Your favorite and least favorite types of books and why! 📚

[Athakaspen]

On the topic of this thread, it sounds like fun so I’ll share some of the genres I like, but be warned! I probably can’t take any recommendations right now (still need to finish 本好き, and there’s so much more on my shelf I want to read still…)

Things I like
Character drama: I enjoy strong characters that change over time in both English and Japanese, regardless of what they’re actually doing. In English my favorite series maybe of all time is the podcast Wolf 359, which does a lot of things great but I especially love how the characters change over the show. In JP I’d say 昭和元禄落語心中 1 | L35 and 王様ランキング 1 | L25 were both good (very different vibes haha)

Romance: I’m picky, and I don’t care for it as the main focus, but when the vibes are right I can get very attached. Some of my favorites have been 狼と香辛料 1 | L36 and ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 (1) ~栞子さんと奇妙な客人たち~ | L34.

Fantasy: I’m not sure if this is the same as “hard fantasy,” but I like worlds that are fleshed out and totally unique. Things like 風の谷のナウシカ and 鋼の錬金術師 come to mind.

TS: Might as well list it here too, I enjoy this even when it’s not a serious story or anything. 魔法少女事変 1 | L25 was really fun (though I was less engaged with how the story developed in the later volumes)

Comedy: I wouldn’t consider this a genre I enjoy in English, but for some reason in Japanese I love it. They say jokes are funnier in a second language, and I’m tempted to agree… Honestly a ton of my manga library child be classified as comedy, but for an unorthodox suggestion, the variety improv TV show 笑点 is absolutely hilarious and I recommend it 11/10. Also I recently found 魁!!男塾 第1巻 | L32?? which is great.

Things I don’t care for
癒し系: I don’t actually dislike this, I just rarely feel motivated to pick it up. I do love よつばと though.

Stories where everyone is terrible: I don’t mind some characters being problematic, but when everyone is blatantly awful to each other and fail to make up for each other’s shortcomings? I’d rather just read something else

Horror: Seriously, why do people read this stuff?

Nonfiction: I’ve read one nonfiction book in Japanese, ever… I don’t know why but I really never feel drawn to this. I’m grouping information-focused books like self help in here as well but even nonfiction novels aren’t really my cup of tea.

少年バトル: With some exceptions like 鋼の錬金術師, I usually don’t get into these series for very long. I never watched stuff like Naruto or Dragonball growing up either, even though some of my friends did. I don’t think I dislike the formula, I just need something more (recently 呪術廻戦 seemed promising but I ended up forgetting about it too)

[Naphthalene]

@Athakaspen

These are both a female protagonist using a male avatar in an MMORPG. I see this often tagged/described as ネナベ (another potentially loaded name for a genre) and I suspect there might be more 女→男 TS type content with this label as well.

Thanks! I read a manga in that style a billion years ago (in French) before I started learning Japanese, and was looking for this kind of content, but didn’t know what to search for! Also, the first one you mentioned is on なろう so I can read it for free too! (I’ll check the rest eventually as well)

@Athakaspen

魔法少女事変 1 | L25 was really fun (though I was less engaged with how the story developed in the later volumes)

I loved the premise of the story… and then it just stopped. Such a waste.

[CatDQ]

Thanks, a few were already on my radar for other reasons but that’s just bumped them up my wish list

[seanblue]

@Athakaspen

I get the impression you’re a fan of serious character drama takes on the idea, like オレが私になるまで or 放浪息子, but I haven’t seen many more like that. Apparently ぼくは麻理のなか 1 | L18 is like that to some extent, but it was a little too…creepy? For my taste.

It doesn’t have to be completely serious, but I do like those. I’ll look into those two suggestions.

@Athakaspen

On the opposite end of the spectrum it looks like you haven’t read 異世界美少女受肉おじさんと 1 | L26 , which is nothing but shenanigans and I thoroughly enjoyed

But on the other hand, this type of series is definitely not for me. I don’t like these kinds of isekai to begin with, and from the premise it sounds like it would be pretty raunchy, which I don’t like.

[Athakaspen]

@Naphthalene

I loved the premise of the story… and then it just stopped. Such a waste.

So much this. I think the peak for me was the chapter ワルツ in volume 2, so much mystery and fun characters and intriguing hints of world building… And then that never happened again and it ended in the next volume

@seanblue

But on the other hand, this type of series is definitely not for me.

Yeah, fair. It’s definitely got some unnecessarily raunchy moments. The main two characters’ interactions are fun, but there’s also a lot of other stuff going on.

[cat]

That centers around hating food which I could get behind much easier

[暁のルナ]

@Athakaspen

I’ll put a few here but I wouldn’t qualify these as recommendations (I haven’t read past the preview for most), more just “proof that it exists.”

I added/found these btw, for anyone interested:

• 男の子になっちゃった女子高生 1巻 | L24??
• ヒロインなのに、イケメンアイドル♂になりました!?【電子版限定カラーイラスト特典付き】(1) | L24??
• R.G.O! 女子高生、VRMMOで理想の魔法ジジイを目指します1 | L24??

@Athakaspen

Apparently ぼくは麻理のなか 1 | L18 is like that to some extent, but it was a little too…creepy

In what way(s)?

[hotdogsuplex]

@Athakaspen

Horror: Seriously, why do people read this stuff?

