Saturday Reading - Changes in Taste

"Never force yourself to read a book 

that you do not enjoy. There are so many

 good books in the world that it is foolish 

to waste time on one that does not give

 you pleasure."

- Atwood H. Townsend

While looking for other books at the library recently I came across this book. And since I have a HUGE stack of books waiting to be read, I thought why not add this one to the stack.

Steve Leveen is also one of the founders of Levenger, which is a drool-worthy site for anyone who loves pens, planners, papers and the like. His love for books led him to establish Levenger and write The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life.

One of the things he discusses in the book is how your tastes change with time. I had just finished up Camp Austen by Ted Scheinman in which he talked about the Austen versus the Bronte camp.

Which led me to think about how my tastes have changed over the years and one reason why I like or liked certain books.

First off, and it dovetails into one reason why I like my Hobonichi planners so much - THE PAPER! I love reading books printed on thin paper. Thick, huge tomes printed on thin paper. I think that is one reason why I plowed through the Brontes and Tolstoy decades ago. Thick books on thin paper. It made me feel so intellectual. Believe me feeling like an intellectual is about as close as I come to being one! 

I remember copying paragraph after paragraph of Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead, journaling to my English professor of how they spoke to me. His comment was "you'll outgrow it soon". I did. In trying to reread Ayn Rand I couldn't do it.

And the second part of how these two books twined into this thought process was remembering going back to reread Jane Eyre a few years ago. I only got through a few pages before I set it aside, not in the mood for the brooding story. Even watching the movies has me changing channels looking for something else.

But give me Colin Firth and Pride and Prejudice and I'm all set for a marathon TV watching session, complete with hot tea!

Yes, my tastes have changed and I started thinking about my reading journey over the decades. 

I grew up in a town where the library was essentially a large closet off the police station. Yep, off the police station. Later it was expanded and became a large room, but still beside the police station. Made it very safe for a young person to ride her bike too. 

I ran through all the children's books (and those now labeled as Young Adult) and the librarians allowed me to check out adult books. 

Early on I made it through the Victoria Holt, Phyllis Whitney, Jane Aiken Hodge...all the Gothic mystery/romance novels. I filled in the gaps with early Harlequin Romances. Remember, back in the mid-60's all of them were set in the Canary Islands, Australian Outback or Seychelles with the female character being a teacher, daughter of the local preacher or doctor, or a secretary and they finally kissed in the last chapter.

Georgette Heyer was another big series I read. I could have mastered Regency manners in a heartbeat!

From there I devoured romances like crazy - Jude Deveraux, Nora Roberts, Danielle Steele - read and reaching for the next one like eating chocolate from a sampler box.

One evening, while searching the shelves at Waldenbooks (remember them?), a lady stopped me and suggested I try a different style of romance. She recommended Anne McCaffrey's The Ship Who Sang and it opened up a whole new world of reading for me. I raced through every McCaffrey book I could find went from there branching into the world of Science Fiction and Fantasy. (Right now I am making my way through The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan.)

Over the years I still fueled my romance passion (pun intended) and throw in SciFi/Fantasy. 

THEN...

Came the Self-Help books and Travelogues and what I call, "My Year in the Life of..." books. Yes, nonfiction reared its head. Not the nonfiction you groaned about reading in school, but 'creative nonfiction'. Right now, if you looked at the stack of books piled in my room, about half of them are from those dreaded Dewey Decimal labeled shelves. 

The 'Fang and Fur' books emerged and just give me Anita Blake and the shapeshifters and vampires any day!

However, if the book is an Oprah pick or on the New York Times book list, odds are I won't pick it up unless I get a recommendation from someone I know. "Great literature" doesn't interest me, I want to be entertained.

Somewhere in all this reading, I realized there was no book police and there are too many books out there on my list of books to read to waste my time in something which doesn't interest me. Now I give a book a couple of chapters, 50 pages or so, to lure me in or it's dumped.

I have a massive list of authors and books to read and it's growing every day. I make good use of my library privileges. I hope my tastes keep expanding and changing!