Brain Cravings...
It's a given that we're all book junkies. We've discussed reading addictions here a few times, and what kinds of things we like to read, how we handle TBRs, and the various formats and genres we like best. But I find I have very distinct reading patterns, and I don't know exactly why they form the way they do -- it's like the weather, it just seems to happen and go in general directions at various times.
Right now, I am reading mysteries. I have romances stacked up, and I keep meaning to get to them, but I am more likely now to go out and buy a new mystery than to pick up a romance I have on the TBR. It's very strange, like a brain craving of a certain type. I read a romance last week because I felt like I should, and it didn't work for me. It was a great book, but as I was reading it, I knew I wasn't doing it justice because it wasn't satisfying something that my brain wanted, so I finished it, and then went to the store and bought 3 more mysteries. Though many of the mysteries have romantic elements. It has something to do with reading what I'm writing -- I do read what I'm writing, intensely, unlike some authors -- but I was like this long before I started writing.
I know I'll cycle to something else at some point, but it seems like in my own reading patterns, I get very genre-specific for long periods of time. I mean, I didn't read any fiction at all for over ten years from my mid-twenties to mid-thirties (I'm serious -- it was all nonfiction and school reading). I remember picking up a Nora Roberts book like "well, I might try this..." LOL as my entry back into romance reading... which led me to where I am now... though from my teens to my early 20s, I had been a voracious romance reader.
I have friends who are more eclectic readers, who read all kinds of different things all the time, and I've never done that. I like to immerse in one thing at a time. I also have very disturbing periods where, like looking in the refrigerator and not finding anything you want to eat, nothing appeals to my reading sense, and that's when I have to take a break and just do something else, like sewing or gardening. Or reading magazines -- love magazines.
I rarely force myself to read anything; it's either what I want and grabbing me, or I set it aside. Mike reads big books, what I think of as the male historicals, you know, Clavell, etc, or the 2000 page techo-fiction books, and honestly, I just look at those and say "no." He will get 150 pages in and can sit with the book until it "picks up" and I think that's a very special kind of reader. I am much more impatient. It has to grab me very quickly.
Anyway, while we all love books, do you find you have certain reading patterns or cravings? Have you always been a certain kind of reader, always read the same thing, or have you had big changes? Curious if I'm the only one with weird reading patterns around here...
Sam
Hi Sam, Interesting - well,
Hi Sam,
Interesting - well, now I read solely romance - though most of the subgenres. I go through slight periods... obviously as a kid I read kiddie books. Love them. Then I read the Michael Crichton and John Grishom books in 5th-8th grade. After that, in high school, I hit only the classics. Wouldn't even read anything written after 1950 unless I had to. I don't think I started romances until college - I didn't have access to libraries [non academic] - so I started finding new books in the one bookstore with "popular books." Romance/fiction was easy to pick up and put down, or leave. Also, with 2 majors and all the other academic stuff, I wanted a lighter read. And it's been that way since.
Classics & Childhood
Yes, you reminded me that while I was a student, I did read a lot of fiction and poetry, but it was all classics. Assigned reading for classes, but also stuff I sought out on my own, and I loved it. That was probably my most eclectic reading period, because I was reading novels, plays, poetry, etc. But while I enjoyed it, a lot of it was school reading, and my personal reading tended to be nonfiction - I liked reading environmental books, Rachel Carson, etc, and adventure stories, and autobiographies (Still think Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior is one of the best books ever...). When I became a teacher, however, I think I stopped reading a lot in my free time because in some ways, all I did all day was read -- though it was mostly student work! LOL
I also had a science-fiction stint in my early teens, but it never grabbed me completely... still doesn't. I did read all of the James Bond books, the Ian Fleming stories, back then, and as a kid I was a devout mystery reader -- Trixie Belden, Nancy Drew... and come to think of it, the rest was nonfiction, then, too (which I don't read at all now...). I used to love to read the Time/Life Encylopedias as a kid, you know the sets your parents could get at the grocery store? LOL I have one, The Ocean, which I crossed out the copyright page and put "By...my real name" LOL Aspiring author, even then...
