I was reflecting upon my own reading list this morning and was thinking about just how narrow some of my reading could often be. I tend to go through the back lists of my favourite authors and therefore stick to the types of books that I am used to and generally give me pleasure.
But then I thought about some of the very different books that I have read this year. Some non-fiction, fantasy and even romantic ones that don’t normally crop up in my reading have satisfied me as much as any contemporary family drama.
Just for fun I have come up with some questions to enable us all to reflect upon our reading habits. I will put my own answers under every question and I encourage you to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
1) When was the last time you tried a book by a new author (an author whose books you had never read before)?
Today. I had a book sample in my Apple Books and decided to try it and then persuaded myself to buy the full ebook. It is called ‘The Dragon of Ynes’ and was recently recommended in another blog review that I read. It has LGBT aspects to its storyline and already I am loving it.
2) Have you read any non-fiction books this year?
Having just bought Matt Haig’s ‘The Comfort Book’ I am definitely going to soon. I also read a couple of biographies by Julie Andrews and Mindy Kaling, amongst others.
3) Have you read outside of your comfort zone lately?
‘The Order of the Day’ was a historical short book and definitely new territory for me as a reader. Written about the German invasion of Austria and various events that led to the Second World War, it was interesting but also scary. Scary in the sense that it illustrated just how easily people were fooled by Hitler in the early days.
4) When did you last try an Indie writer’s book?
Being an indie author myself, I try hard to often buy and read books by fellow indie writers. A couple of months ago I read ‘Crossings’ by Elizabeth Thomas which was a compelling collection of short stories. I also read the marvellous, ‘The Vintage Bookshop of Memories’ by Elizabeth Holland.
5) Do you read books written by authors from other countries?
This one is easy for me as I love so many American and Australian authors. My go-to Australian writing legend is Liane Moriarty and I am regularly pleased by the works of such writers as Celeste Ng, Becky Albertalli, John Green and David Levithan.
You will notice that I included a picture of Jane Austin books as recently I overheard someone talking about having read them all. I hope that I have become more of a varied reader than I used to be, but I will always read novels by my favourites, such as Matt Haig, Joanne Harris and Liane Moriarty. Click here for a post about some of their books that I enjoyed recently.
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