Don't judge a book by its genre

As I finished rereading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I realized that I have a confession to make: I used to be a book snob. In fact, I have been a book snob at several different points in my life, encompassing several different genres.

 

I have been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember, so whenever I adopted a genre as my own I set out to conquer it. My first attack of snobbery occurred when I was in my early teens and I would only read comic books. First, there was the mutant craze, then I would only read independent comics or manga. (Ironically enough, I can hardly get through manga today. But I digress.) During this phase I discovered the glory of Elfquest, and let me tell you the first 20 issues of Elfquest are some of the best storytelling you can get your hands on, and the art is fantastic.

 

Then Elfquest was rereleased as a set of graphic novels (the rerelease is the secret device used by all publishers to get us to buy the same thing twice and darn it, I fall for it ever time), and this led to my graphic novel phase. Watchmen, Frank Miller's Dark Night, and a few Robotech titles are examples of what I was reading then. Of course, graphic novels only get you so far, and I soon made the transition from graphic novels to science fiction and fantasy.

 

Actually, this was my second go-round with fantasy. When I was eight or nine I discovered the Lord of the Rings in my local library, and plowed through them over the summer. That led to the Chronicles of Prydia, the Chronicles of Narnia, and probably a few other chronicles as well. Incidentally, there was a horror phase around the same time that abruptly ended when I read Stephen King's IT and ended up having to sleep with the lights on for a week.

 

Earlier forays into fantasy aside, I now only read titles by those who had been proclaimed 'masters of their genre'. I read Zimmer Bradley, Heinlein, Hebert, LeGuin, Asimov … I could go on and on. I effectively ignored new releases, preferring instead to let others sort through the bazillion books published each year and find the good ones. Some categories were far beneath me, and I refused to read young adult titles (children's books in disguise), anything with a vampire (too cheesy for a serious reader like me) and anything that had been made into a movie.

 

You all know what an epiphany is? Mine occurred when I realized that I no longer eagerly waited for a new release, that everyone else was excitedly checking out blogs to see what their favorite author's were working on, and that I breezed by the new release table as if it was contaminated. So I loosened up, read a book I randomly picked out from the fantasy section, and haven't looked back.

 

My advice to you all is to leave the snobbery behind. Read that book your sister in law recommended, even though it has a vampire. Pick up a random book from an author you've never heard of just because you like the cover. And never, ever discount a book just because of its genre. You may miss out on the next Harry Potter.