Good job in your stream Nerissa. I'm going to give you a qrd on the literary genres and some recs. but I won't include the niches.
>scifiTechnically invented by Mary Shelley but in practical terms it was really invented in the 60s because of the space race. This genre is considered low brow and has always been considered low brow. It was always relegated to the pulps and was mainly read by children. The 60s were a time of prosperity and optimism, we thought we were going to explore the stars so this genre reflected that bright optimism. However some were less than optimistic in their predictions for the future, thousands of writers had predictions for the future and very few (somewhat) became true. Those few novels ended up becoming classics.
Recs: "brave new world" "1984" "animal farm" "industrial society and its future"
>horrorDo not confuse this genre as equal to horror/slasher movies. The horror genre works best as a dark critique of contemporary culture and humanity. To explore the ghastly side of the hunan condition. Invented by Mary shelley as a natural evolution of the gothic novel genre, very few have actually achieved greatness in this genre because they confuse it for horror movies, instead of internal reflection. Stay away from steven king and lovecraft for this reason. Lovecraft brings good ideas to the table (the fear of the the unknown and existential dread) but does nothing interesting with them.
Recs: "Frankenstein" "Dracula" "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
>murder mystery/thrillerI havent read too many of these, theyre not my taste. Murder mysteries hinge on a brilliant reveal and thats very difficult to write and thriller is best suited for the cinema or tv. These used to be very popular but tv and film more or less made these obsolete. I've mainly read Agatha Christie, but they're a product of their time when standards weren't that high. "Murder on the orient express" is boring, "and then there were none" is boring and the reveal is in the freaking epilogue.
recs: "the murder of roger ackroyd" is the only one I recommend because of its good twist.
>epicsWhen you go into the literary world they often recommend starting with the greeks and theyre correct. Theyre amazing and a huge foundational piece of the western canon. And theres other epics you can read
Recs: I recommend picking any greek epic desu but you can read "iliad" "odyssey" (stay away from the Emily Wilson translations) "divine comedy" (people mainly read "inferno" but the other two are good as well) "the ring of the nibelung (die nibelungen)" "don quixote" "moby dick"
>fantasyThough JRR Tolkein did not invent this genre, he popularized it and perfected it. No one has matched his masterpiece yet. Why? Tolkein was a Traditional Catholic, his works were fundamentally Catholic. They use Catholic metaphysics, to uplift, raise, and moralize his readers. He used nature, justice, and monarchy to uplift morale and to teach Catholic morality. He used his eucatastrophe to teach that no matter how bad it may get, we will still win at the end. His works are Catholic epics at the core and the fantasy and lore is just set dressing. New fantasy writers (like brandon sanderson (a mormon and leddit incarnate)) simply write on the fantasy set dressing and lore without any substance to back it up. It is soulless and bereft of any substance. You need the substance.
recs: "the lord of the rings" and the rest of tolkeins works, "chronicles of narnia series" its not bad
>romanceThe most difficult genre to write well, you need a soul to write this. You need to inherently know what love and passion is. This cannot be taught, you are born this way. You need to know what it feels like when you hold your lover in your arms, this feeling that goes beyond your beating heart and the butterflies in your stomach, it's a fiery desire, no a need, to be together and never be separated. A need of the soul. Can you separate a fish from water? No, it will perish. You cannot separate two lovers, or they will perish. Its a passion and fire you cannot understand, for us its our first language, its who we are. I imagine this doesnt make sense to many of you, you weren't born this way. But to us its who we are. Watch this and read the comment by "multiconsolacion"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUZ766ch51gSome things are just in our blood, in our soul, its tied to race, its who we are. You cannot teach passion and romance, we are simple born this way. Its in or soul, others who do not have this cannot understand us. As a result very few good romance novels have ever been written.
Recs: "romeo and juliet" "pride and prejudice" "madame bovary" "don juan" "jane eyre" "middlemarch" "anna karenina" "antony and cleopatra"
>classicsThese novels come in many genres, they are classics because they are objectively good regardless of their genre. Every novel I recommended is a classic. I'll rec classics tomorrow. And remember audiobooks are good!