Sam
Hi Sam, I do go through
Hi Sam,
I do go through spurts. I'll read a bunch of Dick Francis, Sara Paretsky or Elizabeth Peters books and then move on. Every now and then I'll read something I've been meaning to read. I have to be careful though, because I begin to write like whatever I'm reading. If I read historicals, I tend to add more words to my writing than when I don't. I always go back to romance, though. Just love them.
I hear ya
Romance does rock. :) I think I actually read what I'm writing so I can internalize different voices, stylistic conventions, a "feeling" for a genre, etc -- although it seems I can write romance now no matter what I'm reading. I guess I've done enough that I've kind of "programmed" my brain, but to write a mystery, I had to read a lot so I could get the rhythm of it and keep it in my head...so I suppose I actually want that influence. Probably, if you were going to write a historical, then you'd find that influence useful?
Sam
I do the same thing--read
I do the same thing--read what I want to write. I just try to avoid reading a completely different genre with a different rhythm while writing my romances because I haven't programmed my brain yet. But in time I will, lol.
I do think it cycles...
I do have to mix it up a bit when I read--I do find that I can't stick with just one genre or even length. Maybe I've just got a short little attention span ;) Anyway, I may sometimes get a historical groove or contemporary or westerns or light suspense... but I do pretty much stick to romance. And I'm not typically drawn in by those mega-tomes either--there's that short attention span again! I usually use anthologies or category titles as "palette cleansers," or if I'm really stuck, magazines.
When I first started back with romance, I read exclusively contemporaries. Then I tried one of the Bridgertons and the whole world of historicals opened up. And through Cigars and some other sites, I'm constantly introduced to new writers and genres I hadn't tried before. Great for me, not so great for the towering TBR... ;)
Oh, and I did read a ton of sci-fi and fantasy when I was younger, but it doesn't hold the same appeal these days. Except maybe if it's a romance :)
Historicals
I never could get into historicals...I do gravitate to the same things, romance, mystery, thrillers, paranormal, in cycles... But I do tend to stay around the same length, generally... I've found very few long books (100K plus) that keep my attention...
And do I ever hear you on finding new authors to read through the site, LOL! Not to mention my blogmates...
Sam
I read the top book on my
I read the top book on my TBR pile no matter what the genre. I have always done so.
You are so disciplined!
Do you ever find you just aren't in the mood, though?
Sam
Sam, I also tend to read in
Sam, I also tend to read in the genre that I'm currently writing in, but I also tend to read a lot of biographies of people whom I might find in my books. For example, with my current WIP, with my Delta Force hero, I've obsessively read every Special Ops and Delta Force book I can get my hands on. It was more than just research...I found the books very compelling. That led me to pick up some other books about Marine snipers, Army Rangers, SEALs, etc. I also read a couple of fiction novels about super-secret soldiers, all of them written by men. It was interesting because the sex (can't call it romance)was so unromantic. There was a scene where this truly beautiful and intelligent woman goes home with the hero (although I use the term loosely because he wasn't a sympathetic protagonist), that read something like, "Her skin was soft and she smelled good, and it wasn't too much of a hardship when she wrapped her legs around my face." But when I'm tapped out on the rough, military stuff, I'll go back to a Suzanne Brockmann or Virgina Kantra novel.
Well...
That's down to brass tacks, isn't it??? LOL Sounds like it gives a good sense of how men might talk to each other though...
I like a lot of SB's stuff -- she seems to keep that tough demeanor without making them asses...which I prefer to think they aren't in real life. :)
I also will read stuff for research, and I do find it interesting-- though often I just go to B&N and sit and read there, use it as the library. *G*
Sam
I'll read almost anything.
I'll read almost anything. I'm not really into the erotica much but I don't exclude anything. I used to buy the thickest books I could find because I love characterization and descriptions and if it's a good book - I never want it to end. I think those same kinds of books just come in series now. I like to mix it up too.
I'm a huge series fan
I love nothing better than a good series...probably why I gravitate to urban fantasy and mystery a lot... though I used to love the Nora series and trilogies. I don't really read her current ones, except for JD Robb, but I enjoy series more than standalone b/c like you, I like to stay with characters for a while...
Sam
I'm the same way.....
Hi Sam,
Been a while since I was here, but I agree comepletely with you on this topic. I go through spurts where i'll read strictly romance, chick lit or mysteries. Right now i'm actually veering off course,lol. I read two romances, then a couple mysteries, then back to romance and now i'm reading another mystery.
