In my Facebook group, The Posse, we have monthly reading challenges. We purposely make these easy to complete, and open to a wide range of book genres and styles. For example, the challenge might be to a read a book with no people on the cover or a book where the heroine is a mom.
Sometimes, though, the challenge theme aims to gently push readers out of their comfort zone. I don’t know about you, but I have a very strong “Sweet Spot” when it comes to reading. Nearly every novel I read for pleasure is set in the 1800’s. I love historicals, and while I might occasionally veer into a medieval or colonial setting, the 1800’s is my go-to era. And within this era, I usually stick to either America or England. Thankfully, there are a lot of wonderful smaller eras within this sweet spot – regency, Victorian, western, gilded age – so it never feels restrictive.
Many readers are far more eclectic than I am and have a wonderfully large sweet spot that entails a multitude of settings and genres. So when our July Reading Challenge arrived last month, challenging our members to read a book set in an era they didn’t usually read, the challenge was different depending on how big of a sweet spot the readers had. Our small sweet spot readers (like me) had to get out of their comfort zone and try something new. Our large sweet spot readers had to find something unique enough that it fell outside their wide parameters.
I created a graphic to help readers find ideas for books that would work for them by defining some specific timeline eras.
I broke out of my historical sweet spot and read a contemporary – Toni Shiloh’s In Search of a Prince. It was utterly charming, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. This month, however, I retreated right back to my historical roots to read The Lost Lieutenant by Erica Vetsch since she and I share the same number of letters in our first name (August’s challenge). I can step out of my sweet spot once in a while, but it always calls me back. 🙂
How wide is your reading sweet spot?
If you were to participate in the July challenge, what era would you select?
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Karen, I am totally with you on preferred genre for pleasure reading! And, as always, I look forward to every new release from you! Hugs and blessings, sweet lady!
Love you, Bonnie!
I have a pretty wide sweet spot. WWII is one of my favorites though. I would probably have to go with Biblical for the challenge as that’s definitely an era that I don’t gravitate towards and haven’t read many of.
Many of our eclectic readers ended up going with biblical for the same reason. Though we did have a few brave souls who gave futuristic a try. 🙂
Futuristic is a lot of fun! I hope those brave souls have enjoyed it!
Great list of books for each era! I tend toward historical in my reading–mostly 1700s-1940s–but I’m in a book club for the first time this year and have read several contemporary psychological suspense books–way out of my sweet spot!–and actually enjoyed some of them. But I always end up back in the past. 🙂
Book clubs are a great way to stretch your sweet spot, D’Ann. Which is probably why I never joined one. Ha! I’m such a curmudgeon and don’t want to leave my historicals. Creating these challenges has forced me to stretch, though, and it’s been good for me.
My sweet spot is historical, but it is very wide – from medieval through WWII. If there happens to be a mystery involved, that’s even better. I went to contemporary for last month’s challenge also, and even read nonfiction, which I only read about one a year.
BTW, I am loving this month’s challenge because it is allowing me to clear out some from my TBR list.
I’m so glad that you are enjoying the challenge, Betty. 🙂 I am, too. It’s made looking through my TBR more exciting as I search for books to fit each challenge.
Karen, thanks so much for including Sweet on Me as a representative of the contemporary era in your graphic!
I love that your Posse tackles monthly reading challenges. That’s so much fun. Personally, my reading sweet spot is large. I read widely!
You are always the first contemporary author to come to mind for me, Becky! 🙂
Perhaps because I have a wider reading sweet spot explains why I write both historical (mid-1800s to WWII usually) and contemporary and oftentimes combine them into dual-time novels.
Of the 80 books I’ve finished reading so far this year, 68 were fiction. Of those 68, I’ve read Biblical, Regency England, Victorian England, 1850s Texas, early 1900s Ireland, fantasy (no specific time period), early 1900s America, WWII America, Ancient Rome, Time Travel, WWI England, 1920s England, contemporary America. That’s from a quick scan of the covers. I’ve probably missed some settings/time periods. Most of the books I read are Christian fiction but not all. I read general market books too (recently finished Mitch Albom’s The Stranger in the Lifeboat — not one of my favorite reads).
I’ve never joined a book club either nor do I participate in reading challenges (other than the Goodreads’ one which is only the number of books read). I want to read whatever catches my fancy when it is time to start a new book.
What a great range, Robin! And what an amazing number of books to have read so far this year. I’m so impressed. My reading time is rare these days, so I’m feeling very accomplished if I read more than one novel a month.
It’s all because of audiobooks, Karen. I would be lucky to get one book a month read if it required print/ebook (although I do read those too). I have an audiobook going when I walk to get another cup of coffee, when I’m driving, while I’m fixing the dog’s breakfast, while loading the dishwasher. Amazing how 2 minutes here and five minutes there add up.
I think my sweet spot is more about authors than time period, because looking at your list I love and have read all of those authors except for futuristic. With the authors on this blog and on your list I know I can’t go wrong!
That’s a great way to look at it, Linda! A sweet spot for authors. I love it!
I think you & I would get along famously. 😉 My “Sweet Spot” is typically the 1800s, with my very favorite era spanning from around the 1870s to the late 1890s. I will go a little farther in both directions (mostly backwards), especially if the author is just an exceptionally good writer. I’ll venture to a totally different era occasionally… & when I do, if the book is well-written & by an author I really like, I usually enjoy it… but I always come back to that 1800s Sweet Spot! 🙂
I knew we were sisters of the heart, Lori! 🙂