There are almost as many genres of literature as there are people on the planet, and we all tend to gravitate more to one or two of them.

Over the years I have consumed philosophical literature, historical literature, dramas, thrillers, scientific treatises, psychology, astrophysics, genetics, genealogy, and countless other fiction and non-fiction books covering a plethora of subject matter.

But two genres keep me coming back for more, year after year: Fantasy and Science Fiction.

You can struggle to read authors like Salman Rushdie (I know I did) or you can find the same ideas and philosophies in Sara Douglass' Threshold, or Donaldson's The Gap Series, or any number of books by Harry Harrison, Heinlein, Card, Dix, Anderson, Dick et al. 

Fantasy and Science Fiction allow authors to explore themes about humanity in a space where they either make all the rules, or the "normal" rules simply don't apply in the universe they have created. This level of artistic freedom is simply not possible, or hamstrung in many ways, in Classical Literature, Historical Fiction and non-fiction, and almost every other genre.

If you have never read a fantasy or science fiction novel, or if you have always thought that those kinds of books were "nerdy" in some way, I encourage you to do something different and start reading today.