Reading outside my comfort zone

In my 20s, I gravitated toward two types of books: thrillers (e.g., Michael Crichton) and sociology (e.g., Nickled and Dimed). I also read a lot of books after the movie came out like Memoirs of a Geisha and The Devil Wears Prada. These were my comfort zones for a looong time.

Then, I had kids and basically stopped reading for 4 years. I know, terrible. I rediscovered my love of reading about a year and a half ago (i.e., made it a priority in my life to read) and started posting tweetviews (Twitter-style book reviews in 140 characters or less). Right around that time, Jana and Steph started their awesome Show Us Your Books link-up where I got recommendations from different genres. Shelly (another blogger) and I also had a short-lived book club that got me reading different genres (memoir, literary fiction, YA). I still love thrillers but reading more, and reading what others are reading, has gotten me outside my comfort zone. Here are the genres I’ve been (uncomfortably) dabbling in:

Fantasy/Magic
The Magicians and Sorcerer to the Crown are my recent (and first) magic books. The Magicians was easier to read, and the magic aspects were quite interesting, but the story just draaaaaaaggggged on. So, I couldn’t/didn’t give up on magic because this was a case where the writing didn’t work for me, not the subject matter.

Sorcerer to the Crown had all these new words (like “thaumaturgy”) which #1, I didn’t know how to pronounce and didn’t feel like looking it up, which bothered me every time the word appeared. And #2, I assumed it meant “magic” but again, didn’t feel like looking it up. Also, for a book about magic, there was very little magic in it. The author spent a LOT of time building-up the characters, which is a great set-up for the 2nd book, but I was like “C’mon, get on with the story!” Nevertheless, I’ll read the subsequent Sorcerer books because the characters ARE interesting and the story is finally getting somewhere exciting.

Some of you are probably wondering, “What about Harry Potter?” I’m going to read, for the first time EVER, the Harry Potter books this summer. I have a feeling that if I love Harry Potter, I’ll have a different problem. I won’t be able to find a magic book that holds up to Harry Potter!

World-building
This could go into the “Fantasy” genre but I’d like to speak to world-building on its own. I like books set in reality or heavily-based in reality, with words and terms I am familiar with. I could get on board with Hunger Games and Divergent because there weren’t made up words, just familiar words used in different contexts. In my recent read of the Maddaddam series, Atwood uses new words to describe species/things that were genetically engineered, like “liobam” for a lion-lamb animal. She names a spa that could alter your DNA, AnooYoo (like “A New You”). Spellings and cross-words like these were beyond annoying. Sorry.

That said, after Kristen commented that she loved the world-building of Maddaddam #1 (Oryx and Crake), I’m not going to give up on books that require world-building. I’m going to learn to appreciate the thought that went into it in future books.

Historical fiction
I’ve read two historical fiction books: The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared and All the Light We Cannot See. I liked The 100 Year Old Man for the story and humor, and I liked All the Light for the writing. BUT I can’t bring myself to read another historical fiction! Every time I see “WWII” in someone’s book review, I’m like “Next!”.

That said, I will challenge myself to read another historical fiction some time. Nightingale has rave reviews.

Short stories/Essay collections
I recently read We’ve Already Gone This Far (short stories) and recently could not finish Me, My Hair, and I (essay collection). The short story collection left little-to-no impression on me and I didn’t care enough about hair to finish the essay collection.

That said, maybe I haven’t found the right short story or essay collection, right? I’m currently reading Mothers and Sons and I haven’t liked it until the third story. So, maybe I should go into these collections knowing that I won’t be love each story/essay, and that’s ok.