A popular question I’m asked in interviews and when I go to speaking engagement is: What do you like to read? (Or who are your favorite authors?)
As a matter of fact, I recently had the chance to meet with a book group who’d chosen to read my Luther and Katharina book (waves at all the lovely ladies!), and they asked me that very question.
“As a historical writer, do you read a lot of other books in that genre and if so, what?”
My evening discussing Luther and Katharina with this lovely group of ladies. (I’m in the center row in the jean jacket.)
I stumbled around for a few seconds trying to think how to answer, and it finally hit me that I have a major reading quirk that I didn’t realize I had: I don’t read books within the genres that I write (or at least not very often).
For example, I write historical romances. And while there are a ton of REALLY great inspirational historical romance authors out there (some on this blog!), I generally don’t gravitate toward reading books in the historical genre.
I also write medieval young adult books. And I realized that I don’t often read other authors writing medieval YA.
Strange, isn’t it? You’d think I’d enjoy reading within the genres I write.
But oddly, my Goodreads lists are filled with contemporary romances, dystopian YA, and children’s classics. The scattering of historicals on my shelves are books I’ve either read for endorsement or are not typical (like Susanna Kearsley who has a unique blend of present time with the past).
That begs the question: Why would an author NOT enjoy reading the genre she writes? Surely every author MUST love reading in her genre before attempting to pen stories within it. Can an author even be any good if she doesn’t read her genre and stay knowledgeable of what else is being written similar to her books?
BEFORE I started writing in the genre, I loved reading it. In fact I had such a voracious appetite for the genre I finally decided to write books to fulfill my own inner story desires. I had no trouble filling out the comparisons on proposals to publishers with all of the books out there that were similar to mine.
AFTER I started publishing within my genres, I realized that I didn’t want to compare myself or my stories to other authors or books anymore. I wanted to write from the uniqueness inside of me. I didn’t want to worry about whether my books somehow measured up. And I didn’t want to become needlessly prideful or discouraged in a comparison game.
And quite frankly, when I read books too similar to what I write, I find that my internal editor won’t stay locked in her cage like she does with other genres. Rather she likes to creep out with red pen in hand and spoil my reading pleasure. That’s not fair to other authors if I’m critical of their work through no fault of their own.
So there you have it, my strange reading quirk. Maybe someday I’ll overcome my oddity, but for now it’s helped me venture into trying new types of books and genres that I may never have read before. And for that I’m grateful!
What about YOU? Do you have any strange reading quirks?
Jody Hedlund
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Jody I totally get your reasoning. As an unpublished writer I steer away from books similar to my WIP and limit my reading as I’m afraid what I’ve read may creep into my story unconsciously and then it would appear I was copying someone else through character or scenes.
I’m glad you shared this quirk.
I just like all Christian fiction. Amish fiction is my genre. My quirks might be that I’m very struck about what I read. As a Christian I don’t care for bad language content or sex in the books I read. I have read some Christian fiction where there is bad language content sprinkled in here and there. When this happens to me I’m usually hesitant to read anything by that author again. That’s just the way I am.
I won’t even read what a book is about if there is a bare chested man on the cover. I pass right over it.
I also don’t care for time travel books or science fiction.
I tend to read multiple books at a time (for example, right now, I have Ted Dekker’s A.D. 33, Lorna Seilstad’s When Love Calls, and Beth Moore’s Breaking Free all going), but as you can see from my examples, I never read from the same genre at the same time. That’s my quirk.
I guess my reading quirk is that I can’t stop reading. haha! My husband just looks at the piles of books on the dining room table and in my “office”(our extra bedroom) and he smiles. He knows how much I love to read.
I always thought it would be hard for a reader to take anything I wrote seriously because I didn’t like to read much. Then, I discovered The Diary of Anne Frank and a biography on Madame Curie. I realized I loved to read biographies. Although my school mates were reading Harlequin Romance novels, I didn’t care for them much. But when I was introduced to Historical Romance novels, I absolutely loved them. I couldn’t put any of those books down. I came to realize that the problem wasn’t that I didn’t like to read. It was that I didn’t like to read anything in which I wasn’t learning something. What is it I like to write? Something that will help the reader learn something. So I have an advantage in reading other writers’ books. As long as I’m learning something, I’m quite happy to read their work.
Since I am older and live on a limited income, I usually cannot afford to buy the latest books. Most of the books I am reading are free e books. I also like to try to win copies of books on an authors web site. I have gotten some awesome books that way.
I hesitate to call my reading choices quirky, but they can be very eclectic. Out of the 170 books I read in 2015, about 40% were YA books. Although I’m not reading much historical non-fiction, I loved it while I was homeschooling. My main choices in reading are Adult contemporary/historical fiction; YA contemporary/historical, psychological fiction, and sci-fi which is limited to time travel and non-space travel alien stories. It’s important to note that, although I will read secular fiction, I crave a consistent faith and romance thread through nearly every book that I read. AND a happily ever after. My favorite romance sub-genre is romantic comedy and I try to intersperse them regularly with my more serious choices.
Since I am a big fan of YA fiction, I am thankful to you, Jody, and a few other authors like Melanie Dickerson, Jenny B. Jones, and Lisa Tawn Bergren continue to write books for Christian YA that I am drawn to. While adult Christian fiction is numerous, the Christian YA market is untapped when compared to the secular market.