06 April 2006

A Change Will Do You Good

Word Nerd has realized that her reading habits are changing.
Change is good, right?
Word Nerd knew her habits and her preferred genre(s) were shifting, but it wasn't until she pulled out the list of what she'd read in the last year again that she realized just how much.
Of the 79 books Word Nerd read from March 21 05-March 20, 06, only 25 of them were sci-fi/fantasy. Yes, that's about a third and yes, if the Jack Whyte historical fiction King Arthur books count as fantasy then there are more (ditto with Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine series for the surreal elements there).
Just to be clear -- Word Nerd went through a phase in life where just about every book she picked up had a map, and/or glossary and/or prophecy about how the main character is somehow destined to save the world in a sweeping epic.
So what happened? Word Nerd read a lot of the good sweeping epics, and then tired of trying to untangle yet another writer's made-up language. And George R.R. Martin's new book too so long coming out that Word Nerd has almost lost interest (almost, not entirely) And then there's the kicker: Evanovich.
Word Nerd had already been starting to get back into mystery books (her favorite as a kid, back when Encyclopedia Brown was cool), reading Donald E. Westlake and Cara Black. But then a writer's club buddy (ahem, Stacie) mentioned Janet Evanovich.
But the startling fact was that from mid-August 05 to mid-October 05, Word Nerd read 19 books and not a one was fantasy/sci-fi. This is almost analogous to Word Nerd giving up double chocolate brownie ice cream for namby-pamby vanilla.
And now? Reading Evanovich has turned into reading other mysteries bordering on chick lit. Word Nerd is more apt to wander down the mystery stacks at the library than the sci-fi shelves.
Change is good.
Just don't try to convince Word Nerd to give up the double chocolate brownie ice cream.

4 comments:

Stacie Penney said...

Just remember that this is a two way street. I'm picking up some really strange habits too.

Unknown said...

Be careful or you will soon be reading romance novels...the kind with Fabio on the cover. :)

Bethany K. Warner said...

No. Not those. Anything but those. I'll take back the sweeping fantasy epics with made-up words first.

Joshua Grover-David Patterson said...

Actually, if you enjoy the funny mystery genre, I can't recommend the Fletch series enough. In particular, if you work in the newspaper biz, the opening chapter of Fletch Won is one of the funniest chapters of any book I've ever read.