'm enjoying historical novels, like The Days of his Grace, masterfully-written, about a people, the Langobards, oh, an exquisite historical novel ...
B: Uff, reading, aaa ...a novel, history..., in my dreams! Just think of all that stuff we had to read for class! Come on, folk, get a life!
A: But the book's amazing, though, such  power of words! And, the tribe used to live here, a stone's throw from Slovenia, ... know something about them?
C: Well, I must say, yes, I like history, I gravitate to stories about the past. Here, look at this: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, just wow, I can't put it down...
B: .....oh, no, no, such a loooong title. Just reading the whole title would do...,well, I'd, maybe,  go for romance, ha ha, or something like Stephen King...
A: ... Stephen King? Brr, horror stories. I read Pet Sematary at the age of twelve. Blood-chilling, dark.... it scared me to death and I was horrified by it for years.
B: Ho hum, boring... Hey, I've got some here on my Kindle. Look, this one made me cry, a real tearjerker. The Fault in Our Stars, not a usual boy-meets- girl sort of love story, no, but about two teenagers, terminally ill, who fall in love.....
C: ...tut-tut, well, well, didn't you say you don't like reading? 

WORDS TO REMEMBER

extended = (adj) longer than usual;
bundle = (n) a group of things put together by fastening, tying, wrapping, gluing, etc.;
illustrated = (adj) with pictures and similar graphical materials;
bound = (adj) fastened together very tightly, the past tense and past participle of the verb "bind";
(book) cover = (n) the outer layer of the book for protecting it, usually with the title and the author's name on it;
(book) spine = (n) the "back" cover of the book, where the pages are bound, bearing its title and the author's name;
page = (n) one or both sides of a book leaf, printed or blank;
author = (n) a writer of a book, article, magazine;
publish = (v) prepare and print to be sold publicly;
bookshop = (n) a shop selling books;
advancement = (n) the development of sth
format = (n) the way in which something is arranged or set out;
emergence = (n) becoming known,starting to exist;
literary genre = (n) a type, category of writing an author decides to use for his work.