Has Any Read Converted You To A New Type/Genre Of Literature? (4/4/21)

[Marc]

Was there a type/genre of literature you hadn't tried before, or you had tried and disliked, that you changed your mind about due to reading a good book in that category? (E.g., "I never thought I liked children's lit until I read The Day My Butt Went Psycho, but now I'm a big fan." Note: Example used only for its comedic title. This was a highly disappointing book but could have been rescued by what might have been the most disturbing illustrations in history had it contained any.) Let us know what book changed your mind and why.

[Bretnie]

The House of the Spirits by Isabelle Allende and One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez both opened my eyes to magical realism, maybe 20 years ago. I hadn't tried it before, or even really heard of it, but I feel in love quickly!

I'm curious if people have a mystery book that changed their mind about mysteries. I enjoy reading them occasionally, but usually they are just "that was fun" books, and nothing that says "wow, I should really read more mysteries."

[Lark]

I've edged into the horror genre, because the horror genre has edged into literary fiction, with books like Fever Dream and Things We Lost in the Fire and also Goat Mountain and Dirt by David Vann.

Stacia helped with recommendations like Comemadre by Roque Larraquy and Last Days by Brian Evenson.

[Lee]

Asterios Polyp opened my eyes to graphic novels and completely undermined my bias against them. I still don't read many but I've never since dismissed the genre out of hand.

[Whitney]

Good examples, all making me think of my own experiences.

Yes to Bretnie's 100 Years of Solitude opening my eyes (and I suspect a lot of eyes) to magic realism. Midnight's Children served to cement that love.

Neil Gaiman's Sandman series were the books that opened my eyes to graphic novels.

For Young Adult, I confess it's probably the Hunger Games that converted me.

[LindaJ^]

I've aged into horror. I was so sure I did not like it that I refused to read a Stephen King novel until I did and loved it - Hearts in Atlantis. Did not seem like horror to me! Probably the most literary horror I've read are Knockemstiff and The Devil All the Time by Donald Ray Pollock.

Bretnie, for literary mystery, I'd recommend Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey.

As to young adult, the first book I remember reading that I was shocked was labeled YA was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It was exceptional.

I love comic books (which are not always comic) so a graphic novel is just a fat comic book for me.

The genre that I avoid is Romance. I've read it - great for the beach where I never want to think. But I don't like laying on the beach and haven't done it in many years, hence I've had no inclination to read romance!

I also used to shy from stream of consciousness books after reading A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce. I still don't care for Joyce, having tried Dubliners, but have found others that I really enjoyed (but not Ducks, Newburyport), such as The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. I don't remember the book that turned the tide for me.

[Stacia]

I sometimes have a hard time classifying books. To me a book is a book. I don't tend to read much about books ahead of time (I hate summaries, spoilers, & intros; I much prefer just to dive into a book) & I think that makes me sometimes not think of genre per se because anything is possible within the realm of the story.

So many times, I've read something & later someone will make a mention of ____ being sci-fi (or whatever) & I'm realizing I never thought of it that way. (The Sparrow or so many Vonnegut books, for example. P.S. If some book were to catapult me further into sci-fi, it would probably be Rosewater.)

I guess that once upon a time, I would have said I avoided (modern) horror to a certain extent. (I've always been a fan of Dracula.) Probably the book that changed it for me is Horrorstör because it was just so perfect in all its nerdish detail to the size, style, font, naming conventions, & everything else that made it look so much like an Ikea catalog. That level of devoted detail forever endeared me to it, even though horror wouldn't be a first choice. The author, Grady Hendrix, did it again in his next book My Best Friend's Exorcism (lots of '80s details) & I've just been a super-fan ever since. I think that kind of slid me into horror, especially since he worked on Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction, which is funny & then got me into reading "classic horror" stuff like The Exorcist & Rosemary's Baby. I've definitely branched out more & delved into horror more ever since Horrorstör.

[Bretnie]

Stacia, I read a good article about Octavia Butler (in the New Yorker I think?) how she fought the sci-fi genre because it came with so many pre-conceptions and minimized the literary value of her books. The genre has definitely started to blur, which I love.

Linda, thanks for the mystery recommendation!

