Books & Reading · The Crow and the Scarecrow
What Genre Should You Read Next? A Honest Guide to Finding Your Reading Personality
Because the world has thousands of books — and you deserve to find the ones that actually feel like they were written for you.
I've been thinking about this ever since I published my guide to Paper Books, E-Books and Audiobooks. That piece answered the how of reading — which format suits which moment in your life. But it left a bigger question unanswered: what should you actually read?
The honest answer is that genre is not about snobbery or labels. It is about personality. The books that keep you up past midnight are almost always books that speak to a very specific part of who you are — the part that craves escape, or ideas, or adrenaline, or warmth, or beauty. When you understand which part that is, finding great books becomes much easier.
This guide is my attempt to map that territory. We will look at eight major genres honestly — not just what they are, but who they are actually for, and which single book would be the perfect entry point for a first-time reader. At the end, there is also a crossover section for those of you who, like me, refuse to be put in a single box.
First: What Kind of Reader Are You?
Answer honestly and follow the arrows — your genre is waiting.
▶When I pick up a book I mainly want to feel something deeply — grief, joy, longing, recognition. Literary Fiction ▶I want to be comforted. I want a cup of tea, a murder, and a satisfying solution. Cosy Mystery ▶I want an epic world where nothing is safe and the good guys do not always win. Grimdark Fantasy
▶I want to be genuinely tricked — to reach the last page and realise I was wrong about everything. Psychological Thriller
▶I want to live in another era — the clothes, the politics, the dangers, all of it. Historical Fiction
▶I want warmth, humour, and a love story that actually makes me believe in people again. Contemporary Romance
▶I want to learn something real, but told like a story — not a textbook. Narrative Non-Fiction
▶I want to ask "what if" on the biggest possible scale — other planets, other futures, other physics. Science Fiction
The Eight Genres, Honestly Described
Genre 01Literary Fiction — For People Who Want to Think
Literary fiction is the genre that refuses to be a genre. It does not promise plot twists or love stories or dragons. What it promises instead is language that earns your attention, characters who feel uncomfortably real, and a quiet rearranging of how you see the world after you finish.
It is the genre most likely to be called "slow" by readers who do not connect with it, and "the most alive I have felt in years" by readers who do. It rewards patience and punishes skim-reading. You will probably need to sit with it.
Best for: Readers who underline sentences. People who feel more than they let on. Anyone who wants to be understood by a stranger who died before they were born.
Not for: Readers who need something to happen on every page.
📖 Perfect entry point: A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman — literary warmth with genuine plot momentum. Deceptively simple, quietly devastating. Genre 02Cosy Mystery — For People Who Want to Relax (With a Body)
The name sounds contradictory but the formula is genius: take a murder, remove all the horror, add community, competence, wit, and a detective who is never actually in danger — and you get a genre that is somehow both stimulating and deeply restful.
Cosy mysteries are almost always set in contained worlds — a village, a club, a bookshop. The crimes feel like puzzles rather than tragedies. The pleasure is in the cleverness of the solution, not the darkness of the crime. They are the perfect books for evenings when you want your brain engaged but your nervous system calm.
Best for: People who loved Agatha Christie at school and never found a modern equivalent. Readers who want to feel clever without working too hard. Anyone anxious who still wants to read before bed.
Not for: Readers who need high emotional stakes or gritty realism.
📖 Perfect entry point: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman — four retired friends, one dead body, perfect dry humour. Also exceptional as an audiobook. Genre 03Grimdark Fantasy — For People Who Want to Feel Everything
Grimdark is the anti-fairy tale. It takes the structures of fantasy — magic, quests, war, chosen heroes — and strips away the reassurance. Nobody is truly chosen. The good guys make terrible decisions. The world does not reward virtue. And somehow this honesty, this refusal to flinch, makes the moments of genuine heroism hit ten times harder.
It is demanding reading. Characters you love will die. Moral certainty is the first casualty. But readers who connect with it describe a feeling of catharsis that softer fantasy simply cannot produce. It asks something of you, and gives something extraordinary in return.
Best for: Fantasy readers who have grown tired of obvious heroes. People who want their imagination challenged alongside their emotions. Readers who prefer complexity to comfort.
