I enjoyed your emphasis on the first question and the specific distinction between commercial and literary fiction. I always think of the weird grey area between the two as "book club books" - sometimes they're clearly one or the other, but other times it's hard to tell if it's stripped down literary writing or commercial fiction where the author was using a list of discussion questions as a writing prompt.

Hi Laura, thank you so much for doing this tag!! I'm enjoying hearing people's takes on it so much❤️

Omg the Colm Toibin thing killed me - let the man not read detective novels!!! Really interesting distinction between literary vs. commercial as opposed to literary vs. genre - I feel like no one’s been bringing up commercial fiction in this discussion. Room for interpretation is such a great point. Yayyy for cross-pollination, I will be reading your blog post tomorrow :)

I like how you describe literary fiction as a feeling. That's a good way to look at it. A sense of consolation is the perfect description. I once heard literary fiction described as being there to 'make the stone stonier' and I love that too.

I just had a chance to catch up on this and the danger of not prioritizing these brilliant tags quickly enough is that mine may be a mix of “what she said”s. You had a lot of great answers and I love the nod to the classics. Thanks for the tag and I’m working on it now.

oh yes Wuthering Heights is a great choice! I would LOVE for someone to host some sort of readalong around the Fall for the book because it seems like the perfect atmosphere. Happy to see Villette pop up here, I plan to read it for Victober when that rolls around. I remember hearing Claire's glowing review of it. Yes Days Without End!! A true underdog in terms of reader reception. And I keep getting the urge to reread War and Peace but I'm trying to like, not develop masochist tendencies.

@LauraFreyReadinginBed

4 жыл бұрын

Haha yes, be kind to yourself. Ugh I don't know if I could ever host a WH readalong. It's kind of too personal to me. Meaning I don't know if I can talk about the book without talking about my **dramatique** break up that coincided with my first reading of it, lol.

@williams.5952

4 жыл бұрын

whatpageareyouon I think you could get David Murphy and Steve to do a War and Peace read-along!

I love a robust description box. Also frame structure. Your answers made me re-think my answers as I'm working on this prompt. I do want my LF to have ideas, but not be a soapbox. Maybe Delillo-ish?

@LauraFreyReadinginBed

4 жыл бұрын

Yes exactly, ideas not opinions.

@HardcoverHearts

4 жыл бұрын

an enthusiastic reader Hard co-sign for robust description boxes! 👌🏻

I love your approach to this challenging tag! Great idea to choose a classic and a contemporary read for the "name a book..." questions.

I’m so happy you are singing praises to My Year of Rest.. because I really enjoyed it and I felt a bit strange for finding it so appealing and relatable and yet so off putting. Sometimes like looking in a mirror. That’s why I got The New Me and I read Chemistry by Weike Wang. I ordered Drive your Plow over.. recently! I didn’t know it deals with animal rights, that’s fascinating. Great tag! 😊 I always enjoy your videos.

@LauraFreyReadinginBed

4 жыл бұрын

It is and it isn't, it's the weirdest book I've read in quite some time. My Year is a mirror, to the pre-911 world of big designer logos on everything and Sex and the City and other, dirtier stuff... I loved it...

Hi Laura, love your take on this tag! An example of literary non-fiction that comes to my mind is In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Fantastic book! I agree with you on Say Nothing. It definitely has the pacing of a good novel. It’s one of my favorite reads so far this year.

@LauraFreyReadinginBed

4 жыл бұрын

I just bought the hardcover of Say Nothing (full price! $40 CAD!) because my loan on the audio ran out. I hope I still love it when it's not read to me by an Irish person, lol

Excellent description and examples. I must read Villette if it gets into her head....that’s what Ducks Newburyport did for me!🙋‍♀️❤️📚

@LauraFreyReadinginBed

4 жыл бұрын

**can't wait**

Great take on the tag! When you said lit fic leaves room for the reader I was yelling yes! yes! Exactly. I'm intrigued to go look up the Toibin brouhaha.

@LauraFreyReadinginBed

4 жыл бұрын

It died down pretty quick honestly. But jeez, leave Colm alone, he can do what he wants!

@marianryan2991

4 жыл бұрын

@@LauraFreyReadinginBed I'm in Camp Colm!

@anenthusiasticreader

4 жыл бұрын

@@marianryan2991Me too.

Your answers are so interesting! For straddling the line between lit fiction and nonfiction, what do you think about narrative nonfiction? I’m thinking about Erik Larson and the like

Yeah, I think consolation is a good term for how "literary fiction" makes me feel. Love that you only focus on classics as examples as well as more contemporary choices. For good literary smut I'd really recommend a very short new novel I just read called The Collection by Nina Leger. A reviewer on GoodReads dismissed it as cock filled nonsense which I think is a great sell!

@LauraFreyReadinginBed

4 жыл бұрын

I'm seeing this book everywhere and yes, can't wait to fill my head with nonsense ;)

I've never thought about _Moby Dick_ as an example of experimental fiction, but of course it is. And, I agree that stream of consciousness isnt experimental anymore, but that makes me wonder how much room remains for experimental fiction. Is there anything new left to be done and how much more can there be and still retain the form of a novel.

@LauraFreyReadinginBed

4 жыл бұрын

People keep trying. I forgot to mention, the author of Ducks recently tweeted that they do not consider their novel experimental... if it ain't, what is??

@anenthusiasticreader

4 жыл бұрын

@@LauraFreyReadinginBed Maybe Ducks lady just really really really loves commas. :)

Hi Laura :) The German term for literary fiction is "genrelose Literatur" which basically means non-genre literature. A lot of literary fiction includes a mystery or a crime for example but I would not recommend those books to somebody who primarily reads these genres because literary mysteries don't follow the conventions of the genre and therefore don't meet the expectations readers have for mystery novels. I would also like to see more literary fiction mixed with nonfiction, particularly nonfiction novels like Operation Massacre or In Cold Blood. Although they are kind of like memoirs, I like that they focus less on the author and more on the subject matter.

@LauraFreyReadinginBed

4 жыл бұрын

Yes, love In Cold Blood!

Yours is the first version I’ve seen of this tag Laura and I’m glad I couldn’t be tagged, I’d struggle with several of the questions. You handled it with aplomb though and I’ll be checking out the ones you recommended.

@LauraFreyReadinginBed

4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Jo, though if you have a personal definition for literary fiction, I'd love to hear it!

100% agree about literary smut! We need more class, less cringe. I feel like I must have really missed something in 'Drive Your Plow..' I found it to be a cozy murder mystery rather than literary. Maybe I skimmed the over contemplations of fate and horoscopes too much?

Oh I didn't realise Colm Toibín got roasted on Twitter. Have to go to work now but so going to check that out at the rest of this Tag when I get home. I want to hear your thoughts on the Olga Tokarczuk books.

@LauraFreyReadinginBed

4 жыл бұрын

I think he'll be okay. Don't think he is personally on Twitter, haha.

really interesting definition! from your description, genre fiction sounds hella boring and predictable and lit fic the way to go 😜 great point about how a lot of authors force their morals onto a book when they could easily just write a damn essay 😂👌

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