Liane - the Diversify My Reading Challenge

[Liane]

My reading challenge this year is not so much to read a target NUMBER of books, but has to do with the TYPE or GENRE of books I read. I've read about 20-35 books yearly in the last couple of years, but noticed that my book lists would be dominated by a particular genre - Young Adult, or Romance mostly. Meanwhile, my Literature/Fiction TBR pile keeps on growing, and lately I've also been feeling the need to "cleanse the palate", so to speak, and have more variety in my reading. I think this exercise will be good for me developmentally, and will enable me to read books I normally would just pass over as I mindlessly reach for the next quick read.

So: My goal this year is to read AT LEAST 20 books, distributed in the following genres (I have several options for each genre, as I'm not sure where my spirit would lead me):

1) GENERAL FICTION/LITERATURE (at least 5), including but not limited to any of the following:

The Goldfinch (Donna Tartt) - DONE!
Longbourn (Jo Baker) - DONE!
The Signature of All Things (Elizabeth Gilbert) - DONE!
How to Breathe Underwater (Julie Orringer)
In the Skin of a Lion (Michael Ondaatje)
The Lowland (Jhumpa Lahiri)
The Rosie Project (Graeme Simsion)

2) NON-FICTION (at least 2), including any of the following:

The Power of Habit (Charles Duhigg)
Far From the Tree (Andrew Solomon)
Bird by Bird (Anne Lamott)
How Children Succeed (Paul Tough)
Nurture Shock (Po Bronson)
How the French Invented Love (Marilyn Yalom)

3) YOUNG ADULT / FANTASY (at least 5):

The Raven Boys/The Dream Thieves (Maggie Stievfater)
Dreams of Gods and Monsters (Laini Taylor) - DONE!
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (N.K. Jemisin)
Winger (Andrew Smith)
Sex and Violence (Carrie Mesrobian)
Melina Marchetta contemporaries (Saving Francesca; The Piper's Son)
A Northern Light (Jennifer Donnelly)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane (Neil Gaiman)
a few supposedly good ones coming up: Cruel Beauty (Rosamund Hodge); Half Bad (Sally Green); Deep Blue (Jennifer Donnelly)

4) MYSTERY (at least 2):

Dark Road to Darjeeling / The Dark Enquiry (Deanna Raybourn; also contains historical and romantic elements)
Tana French novel/s
Louise Penny novel/s

started C.S. Harris (glom?) : What Angels Fear

5) ROMANCE (as this is my go-to easy reads at the moment, an "at least" is pretty useless)

continue Mary Balogh - glom of bests ( No Man's Mistress)
continue Georgette Heyer - glom of bests Pistols for Two
continue Loretta Chase - glom of bests
complete Sherry Thomas glom The Hidden Blade...My Beautiful Enemy
Between the Devil and Ian Eversea - Julie Anne Long
The Shadow and the Star (Laura Kinsale)(+ try others?)...For My Lady's Heart
try a Connie Brockway
try a Jeannie Lin - ALREADY DID TWO: The Lotus Palace and The Jade Temptress
try a few contemporaries - Kristan Higgins / Susan Mallery / Sarah Morgan / Julie James / Katie McGarry
The Year We Fell Down (Sarina Bowen)

6) CLASSIC (at least 2)

I love all things Austen, but to my eternal shame, I only have ever read Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion. What!?!?? I am not worthy to clean the halls of Pemberley with my shirt. So I ought to read - at least, Sense and Sensibility and Emma/Northanger Abbey/Mansfield Park

Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) - would this count in this category?

To Say Nothing of the Dog (Connie Willis)

I don't know what else I might want to read in this category.

[Daphne]

Great way to challenge yourself to step outside of your comfort zone.

You should consider jumping into some of our groups challenges; they may help you with book idea and push you even more to want to read out of your ordinary.

Good luck!

[Jodi]

Fahrenheit 451 is listed as a classic. I read it last June or July for one of our classics challenges.

I agree with Daphne about joining challenges. I find the challenges can really encourage me to go beyond my normal genres. From these challenges, I have discovered that I really enjoy the Sci-Fi genre, something I have always stayed away from. Good luck! By the way, I loved Fahrenheit 451. It is a great book.

[Liane]

Daphne and Jodi, thanks for the well wishes. Will definitely look into those group challenges!

[Liane]

Okay, HALF of what I've read so far this year are romance novels. Not that I'm berating myself for this as romances certainly keep me happy - but if I'm to stick to my goal of diversifying the reading palette, then I must move on.

The thing is, many of the other genres or categories I read also have romantic elements…looking through my shelves, pretty much everything save for a minor few! (The romantic angle may not be very strong, but this would tend to still stick out for me. See Goldfinch.) Also noting that 5 of the 6 so far are historical, i.e. not from present day. Perhaps this is the theme of the year. Meanwhile, YA seems to have lost its flavor. I had 3 excellent recent YA reads though (all last year), that I want to highlight here: You Against Me, The Spectacular Now, and Eleanor and Park. Common elements = realistic YA + unresolved or untidy endings.

So this has been quite an interesting exercise of me metareading what I'm reading.

[Liane]

General Fiction/Literature (at least 5)
The Goldfinch
Longbourn
The Signature of All Things
The Interestings
I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You
+++
Station Eleven
Life After Life
Fingersmith
All the Light We Cannot See

Non-fiction (at least 2)
waaa...still ZERO :(

Young Adult/Fantasy (at least 5)
Dreams of Gods and Monsters
Saving Francesca
+++
We Were Liars
Belzhar

Mystery (at least 2)
C.S. Harris #1-#6
+++
the rest of C.S. Harris? (#7-#9)
the rest of Deanna Raybourn? (#4-#5 + novellas)
Tana French?

Romance
Julie Anne Long
+++
Mary Balogh?
Liz Carlyle?

Classic
Fahrenheit 451