"Fantasy" no longer a genre in Waterstones?

[Fried Egg]

I have asked my wife to look out for a Stephen King book that I want in second hand bookshops. I'm currently recovering from a medical procedure, mostly at home, and she helpfully thought of looking for it in a Waterstones for me. It's a fantasy book. My wife doesn't read fantasy or science fiction (unless it's her book club book) so she spent ages and ages looking for Stephen King in the Waterstones Science Fiction and Fantasy section. When she asked at the counter, she then realised that all the Stephen King books are in the Horror section, but she couldn't understand why (she doesn't read horror either.) I'm not sure that I can understand the reasoning behind that either. Personally, I see little point to all these distinctions (except to remove the very young children's books) and I'd have everything else separated simply into Fiction in alphabetical order and Non-Fiction in dewey decimal. There is so much overlapping of genres in books today that it often makes little sense to put them into just one category. Otherwise, you go to the other extreme and then have 60 different categories such as "Romance-techno-thriller-mystery-fantasy" or some such construct. At the very least, I'd accept "Speculative Fiction" as a category.

Your Waterstones has a separate "Horror" category? Mines has them in with Fantasy and SF but, as I said, unlabeled (not helpful!)

It's a tricky one. I think grouping books up into categories makes book sellers better for browsing customers (who don't know in advance the exact book that they want) but worse for those who have just gone in looking for a specific book. I think Amazon is terrible for browsing customers. Great for just finding what you're looking for but not enjoyable to just browse.

 

[Dave]

Your Waterstones has a separate "Horror" category? Mines has them in with Fantasy and SF but, as I said, unlabeled (not helpful!)

It's a tricky one. I think grouping books up into categories makes book sellers better for browsing customers (who don't know in advance the exact book that they want) but worse for those who have just gone in looking for a specific book. I think Amazon is terrible for browsing customers. Great for just finding what you're looking for but not enjoyable to just browse.

This was the Waterstones in Bromley.

Thinking further on this, it is better for "browsing customers" to have the genres separated, and just because I don't shop for books in that way doesn't make it wrong, it just means that I don't like it myself. I've seen this in public libraries too, and many people appear to want it.

I have bought books before after reading several of Waterstones "Staff Recommendation" notices. I think that I read my first Iain Banks book, The Use of Weapons, because of one of those recommendations.*

I do have some very specific books that I want to read, which I've been unable to locate second hand, or as I said, even as new copies. I'm going up to Central London today, so I will look in a much bigger bookshop with a larger selection of books. Failing that, I can try Forbidden Planet, and I'm lucky that I can get to London easily. Failing that I can order it online. I want to use Amazon less, but it does have a wide selection and it is usually delivered the next day, even without subscribing to Amazon Prime, but I've seen that I can also order from local bookshops online just as easily.

*I liked The Use of Weapons, which is why I read more of Banks, but it probably isn't the best place to start with his work.