Thursday 5 June 2008

Booking Through Thursday: Trends


Have your book-tastes changed over the years? More fiction? Less? Books that are darker and more serious? Lighter and more frivolous? Challenging? Easy? How-to books over novels? Mysteries over Romance?


My taste has changed over the years as a teenager I read loads of horror and mysterys, then somehow worked my way into a bit of chicklit (the type my Mum reads). When I started my A Level English Lit course things started to change as I got introduced to more authors and genres, although the majority of my reading was still very light and modern.

My A Level course featured a lot of 20th century fiction so you can imagine my horror the first day of my English degree when one bloke stood up and quoted a Shakespeare sonnet and everyone was talking about having read Mill of the Floss etc. I had never planned to take an English degree and had got into the university by applying to study Sociology and Law, I changed my mind at the last minute. All the other people on my course had had an interview to study English and been sent home with a list of 100 books that it would be useful for them to have read - most people had read a good 30 books on this list, I had read one! So the first year at university I only read books from the list. It was a good experience in that it broarderned my reading habits but some of the books I read because I felt I had to rather than because I enjoyed them.

Since finishing my degree and MA I have been able to read books that I have choosen, I still stick predominatly to literature but it is generally contemporary, and I will go off and explore other genres and authors. Bookbrossing and blogspot have also helped me discover new favorites. And teaching has re-introduced me to Childrens and YA books

1 comment:

maggie moran said...

As readers we are always expanding, aren't we! :) Got your address and the chans are in the mail. Should be 10 days from now, and you will be in pecan heaven! Oh, and I deleted your info from the comments. L8r!