We’re messed up in the head From reading the responses here I notice a theme: people that hate horror are scared from it, people that love it find it intriguing and immersive, but don’t experience immense fear. In my case, even though it gives me goosebumps and makes my blood run cold, I can recognize that it’s fiction, so it doesn’t have a lasting effect. Scary movies are different, I think actually seeing something, even on a TV, makes me think it’s real.

We’re just built different ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[omk3]

I’ve only lately started reading horror because I was afraid I’d be too scared. To my surprise, I’ve been way more scared by crime books than I’ve been from any horror book I’ve read so far. Japanese horror books especially seem quite subdued to me. (That said, I avoid reading them right before bed, because you never know. And I often find myself getting scared by the idea of what might come next, but when this “next” comes, the tension is diffused and I’m not scared at all anymore, whatever it is.)

Movies are different, I’m not as comfortable with them. I guess I can control my own imagination much better than the premade images they throw at me.

[mic]

@hotdogsuplex

I can recognize that it’s fiction

I for myself wouldn’t want to read stuff that could actually happen. So I keep reading or watching just horror with supernatural elements, as then it’s obvious that it is fiction.

Edit: I especially like stories with people who do not believe in supernatural things. They usually are the first to die, as they do not run away, or run away too late.

[cat]

I think of it rather like how some people hate spicy food and ask “why would anyone want to eat something that hurts?”. Well… Sometimes the hurt feels good

There’s actually a lot of really interesting scholarly research into what draws people to horror, and actually specific types of horror. For example I can’t stand zombies but there are lots of theories as to why they wax and wane in popularity tied to social undercurrents at the time.

I also don’t like torture and frankly prefer absurdist over the top and cheesy horror over graphic and realistic types.

Hmm… I also hate death games. For much the same reason as zombies. I don’t like pointless death, I prefer it be personal on some level.

[mic]

I have no problems with zombies, see above, but death games can actually happen, so not for me. Also e.g. Scandinavian mysteries are not for me, as most of it contains horror that can actually happen.

[omk3]

Spicy food! I love it. And yes, very good comparison.

In risk of derailing the conversation, I actually like zombies and death games in moderation, when they’re done well (oh wait, I’m not derailing anything, we’re supposed to talk about what we like and dislike in books!) And by well I mean that it’s the device that places the characters under extreme pressure in extraordinary circumstances and we get to watch how and if they change. A similar real-life situation would be war, but I hate anything war related, in fiction as well as in life. It’s too sad a reality to allow me any enjoyment. Whereas zombies and death games, as well as most horror (apart from some of it that veers too close to actual crime and torture for comfort) are just constructs of the imagination, where anything can be enjoyed without guilt or (rational) fear it might happen to me or anyone else.

[CatDQ]

Horror stories can be a fun read. The times I don’t like it is when there are intense descriptions of injuries happening in great detail.

I can read horror (I used to read a lot as a kid/ teen), I just don’t like the images now that come from such detail as they loop in my head for days on end, also why I don’t like shows that show emergency rooms

One of my favourite Japanese short stories is a Horror story: Seven rooms by 乙一.

[seanblue]

I don’t really like horror (more because of blood/gross/creepy than scary), but I occasionally enjoy horror deconstruction. The Cabin in the Wood by Joss Whedon is one of my favorite movies. Scream was entertaining when I watched it, and it got so popular that some people don’t even realize it’s a parody. And Gakkou Gurashi is dark but enjoyable because of the blend with cgdct. Also, Higurashi (anime) is amazing, but I like it more for the mystery and thriller aspects than the horror ones.

[mic]

@seanblue

horror deconstruction

Hmm, not sure about that. I‘d have no problem with a horror comedy or parody, etc. But what I can’t stand is a story or movie where people think all the time that something supernatural is going on and then five minutes before the end some Holmes like detective appears and reduces everything to natural phenomena.

[seanblue]

Deconstruction doesn’t mean fakeout. All of the ones I just listed are real horror movies/shows, just with something extra/different that makes it more than “just” horror.

[HopeWaterfall]

Idk why this hasn’t been read more on Natively, but you might like 王様ゲーム | L20?? then. I read this a while ago (a translated version), but I remember it being quite interesting to read, at least the first volume.

There’s the manga version too, although that I prefer to steer clear from. I’m fine with graphic descriptions in books, but I prefer not seeing those scenes in drawings or movies.

[omk3]

Thanks, I’ll have a look. Although from a quick glance I see it’s about high schoolers. Not my favourite demographic - but then you never know.

[Naphthalene]

@暁のルナ

@Athakaspen

Apparently ぼくは麻理のなか 1 | L18 is like that to some extent, but it was a little too…creepy

In what way(s)?

I haven’t read that specific manga, but I know the premise (incel dude working at the konbini stalks a high school girl (麻里) who goes there at night on a regular basis, until one day he wakes up as her; literally the title). I’ve also read おかえりアリス 1 | L18 by the same author, that has a very creepy main character (the titular アリス, sexually harasses their childhood friend and it’s played as okay because the victim is a guy + he has a wet dream about it at the beginning of volume 2; I stopped there). In the あとがき, the author mentioned that this series and the 麻里 one were inspired by their own discomfort with their own gender. I don’t remember the details, but my impression was that the author had the right questions but the wrong answers.
Anyway, if they want to exorcise their demons, they are free to do so, but I want nothing to do with it.