Iteresting that you brought up the fiction/literature distinctions, well you and Claudia, actually. I don't even think of them in the same instance, and I don't believe they are meant to be.

When I think of literature, I'm thinking of the required reading lists from school, ie Grapes of Wrath, The Scarlet Letter (zzzzzz), To Kill A Mockingbird, etc. Fiction? Pretty much everything else. I read very little literature, and what I have read was actually post-high school/college. Fiction, on the other hand, I gobble that stuff right down. Sci-fi has never been something that I was into, likewise fantasy. So Pern, Dune, stuff like that, gave me a headache. Which is why it's funny to me that I love The Lord of The Rings so much. It doesn't get more fantastical than that.

On the other hand, I never read any of the Narnia books. Hell, I'd never even heard of them until I was an adult. I just bought Mists of Avalon for the second time cause you and Fire made me, because the first time I got through two chapters and had a brain-ache trying to keep it all straight. I've since figured out that my brain kept trying to reconcile Mists with Le Morte D'Arthur/Excalibur. This time, when I start, I have to remind myself that this is a different story altogether.

Oprah's Book Club. Heh. I've read probably 2 or 3 of those, but not because she rec'd them. I just stumbled across them.