FD read a lot of science fiction as a young person. Even had a subscription to The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction when FD barely had an allowance to buy anything. But around the time FD went to college, interest in SF waned. Why? Perhaps because Pynchon and Donald Barthelme were just as interesting? Or because reading SF suddenly seemed geeky/dorky instead of cool? Or, was it feminism, which made FD realize that the women in SF, when there were any, didn’t often get the interesting activities or exhibit much ingenuity or bravery or anything worth emulating. FD did take a class on Science Fiction in graduate school, and remembers finding almost every single book — all chosen as classic by a fine scholar — to be misogynistic, boring, or both. The only SF novel FD fondly remembers reading after highschool was Ursula Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness. And that didn’t lead FD to pick up other Le Guin novels or other feminist writers’ SF efforts — not Margaret Atwood’s (though FD loves her poetry — here’s a short favorite), and not Doris Lessing’s (though FD is a huge fan of the Martha Quest quintet [actually called the Children of Violence series] and also the two novels she wrote under the name “Jane Somers”), not Olivia Butler or Marian Zimmer Bradley (well, FD did read a MZB novel, because a student wanted to do a project on it, but at this point, FD doesn’t remember anything about that novel…).
FD doesn’t foresee reading any SF in the future, either, just as it’s unlikely FD will be reading more “True Crime,” or horror fiction, which were favorite entertainment/escape reading during college and graduate school. As FD gets older, reading tastes have become narrower, though, perhaps, not narrow– particular authors, mystery novels, poetry, and, which is a continual surprise, a lot more general non-fiction. After a lifetime of fleeing to books for escape from the real world, FD now finds books about “reality” often more interesting than fiction.