[Stacia]

Thanks, Bretnie. I need to read something by Octavia Butler someday!

Re: what she's saying -- I get it; I would fight it too because either you have to tick all the boxes (to make the super-fans of the genre like it) or you will have people avoiding it (because they think they don't like the genre) & there are probably not of readers in between those categories, especially if you get wedged into a niche. I guess it's kind of like certain actors being typecast.

[Janet]

When I think of a novel like Yangtze Choo's The Ghost Bride and her subsequent The Night Tiger - these get categorized as fantasy/ historical fiction/magic realism, but at their heart, they are really romances . The Night Tiger especially reminds me of a 1930s screwball comedy rom/com, and even though I don’t think of myself as a reader of romances, well, I guess under the right circumstances, I am. Both novels are great fun to read, btw.

[Nadine in California]

The section of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas that told the story of Sonmi-451 instantly turned me into a sci fi lover. I went back to the Ursula Leguin novels I read decades ago and can't believe I merely liked them back then. It was a big revelation for me - like all the colors in the world got more vivid :)

[Stacia]

Nadine wrote: "The section of David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas that told the story of Sonmi-451 instantly turned me into a sci fi lover. I went back to the Ursula Leguin novels I read decades ago and can't believe I ..."

That's a really great point. Again, see, I didn't think of that section specifically being sci-fi, but it makes sense that it is.

[Robert]

Although it was a failed experiment, when I undertook the 1001 books you must read before you die challenge, I was excited because I knew I'd be out of my comfort zone and a lot of books changed my mind about certain genres. Thus:

The Black Dahlia introduced me to hard boiled detective fiction
David Gemmel's Legend introduced me to fantasy
Ali Smith's The Accidental was my first experimental novel but I still hated them

The big changes happened with Ali Smith's How to be Both and the Kevin Davey's Playing Possum.

I used to dislike Sebald and novels of his ilk until last week, when I read When we Cease to Understand the World. I placed Austerlitz back into the TBR pile



However

[Vesna]

Lee wrote: "Asterios Polyp opened my eyes to graphic novels and completely undermined my bias against them. I still don't read many but I've never since dismissed the genre out of hand."

That's what Belonging: A German Reckons with History and Home did for me. Not a graphic novel, but rather a graphic memoir. What Nora Krug achieved here in relating such a complex collective issue for young Germans while also drawing us into her deeply personal journey is on par with the finest nonfictional or fictional treatments, perhaps even surpassing many of the best.

[Robert]

Vesna wrote: "Lee wrote: "Asterios Polyp opened my eyes to graphic novels and completely undermined my bias against them. I still don't read many but I've never since dismissed the genre out of ha..."

I've never heard of this!! thanks!!! (Asterios Polyp is great)

[Marc]

Mitchell does a really good job of blending genre elements into his works (well, I should say, I thought he did a better job with his earlier works than his more recent). I never really thought I'd care for historic fiction, but I, Claudius (Graves) and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (Mitchell; not strictly a historical novel, I don't think, but definitely has elements of that genre) convinced me otherwise.

Cormac McCarthy has probably convinced me I might like Westerns/cowboy stories more than I thought.

Like many of you, I just like good writing/storytelling, so genre/category matters/registers very little to me, but I'm still surprised now and then by my biases/expectations.

Another vote here in favor of Asterios Polyp! Also a big fan of Anders Nilsen (probably Big Questions is my favorite of his graphic novels; I usually go in for great artwork and story; he uses incredibly raw/rudimentary drawings, but it works great and his work has this wonderful philosophic quality to it).

[Bretnie]

Marc wrote: "Cormac McCarthy has probably convinced me I might like Westerns/cowboy stories more than I thought."

Yes! And whatever No Country for Old Men is!

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America opened my eyes to history books that can read like fiction.

And anything by Mary Roach opened my eyes to science writing, although I'll admit it probably just opened my eyes to Mary Roach specifically since she's amazing.

[Jennifer]

Black Wings Has My Angel, I discoverd I have a thing for this...noir stuff...is that right? But man. good stuff.

[Luke]

The Wall by Marlen Haushofer for sci fi/dystopias, although it was less of a conversion factor than a welcome port in a storm of banality/school assigned reading.