Not for: Readers in a fragile place — this genre does not offer reassurance.
📖 Perfect entry point: The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie — Book 1 of the First Law trilogy. Three antiheroes. No obvious protagonist. Impossible to put down. Genre 04Psychological Thriller — For People Who Want to Be Deceived
The psychological thriller is built on a single premise: the narrator is lying to you. Or the narrator believes something that is not true. Or the villain is someone you have been trusting entirely. The genre's greatest pleasure is the moment of revelation — looking back at the clues you walked right past and feeling equal parts foolish and delighted.
What separates great psychological thrillers from mediocre ones is character. The twist only works if you care about the person being deceived. The books that last are the ones where the psychology feels real — not just a puzzle, but a portrait of how people deceive themselves as much as others.
Best for: Readers who like to guess — and want to be wrong. People who enjoy the feeling of reading with their guard up. Anyone who liked Gone Girl and wants more.
Not for: Readers who prefer certainty and resolution over ambiguity.
📖 Perfect entry point: Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris — the perfect marriage, the terrible secret. Compulsively readable and deeply unsettling in the best way. Genre 05Historical Fiction — For People Who Want to Time Travel
The appeal of historical fiction is specific and powerful: it lets you inhabit a world you could never visit. The smells, the clothes, the politics, the dangers that no longer exist and the freedoms that had not yet been invented. Great historical fiction makes the past feel lived-in rather than costumed — you believe you are there, not watching a reconstruction.
The best writers in this genre do enormous research and then hide it entirely, using it only to make the fiction feel inevitable. The research becomes the texture of the world, not a lecture about it. What you are left with is a story that could only happen in that specific place and time, with characters whose choices are shaped by forces completely unlike your own.
Best for: Readers who like their stories to feel grounded in something real. People curious about how the world became what it is. Anyone who has ever stood in a historical building and wanted to know what it actually felt like inside.
Not for: Readers who want fast-moving plots — this genre often builds slowly and rewards patience.
📖 Perfect entry point: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett — medieval England, cathedral building, genuine epic scope. One of the most transported I have ever felt while reading. Genre 06Contemporary Romance — For People Who Want to Believe in People Again
Romance is the most dismissed and the most read genre in the world simultaneously. It sells more than any other category of fiction, and it is taken less seriously than almost any other. This is a failure of imagination by its critics — because the best contemporary romance is doing something genuinely difficult: it is making you believe, sincerely and without embarrassment, that two specific people deserve each other.
The emotional intelligence required to write great romance is underrated. The characters need to be flawed in ways that feel real, not just charming-obstacle-to-love flawed. The tension needs to be earned. The resolution needs to feel inevitable in retrospect. When it works, it is among the most satisfying reading experiences available.
Best for: Readers who want warmth and optimism without saccharine falseness. People who have had a hard season and want their faith in human connection restored. Anyone who enjoys watching two people figure each other out.
Not for: Readers who find emotional directness uncomfortable.
📖 Perfect entry point: Beach Read by Emily Henry — a romance writer and a literary fiction writer swap genres. Funny, warm, and much smarter than the cover suggests. Genre 07Narrative Non-Fiction — For People Who Want to Learn Like They Are Reading a Novel
Narrative non-fiction is the genre that asks: what if true stories were told with the same craft as fiction? What if facts had pacing, scenes, characters, tension, and a satisfying arc? The answer is books that somehow manage to teach you something significant while never feeling like education.
This genre covers an enormous range — history told through a single object, science explained through the people who discovered it, social investigation told as lived experience. What they share is a commitment to the reader's experience. The writer has done the research so you can have the story.
Best for: Curious people who find traditional non-fiction dry. Readers who want to understand the world better without suffering through it. Anyone who finishes a documentary and wants to go deeper.
Not for: Readers who want to escape reality entirely — this genre keeps one foot firmly in it.
📖 Perfect entry point: Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari — the entire history of humanity, told with clarity and genuine wit. You will think differently after this one. Genre 08Science Fiction — For People Who Ask "What If" on the Largest Possible Scale
Science fiction at its best is philosophy in disguise. The alien invasion is about how we treat the other. The generation ship is about what we inherit from those who came before us. The AI is about what makes us human. The setting is the future or another world, but the question is always about now.
