Reboot your Reading List

Reading List by Kurtis Garbutt courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons licensed by CC BY 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/9fv65v https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

We all have a favourite stable of authors we return to again and again. We either devour their new books or we re-read their old books, embracing their familiarity. It is a comforting and enjoyable way to pass the time.

When searching for something new to read, we either try a writer who is recommended as similar to one of the authors on our favourites list or we pick something from within the genres we are most comfortable with.

We never stray too far away from what we know.

That is not necessarily a good thing however for a reader or an author.

Into the Unknown by Paul Hudson courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons licensed by CC BY 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/VVe7jg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Out of My Comfort Zone

A few years ago I was seriously ill. A friend of mine arranged a delivery of books to my house to see me through my months of treatment. There were five or six books in all. None were the kind of books I would have picked for myself. Some were literary reads, others historicals, outside my go to periods of history, some were futuristic but not sci-fi.

I read them all over the months I was laid low. Firstly, because having read the blurbs of each I was intrigued by then and secondly because they had been a present and I would have felt a little mean if I had not read any of them.

My friend had told me that if any of the books did not appeal to me that I could swap them for others, she wouldn’t mind but I didn’t want to do that. It would somehow have cheapened what was a wonderful and thoughtful gift.

Imagine my surprise when whole new worlds I would never have inhabited opened up before me, sucking me in and holding me in their sway.

The British Library by Steve Cadman courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons licensed by CC BY-SA 2.0 https://flic.kr/p/JYedk https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

Try Something New

There is definitely something to be said from stepping away from the familiar and reading something new. So next time you are searching for something to read try something from a genre you’ve never read before or, better yet, walk into a book shop and pick up the first book your eyes alight upon.

Reboot your reading list and you’ll be rewarded by discovering new worlds and new writers you would never otherwise have met just like I was.

White Lies by Ellie Holmes http://Author.to/EllieHolmes