It’s Tuesday, and by now you all know what this means. Time for another Top Ten Tuesday indeed! This week, it’s all about discussing books I enjoyed that are out of my comfort zone. And I definitely have a ton! I have experienced multiple shifts in preferred genres over the years, as well as a long-lasting reading slump. So, books that wouldn’t be out of my comfort zone right now, were in the past. Without further ado, let’s take a look!

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.

1. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling – It’s such a shame that the author has become so incredibly problematic and has views I 100% cannot get behind. The Harry Potter universe shaped me as a reader if I might state it like that. I never read fantasy, wasn’t interested in such books as a kid. And everyone kept asking me if I wanted to try this new wizard’s book out. No, I didn’t want to. So, I got it as a gift instead LOL and decided to take the plunge after all. This was my first step into fantasy and read the entire series afterwards.
2. Twilight by Stephenie Meyer – I was vaguely aware of books for teenagers, even though I read them at an early age. I often found myself more interested in the more advanced books with more mature themes as a kid, I often was too bored by books more appropriate for my age range. However, I never heard about the term Young Adult. I also wasn’t up to date with the latest trends at the time because ebooks didn’t really exist yet. I therefore was fully dependent on the library for the blind that always fell years behind. So, I only found out about Twilight when the movie came out as a result. As a late bloomer, I still wanted to read this series. Luckily, I just finished them in time before the big after high school reading slump hit.
3. Pretty Little Liars by Sara Shepard – I can’t even remember the title of the 9th book in this series, but these books were out of my comfort zone for a whole different reason. I read the first 8 books in Dutch, but the latest 8 were never translated. So, I had to switch to English, which marked my first time dipping my toes into reading English books for pleasure. Before, it was always for coursework. Unfortunately for this particular series, this didn’t last long as I just grew tired of the stories of each book becoming formulaic and repetitive.
4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins – My first attempt with this series was in 2018, can you believe it? Back then, I really didn’t enjoy them as I listened to the Dutch audiobooks. Timing proved to be crucial, because – ironically enough – I devoured this entire series nearly back-to-back during the first months of the Covid-19 pandemic. I just couldn’t wait to get on with the next book, I tried my usual tactic of reading a book inbetween instalments, but this obviously didn’t work.
5. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi – I have been a late bloomer once again, because I only read my first dystopian in 2018. In my defence, I haven’t read properly for a long while, so I had a lot of catching up to do. Dystopian was far out of my comfort zone.
6. Phobos by Victor Dixen – If it weren’t for this author attending the Dutch equivalent of YALWest called YALFest (which sadly doesn’t exist anymore after the last edition in 2019), I probably wouldn’t have picked this book and its sequels up. Again, I just gotten back into reading and never heard about these books. Furthermore, sci-fi was soooooo not for me. But I have been proven wrong once again, because I was truly captivated by this concept and series. However, I’m still not really a sci-fi girlie and hardly pick up anything in this genre.
7. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – My first steps back into fantasy! If I have been reading anything from like 2010 to 2017, it were mostly thrillers and no fantasy. So, this was my first time back in this genre. I’m glad I read these books before they became popular on Booktok, because that platform is sucking the joy out of so many books I love. Apparently, most bookish social media do. Moreover, the second book is even more out of my comfort zone due to its explicit and sexual content. This series also provided me my first baby steps into smut.
8. The Deal by Elle Kennedy – I think this was my first college romance, but I might be wrong. I tried some new adult before with a book by Colleen Hoover, but I hated that one (Ugly Love) so much I avoided the entire genre for a good while. This book proved that this genre could have deeper layers too.
9. The Eighth Life (For Brilka) by Nino Haratischwili – I have been shouting about this book many times in posts like these, but this was truly out of my comfort zone, and I truly loved it. It’s a real heavy brick, so that was my first challenge. Furthermore, it was a bigger step into more complex literary fiction which proved to be a good one for me.
10. The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr – One of my most recent picks and another challenging one for its writing style and way of storytelling. Once I got used to it, it was really compelling and gripped me till the end. I have to admit that I was torn between several books for this last spot on the list, but ultimately I had to choose for one of my contenders for my favourite books of 2025. (review)

Do you enjoy reading out of your comfort zone? And what books did you like when doing so?