Neither a bibliography nor a history of genres through historical sequences of listings by author, this book is a guide for those who help readers identify genre authors and titles of desired types in both libraries and bookstores. A secondary purpose of the book is as a text for library school students, aimed at familiarizing them with the common reader interests in genre fiction that they will encounter in libraries, particularly public libraries. As the emphasis of the book is on authors currently available, its users will need access to a retrospective bibliography for each genre, and such bibliographies are found listed in the sections for secondary works. Materials in the book are organized to define each genre and its subgenres. The authors in each genre are grouped either by types within the genre or by subgenres, generally followed by a discussion of topics, such as best-selling authors, anthologies, history and criticism, book clubs, and publishers. After a chapter entitled "The Common Reader, Libraries, and Publishing," the book presents chapters on the Western, Crime, Adventure, Romance, Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Author/title, subject, and series character indexes are attached. (RS)