Tuesday, August 8, 2017

Tell Me Something Tuesday: The Pressure to Read in Different Genres





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Tell Me Something Tuesday is a weekly discussion post hosted by Rainy Day Ramblings where a wide range of topics from books to blogging are discussed. Weigh in and join the conversation by adding your thoughts in the comments. If you want to do your own post, grab the question and answer it on your blog.

This week's discussion question is:


Do you feel pressured to read more in genres that other bloggers are reading?



I think I can safely say that I do not feel pressured to read more in genres that other bloggers read. However, this answer as some caveats.

I don't feel pressure to read other genres, but I am often encouraged or motivated to read other genres. For instance, I don't generally reach for contemporary YA. I have nothing against it, it's just not my thing. But as you may know, contemporary YA is one of the most popular genres (or so it seems) around the blogging community. Generally, I don't feel pressured by bloggers to read in this genre, but every once in a while a contemporary YA book will pop up that I would have never been exposed to if I didn't read about them on various blogs. Books such as The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas and The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis are both contemporary YA books that I really, really enjoyed. But I do think that it is important to note that I didn't choose these because of pressure, but rather because I was encouraged to and they stuck out at me.

I don't think pressuring others to read in more genres is okay, but I do think encouraging people to read in more genres is okay - it's great to diversify your reading! There's nothing  better than expanding one's reading choices, and sometimes we wouldn't push ourselves outside of our comfort zone if we didn't have others encouraging us. But if you know you don't like a genre, then I don't think you should feel like you need to read it just because other bloggers are. I don't really like romance or, as I mentioned, contemporary YA, and I'm not going to force myself to do so. And you know, sometimes we just want to read in one favorite genre for a while, and that's okay. Sometimes I read nothing but fantasy or historical fiction, and that's fine also.

I know that my reading tastes don't always line up perfectly with others int he blogging community, but that's okay! Everyone has different tastes, and I think things might get a little bit boring if we always read the same books. Don't let people pressure you to read something you don't want to read. But do experiment and find what you love!

So now I pose the same question to you: Do you ever feel pressured to read certain genres that other bloggers are reading?


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