As you can probably see from my profile, I mostly read fantasy. This is also mostly what I write, aside from a few "literary" type short stories. In reading, I love most any kind of fantasy, but I lean towards grit, blood and violence. I definitely adhere to the latter in my own writing; I also like to focus on strong characters with strong relationships to each other that are rarely romantic in nature. Back to my reading: strong characters are a MUST. I can read about a set of characters I love for days, and not even worry much about what they're doing (although I suppose plot is occasionally relevant ;-).