I guess that is some type of pattern, but I through a chick lit book and some kids books-- The Spiderwick Chronicles, which I highly recommend, they aren't just for kids. I also get into reading slumps, I went through a very long one last year. It just seemed nothing held my interest and I kept blaming it on school and having to read that stuff. I think truthfully I was just bored with reading--which sounds sacrilegious to even my ears,lol. Thankfully things have changed and i'm back on track this year, definitely not reading as many books as others, but still keeping a good pace.
Kids books
The only kids books I've read as an adult are Harry Potter, and I only made it through 3 books, and The Secret Life of Bees, which was lovely. I get into those slumps too -- it's so frustrating, and I think you're right, it is as easy to get bored with reading (for some of us) as anything else we do all the time, so I think it's fine to take a break and do other things...
Sam
New Cover!
Woo! Check out my new cover on the sidebar! I LOVE it, and that I can tell, that's the couple from my story in the anthology. :)
Sam
Genre reading
Sam,
I tend to read in cycles like that. I was on a historical kick a few months ago and went through every Jane Feather I hadn't read before finally satisfying my craving. After that, I needed some blood, murder and mayhem, so I ran through mysteries, and I've stuck with them for awhile. I want good suspense, not puppies and kitties and flowers. The last few days, I've been reading every Jodi Picoult book I own that I haven't read, so who knows what I'm looking for now. Thought-provoking, I think, as her books tend to be.
But yes, I do tend to stick to the same genre when I read.
Maybe that's it...
Romance is for the emotions, and mystery, which having emotional components, is very thought-oriented, figuring out the puzzle, etc -- when you burn out on one, you need the other -- and then there is the excitement of suspense, and the fantasy of paranormal. Maybe it's the reaction we get a little dead to -- reading so much romance we kind of tire of the emotional storyline, and so we switch over to something else for a while...
Sam
Reading in spurts
Hi Sam, I tend to read the same type of books for a time, then switch to something else. Right now I'm in an otherworldly mode, having gone through all of Robin Owens novels that I could get my hand on, then read a few old Pern stories from McCafferty, and right now am doing a re-read of the Harmony series by Jayne Castle. Guess you could say I've been living on another planet, lol!
Before that I read a few mysteries spliced with humor, most notably, "Murder with Puffins" by Donna Andrews and would have read "Revenge of the Wrought-Iron Flamingos" but I loaned it out to someone looking for a new book to read. I did the "think" period, reading the newest Jodi Picoult's "Change of Heart" and a non-fiction or two.
I'm not sure what's up next, but it's probably time for a relationship novel while I'm waiting for the newest Nora Roberts. I see you have something coming out in a few months, and I'll be sure to pick it up, plus play Operation Sam, making sure it's displayed properly!
I keep hearing about Jodi P
Have never read her, but maybe I should. LOL on "Operation Sam" -- I haven't heard that in a while! Good to know it's still in force!
It's good to see you, Betty!
Sam
Brain Cravings
Hail to the Redskins!
There are us loyal readers who still perform Operation Sam when your books come out! Dh still doesn't understand why I don't wait until your book comes into the UBS, but I tell him I'm supporting a new author who needs the sales! When you're as famous as Nora, I can say "I knew you when..."
I'm like Estella, I read whatever is next on my TBR pile. If I'm not into it, then I catch up on chores, and eventually, I'll start reading again (after a day or two when the craving hits).
I do confess, when I do the mission trips, I'll dig out the inspirationals, mysteries, biographies so I won't get lectured by those who are "offended" by romance. A mission trip is not a place to get into those arguements--it detracts from the purpose of the trip. There are always one or two in the crowd who don't like romance and make their opinion known. I really don't want to hear it.
Fun topic!
I read all sorts of things, and it varies not just by mood, but by what I'm writing or what stage of writing I'm in. I'll read a lot of first person when I'm writing first person. Or if I'm in the intense stage of a book where it's taking up all my brain space, I don't try to read anything new. I'll re-read favorites I know well, because I can't give a new book the attention it needs. I'll read things because the topic or content in some way springboards my imagination. I'll read humor to balance intensity in the Real World or in writing. Sometimes I just want to go back and visit childhood favorites, too.