This is the genre that has consistently predicted and shaped technological reality — not because writers are prophets, but because they ask the questions seriously before anyone else does. Reading good science fiction makes you more comfortable with uncertainty, more curious about possibility, and more aware of how fragile the assumptions of the present moment really are.
Best for: Curious, restless readers. People who are interested in technology, ethics, and the long arc of human history. Readers who find the present moment too small.
Not for: Readers who need emotional warmth as their primary reading experience — though there are exceptions.
📖 Perfect entry point: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir — one man alone in space, one extraordinary friend, mathematics as plot. The most fun I have had reading science fiction in years. The right genre doesn't just entertain you — it shows you something about yourself.
"The best book is not the most celebrated one. It is the one that makes you forget you are reading."
If You Cannot Choose Just One: Crossover Recommendations
The most honest thing I can tell you about genre is that the readers I trust most refuse to be confined by it. They move between literary fiction and thriller, between fantasy and non-fiction, based on what their life needs at a given moment rather than a fixed identity as a reader. These crossover recommendations are for them.
If you like Cosy Mystery + FantasyThe House in the Cerulean SeaT.J. Klune — A social worker, magical creatures, and a mystery with genuine heart. Warm, funny, completely original.
If you like Thriller + Historical FictionThe Alice NetworkKate Quinn — Real female spies in World War I, told across two timelines. Gripping and meticulously researched.
If you like Literary Fiction + Sci-FiNever Let Me GoKazuo Ishiguro — Science fiction as emotional devastation. One of the most quietly heartbreaking books ever written.
If you like Romance + MysteryA Good Girl's Guide to MurderHolly Jackson — True crime obsession meets small-town secrets. Compulsive, clever, and surprisingly moving.
If you like Non-Fiction + ThrillerSay NothingPatrick Radden Keefe — The real story of a disappeared woman and the IRA, told with the pace of the best crime fiction.
If you like Fantasy + Literary FictionPiranesiSusanna Clarke — A man in an impossible house writes in a journal. Strange, beautiful, and utterly unlike anything else.
A note on libraries: Before you buy anything, check your local library. Most now offer free e-book and audiobook lending through apps like Libby or BorrowBox. You can sample every genre on this list for nothing — which makes finding your reading personality considerably cheaper and more enjoyable.
A Personal Reading List Across All Eight Genres
If I were handing someone a list of eight books — one per genre — that I would genuinely stake my reputation on, this would be it. Not the most celebrated books in each category, necessarily. Just the ones I believe in most.
- 1
A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman · Literary FictionA grumpy old man. His neighbourhood. The quiet way people save each other. Devastatingly good.
- 2
The Thursday Murder Club Richard Osman · Cosy MysteryFour retirees, one murder, endless wit. Also exceptional on audiobook.
- 3
The Blade Itself Joe Abercrombie · Grimdark FantasyThe book that proved grimdark could be funny, humane, and wildly entertaining all at once.
- 4
Behind Closed Doors B.A. Paris · Psychological ThrillerThe perfect marriage with a terrible secret. You will not sleep until you finish it.
- 5
The Pillars of the Earth Ken Follett · Historical FictionNine hundred pages that feel like a hundred. Medieval England has never felt more vivid or more alive.
- 6
Beach Read Emily Henry · Contemporary RomanceTwo writers, opposite genres, one summer. Sharper and funnier than the title suggests.
- 7
Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari · Narrative Non-FictionEverything that makes us human, in one book. You will never see the world quite the same way again.
- 8
Project Hail Mary Andy Weir · Science FictionOne man alone in space. Pure joy in novel form. Read it, or listen to Ray Porter's narration — both are extraordinary.
The Only Rule Worth Following
Genre exists to help you find books, not to tell you what kind of person you are. The reader who finishes a grimdark epic and then picks up a cosy mystery is not being inconsistent — they are being human. Your reading life should move with your moods, your seasons, your needs.
The only rule that consistently holds: finish books you love and abandon books you do not. Life is too short for books that feel like homework. Genre gives you a direction; your instincts tell you when you have found the right path.
Start with the quiz at the top of this page. Pick the gateway book that calls to you. See where it leads. That is how reading lives are built — one unexpected turn at a time.
Comments
Post a Comment