Musing Mondays is a bookish meme hosted by MizB on Should be reading.
This week’s musing asks…
Do you think it makes you NOT (or less) “well-read” if there are certain genres that you won’t read because you KNOW you won’t enjoy them? Why?
I work at an institution of higher learning (aka a community college) and most people that wander the halls around here read a lot of academic pursuits and intellectual fonder. Others read from the book group's reading list. Other's Oprah's book list. A few are die hard genre specific readers. What is the measure of "well-read". Like MizB suggests there's so many genres out there to read and most of us pick a genre and read everything we can get our hands on in that genre. I personally go through reading spurts. For a period of time I'll read nothing but that genre. A couple of summers ago I read nothing but PR. In high school, I only read dark mysteries. Now I read psychological thrillers. Once I only read non-fiction self-help books. To be considered well-read, I think you'd have to look at what you were considering. Are you well read in all genres or in a particular genre? I have friends who are well-read in PR, others who are well-read in cozy mysteries, yet others are well-read in the classics. To be well-read all around I think you'd have to read ALL types of genres but you can be well-read in a particular genre or field. As for me, I think I'm on the way to be well-read. I take spurts, as I've said, and when I come to the end years of my life I'm pretty sure I'll be well-read. As for now, I'm a novice. I won't read something I KNOW I won't like (i.e. shapeshifting stories or the ilidad) just because it'll make me well-read. I read for my enjoyment and only my enjoyment. Years of college courses and required reading has left me reading only want I want not what would make me look good...make me look educated. I have more education than I'll ever use. Maybe that makes me less "well-read" but life is short and there are way too many books in the world for me to worry about being well-read. I read well and that's all that I'm concerned about now. Perhaps, sometime in the future I'll worry about my intellectual pursuits of well-readness but for now, I'm happy with having a book no matter how silly or uneducated it may seem to enjoy and get lost in.
What about you? What do you think about it all?
PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT with either the link to your own Musing Mondays post, or share your answer in a comment here (if you don’t have a blog). Thanks!
10 comments:
I've made a committment to read new authors to right reviews so to help sell and promote thier books. While a lot of it I would never consider reading, I read it anyway. There's a lot of original stuff out there even if it's filled with erotica and violence.
Shelly, I've been trying to do this. Unfortunately, I took two books with me on vacation that I received to review and found myself editing the book and one even banging it on my head asking why I didn't have a book deal if this individual got published. lol Good luck. and you are right. We need to look at new authors BEFORE someone hypes them up.
Good answer :)
Here's mine:
http://carabosseslibrary.blogspot.com/2011/07/musing-mondays_11.html
I like your comments, too. I'm not one who worries much about labels or what others think. I try to only please myself these days. The advantage of age! LOL
Thanks for visiting my blog.
I think it is great to be open to all sorts of genres and not to decide ahead of time that you will not like a certain sort of book. if it come highly recommended, give it a try!!
caite I agree. I've read some great books because I just jumped in to read them even though they weren't my normal genre. I've also read some crappy books by sticking to my normal genre.
Vicki, I agree with you too. Our time is precious to us. Well-read or not we should read what we want, when we want.
I agree with you, read what you want and enjoy it.
Hello my lovely. I haven't been on here forever. I hope you are doing well. I read everything. I did a blog hop awhile back and all of who joined write different genres and have sort of picked up new friends and critique partners. I have read a little bit of everything because I love to see the potential of all the different ideas.
Never enough time to read all the books I want to!
Here's mine: http://diannehartsocksalex.wordpress.com/alexs-blogs/
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