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I've had an odd relationship with genre fiction over the years.
As a teenager, I was fascinated by SF, read everything the local library had and ended up cycling to Wythenshawe where there was a bigger library. I was fortunate the Gollancz did all their SF in the classic yellow jackets as it made it so much easier to fine SF on the shelves.
I loved Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov and Eric Frank Russell and read a lot of Andre Norton as well. Other writers too, but those were the ones who stuck in my memory.
I still reread Heinlein, but Clarke's characters lack depth for me now, even though his science is great.
A colleague of my father's once left behind a copy of Triplanetery, the first of EE Doc Smith's 'Lensmen' novels. I loved it. Bought all the others and loved them too. As an adult, I got a new set (one of my siblings must have ended up with the originals), dived in eagerly, only to stop after a few chapters and think "This is terrible. The characters have all the personality of wet cardboard!"
Some writers hold up well, I still read Tolkien, but others fell by the wayside.
I encountered Lois McMaster Bujold not long after I first encountered slash fanfic. The local post office had reduced price copies of several of her novels, including "Ethan of Athos". A mainstream book with a gay character! I bought it on the spot. Later in the week, I bought the other two novels they had by her. No gay men in those, I was hooked by the quality of the writing. Still am. There's an awful lot of Bujold on my bookshelves.
Other favourites include Elizabeth Moon, David Weber Ursula le Guin, John Scalzi and Ellen Kushner.
I enjoy good space opera with convincing military tactics.
I've missed out on a lot of writers. I hit a point when we were very short of money and I got very stressed and book-buying fell by the wayside. Even SF books I had in hand failed to get read. I've owned 'Sailing to Sarantium' for about a decade but am only just now reading it (and it's first few chapters are very promising)
Urban Fantasy rarely works for me, thought the Succubus novels by Richelle Mead turned out to be an exception. (mainly due to the quality of the romance and some very interesting characters)
I also like some historical fiction, but it has to be accurate to the period. Nothing annoys me more than poor research.
Thus, Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels, Patrick O'Brien and Georgette Heyer are well represented on my shelves.
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“As a teenager, I was fascinated by SF, read everything the local library had.” Ditto, but I started with Heinlein’s children’s books when I was quite young and went on from there.
“I loved Heinlein, Clarke, Asimov and Eric Frank Russell and read a lot of Andre Norton as well.” Ditto again, though I’d add Rodger Zelazney, Poul Anderson, Robert Silverberg and Anne McCaffrey to my very early list.
“I still reread” Funny that, I almost never re-read books. Never got interested in the Lensman series, possibly because of the wet cardboard effect!!
“I encountered Lois McMaster Bujold” I loved her books as well.
“Other favourites include Elizabeth Moon, David Weber Ursula le Guin, John Scalzi and Ellen Kushner.” Elizabeth Moon is high on my list of favorite authors. So is Ellen Kushner.
“Urban Fantasy rarely works for me” For me, sometimes yes, sometimes no.
“I also like some historical fiction, but it has to be accurate to the period. Nothing annoys me more than poor research.” Very, very much agreed.
One other huge influence in my early reading was a wide range of late Victorian novels along with lots and lots of stuff written between 1900 and 1950’s. Especially when we were in Mexico I have really limited access to any books, so I read absolutely everything on the shelves no matter what it was. Most was extremely forgettable. Thus it was that I worked my way through 15 volumes of “The Girl of the Limberlost”.
These days I’m up for reading quite a wide variety of genre books, though I’ve never much liked post-apocalyptic stuff, and I’m not much for horror.
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I can think of things that would scare the shit out of me (pretty much anything nasty happening to small children). The choice is either read things that give me nightmares - no thanks, or read things that I don't find scary.
Not really into post-apocalypse either.
We seem to have very similar tastes.
Some of Heinlein's juveniles are among my most loved books. "Citizen of the Galaxy" wasn't a favourite when I was young because of the downbeat ending. Now, I loved it for exactly that reason. 'Double Star' is always a delight from start to end. "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" is possibly my most read book.
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I read all of those, though not all survived long term. I went back to 'Nine Princes in Amber' a while back and found it too lacked depth of character.
McCaffrey survived longest, but she took a slide into soft porn at one point and lost my interest. I can write porn myself, I do not need it in my genre fiction. I have sufficient imagination!
I find that re-reading after a long gap allows one to get more out of a novel. Often, one has learned more of life in the interval and gains new viewpoints on a book. Also, a really good book is a pure pleasure, worth several indulgences. Things always get missed on the first pass.
Books like Moon's 'Remnant Population' deserve more than one reading :)
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I think this is unspoilery; later a number of thinly disguised historical figures get into it (I think the not-Justinian and the not-Amalasuntha are already in the very first few chapters) and particularly I found it a bit vexing that while not-Belisarius is clearly Belisarius, his wife is really not Antonina, and I wonder who she is - if anyone.
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Judith, I am a fan of all those authors you mention, though in my teens I was reading history, with Jules Verne and H.G Wells for my taste of SF. I discovered the later stuff when I began babysitting my nephew, on my sister’s shelves; she was collecting everything she could get hold of by Asimov. In my twenties I discovered all the rest at once.