So this idea popped into my mind while I was stuck at home for a week cause of an ear infection. 😂
There I was… sitting in my room, staring at my shelves then the ceiling then back to the shelves and then it hit me. I have given away so many books in the past months… does that mean I have changed? Did my preferences changed from when I started to now? How did this affect me as a reader? Pros? Cons? Discoveries?
With all that questions in my mind I then decided to make this post. It took me awhile to start it cause I had to gather my thoughts and remember how I really was when I first discovered I loved to read. So… let’s go back to my highschool days shall we?
I was an avid reader of ROMANCE books way back. Besides Percy Jackson I wasn’t able to get into a book without romance in it. Maybe it’s the teen side of me but I really loved the cheesy young adult romance books like Anna and the French Kiss, My Life Next Door, The Fill-in Boyfriend and many more.
Then I discovered Young Adult FANTASY. Fantasy for me back then was a very challenging genre to get into. So a requirement for me to read a fantasy is… you guessed it. Romance. I could get into a fantasy book or series when the main focus is the romance between the 2 characters. That’s when I started to read Twilight (who wouldn’t want a shimmering boyfriend, right? 🤣), Darkest Power series (which I LOVED), Vampire Academy series, Hush Hush series etc.
Now we go to my College days. This time I do still read a lot of YA Fantasy romance but another genre I got into was Historical Romance. This was the time I discovered Book Sale and there wide variety of HR books. I started collecting books from different authors like Victoria Alexander, Stephanie Laurens, Lorraine Heath, Cathy Maxwell and so on.
More years passed and I was slowly introduced to the genre I am currently in love with… High Fantasy. I was introduced to this genre by the awesome Brandon Sanderson which is now my all time favorite author. The Mistborn series was what I considered to be the turning point of my reading preference. I was changing from reading books that were centered on romance and instead looked for the thrill of adventure in the story. I started to get interested in authors like Patrick Rothfuss, VE Schwab, Michael J Sullivan, Jim Butcher, Robin Hobb and many more.
By this time I realized that I was slowly starting to fall out of love with YA. Maybe because I was growing up and the themes doesn’t really match with me anymore or the characters felt to young for me to connect with them. I still do read YA by favorite authors but when it comes to new releases I tend to be hesitant to read them cause I didn’t want to be disappointed (cause oh boy… I had been… more than I thought I would).
Presently in my collection I have a variety of books from 4 genres. High Fantasy, Mystery/Paranormal, Historical Romance and New Adult Romance (kindle).
Mystery/Paranormal was one of the genres I didn’t think I would love but when I read A Discovery of Witches as well as The Year of the Witching I started to look for more books like them. I do tend to read majority of my paranormal books during the fall season. On the other hand, Historical and New Adult Romance books are my life saver when I feel like I’m getting into a huge slump after reading a bunch of Fantasy books OR when I just want a feel good and romantic read.
With this I conclude that my reading preference DID changed as time went by. But not as drastic as I thought. I do still have the love for romance but it just got altered from YA to adult. I did discover new genres, authors and books that would be part of my collection for a long time. I ALSO did give out all of my YA with the thought that someone out there might start to love reading when they get this. Cause basically… this is where it all started.
How bout you? Did your reading preference change? 🤔
The Bibliophile Thoughts 