Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted by Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Since April 2022, the meme moved to another host, Aria @ Book Nook Bits. Let’s Talk Bookish is a meme where participants discuss certain topics, share their opinions, and share their love by visiting each other’s posts.

As you might have noticed around the blogosphere, this is last week’s topic. This week we originally talk about the books that make us feel like fall, but since A) I’m not much of a seasonal reader and B) I already posted my fall 2023 TBR on tuesday, I figured repeating myself wouldn’t make sense. Neither for myself to write it, nor for you to read it. Also, I didn’t manage to write last week’s post, so let’s try something. Thanks to Davida Chazan @ The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog for suggesting last week’s topic, how stubborn of a reader are you?

Prompts: How stubborn of a reader are you? How often do you stray from reading books not in your favorite genres? Do you sometimes dabble in genres you usually stay away from? Or do you read any genre, and have no favorites?

How stubborn of a reader are you?

To be honest, I’m struggling witht the intepretation of this question. Is it meant stuboorn as in like pushing through a book although you aren’t enjoying it or stubborn in not wanting to step out of your comfort zone? When it comes to pushing through books, I think I’m less stubborn than I used to be. I can put a book aside to leave it there for good easier now. Years ago, I couldn’t and I finished even though I was struggling. I still do, but those books I still want to power through because I’d anticipated them a lot for instance. When it comes to stepping out of my comfort zone, I’m less stuboorn. I’m always eager to diversiffy my reading and to find new voices. However, I now know the type of books I would like and won’t like at all.

How often do you stray from reading books not in your favorite genres? Do you sometimes dabble in genres you
usually stay away from? Or do you read any genre, and have no favorites?

As I stabed above, I like to diversify my reading and I am eager to find new voices. However, I tend to stay in my comfort zone a lot, this has to do with several factors:

• Wanting a quick comfort read to catch up on my reading challenge;
• Easily falling asleep whilst reading and therefore read less during the darker seasons;
• Having trouble comprehending the book since English is not my first language. This often happens with fantasy involving folklore from non-western cultures. I tend to stay away more from BIPOC fantasy because of this, even though the blurb still sounds intriguing to me. If these book swill be translated sometime, I will still pick them up. I love to read BIPOC contemporaries though, they are easier to grasp when English is not your first language.

However, I sometimes need a change and therefore, I try another genre every once in a while. Nevertheless, there are genres I would never touch. These are for example poetry, essays, non-fiction (except for some memoirs) and hardcore sci-fi. I hated physics in school, I eagerly dropped it when I got the chance. Since science fiction is full of physics references, it’s hard for me to understand. Furthermore, I get bored easily and that happens with the other genres mentioned. My favouurite genre at this moment is romance mixed up with some fantasy and historical fiction. I’m drifting away from YA more and more lately.

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How stubborn of a reader are you? Do you power through a book even though you know deep in your heart that you won’t like it? Do you step out of your comfort zone and try different genres every now and then or do you stick to your favourite comfort genre? If so, there’s nothing wrong with that, please know!