Musing Mondays - reading habits changes

MUSING MONDAYS today asks…

How has your reading changed over the years? Have you started reading more “meaty” books (books with more substance)? Or, have you gone to more “fluffy” reads? Perhaps you’ve done neither, and you’ve just always read the same type of thing! If that’s the case, why? Are you willing to step out of your reading ‘comfort zone’ and try something new? What would you recommend to someone who needed to “branch out”?

My brother got me started reading science fiction when I was a teenager, some 40 years ago. I read everything A - Z from Piers Anthony's Dragonlance series to all of Margaret Weis's stories. My old apartment had wall to wall bookshelves totally filled with books.

I have branched out over the years and now our home has bookshelves in every room, overflowing with every genre. Unfortunately our house doesn't have enough room for all my books. When Father and I were married 11 years ago, I packed up all my sci fi books and we temporarily put them on shelves in the garage until we had time to unpack. They now reside in the same boxes in the bottom of my closet. We still don't have room. Perhaps I should have a book give-a-way or contest. The owner of Bookloverscafe, my favorite used bookstore, practically drooled when I told him about the books - I'll probably just bring them in to him for credit.

I have gone through periods in which I get caught up in reading only one genre or one author until I get through all their novels like Tom Clancy, Dale Brown, Mercedes Lackey or Ted Decker.

Last year during National Novel Write Month I discovered romance again when I read my first Nora Roberts book. Of course, that lead to reading ALL her books, including her futuristic J.D. Robb series. I also discovered a vast range of romance books from the typical boy meets girl to the suspense thrillers.

Thanks to the internet and the million, interesting blogs out there, I have discovered many, new books and authors that I wouldn't have normally read; fiction and non fiction that have taken me out of my "comfort zone."

What would I recommend to someone who needs to branch out? I would recommend taking up a challenge such as one of those found at Novel Challenges like "really old classics challenge" or the "martel-harper challenge."

I would tell them about one of the books that really stretched my imagination such as: "Thr3e" by Ted Dekker or "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Satterfield or "The Island of Lost Maps: A true story of Cartographic Crime" by Miles Harvey.

The older I get, the more eclectic my reading gets.

So, how has your reading changed over the years?

Head over to Should Be Reading and find out what every one else has to say.