Chapter 4: Genres and Formats

 Surprisingly, books can only be divided into two genres--Fiction or Non-fiction. Everything else is a subgenre or subject and is often incorrectly called a genre. The genre of Fiction books can be divided into two sub-genres--Realism or Fantasy. Realism can then be divided into realistic/modern contemporary and historical. Fantasy can be divided into modern or traditional. Modern can be divided into hard or soft science fiction and high or low fantasy. Examples of traditional fantasy include folktales, ballads, fables, legends, myths, and fairytales. 

Non-fiction writing is informational text that can be divided into biographies, narratives, and expository. Biographies also include autobiographies and memoirs. Memoirs focus on a particular portion of one's life as opposed to a person's life span. Narratives are non-fiction texts written like stories. In contrast, expository text is filled with facts and information. Libraries sometimes misuse the term "genre" when actually referring to subjects. Examples of this can include subjects like mysteries, horror, guy-reads, paranormal, humor, and many more. These are subjective and, in my opinion, should not be used as labels in the library. What a librarian might consider the "genre" or subject for a particular book, may not match what a student would consider the subject to be. This labeling system could also discourage students from reading certain books, simply because of the label. 

Books are also divided into different formats. Formats are categories that particular genres fit into. Examples of formats are poetry, drama, novels, chapter books, graphic novels, picture books, and short stories.

I personally do not like the idea of a genre-fied library. The library where I currently teach is genre-fied and I believe circulation could improve without the labels assigned to books. There are numerous books that can fall under multiple categories that may remain hidden from some students simply because of the label attached.