The Benefits of Reading Outside Your Genre

Do you read for fun? For self-help? To learn a new skill? To escape to another world? To inspire your faith? To challenge your thinking? All of these are valid; however, it’s easy to stick with what’s comfortable and read the same kind of books all the time. There’s nothing wrong with having favourite genres or authors. However, we can miss a lot if we never step out and try something new.

Why Read Outside your Genre?

You’ll find some gems.

A few years ago, I did a reading challenge in which one of the books had to feature a hotel, of all things. After a quick search on Goodreads, I came across Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. It was a beautiful, heart-wrenching, life-affirming novel and I may never have read it if it wasn’t for that challenge. We also had to read a re-imagined fairy tale, so I chose a book about a cyborg Cinderella working as a mechanic in New Beijing. Cinder by Marissa Meyer became one of my favourite books and I ended up reading all the books in the series. Definitely not my usual genre, but well worth taking the plunge.

It will broaden your perspective.

Growing up in Australia, most of the books I was exposed to were Australian, British or American, featuring predominantly white, able-bodied protagonists, with a few exceptions. Recently, someone recommended a memoir to me called Persepolis by Iranian author Marjane Satrapi. It’s done in the style of a graphic novel and tells the story of her childhood in Iran after the overthrow of the Shah, her time alone in Europe for four years during adolescence, and her return to Iran. It was an unusual mix of tragedy and humour, but opened my eyes to a lot of things I hadn’t heard before. Marjane came from an outspoken, educated family whose whole way of life was turned upside down overnight. Hearing the story from someone who was there during the revolution and its aftermath helped me to have more empathy for Iranian people.

It will help your writing craft.

If you read enough high-quality literature, you’ll absorb good lessons that you can apply in your own writing. Reading good poetry collections can help you develop skills in using better imagery in your fiction. Reading quality fiction can help you to write non-fiction in a more engaging way. Reading suspense novels can help you to write page-turners, regardless of the genre. Yes, it’s important to read within your genre, but broadening your horizons will take you to another level.

There is a precedent in Scripture.

Reading the Bible can throw us out of our genre ‘comfort zone’ in no time. It contains historical records, poetry, biography, prophecy, and books on Christian living, to name a few. There are lovely, heart-warming stories of God’s tender care for his children (e.g. the book of Ruth). But there are also accounts of murder, rape, incest, idolatry, adultery, greed and all manner of sinful acts. Some of these passages challenge our sensibilities and may be difficult to understand on their own, yet there is a redemptive thread running through them. God loved his people so much that he sent his Son to die for our sins so that we could be reconciled with him. Are some sections of the Bible challenging? Yes. Is it worthwhile reading them? Absolutely![bctt tweet=”Reading the Bible can throw us out of our genre ‘comfort zone’ in no time. It contains historical records, poetry, biography, prophecy, and books on Christian living, to name a few. #genre” username=”acwriters”]

Reading Goals

As you think about your goals for this year, where would you like your reading to take you?

There is no right answer of course. If you have a demanding job that saps a lot of your energy, you might want your reading to take you into pleasant places that help you de-stress and relax. If you need to learn a new skill, then ‘how-to’ books might be top of your list. Whatever your overall goal, I’d like to encourage you to include at least a few titles outside of your usual range.

This week’s Tuesday Book Chat asked whether you had set a reading challenge for 2021.

This year, I’ve set my own list. I included a few Christian categories, but I also wanted to stretch myself in terms of diversity and writing craft. You can read my list of 20 books here. My favourite genre, romantic-suspense, isn’t mentioned because I’ll read those anyway. You could come up with your own unique list that caters to your goals, or you could join one of the existing challenges.

I’ve done the Popsugar one three times (and managed to complete it once). Here’s the link for the 2021 Popsugar Challenge.

Or you might prefer Rachel’s selections on the Booklist Queen site.

If those lists don’t sound achievable for you, try Kelly Mongan’s Diversify your Reading Challenge which involves just one book of a different genre each month (with a few bonus picks).

If you prefer to focus on Christian titles. Tim Challies’ Christian Reading Challenge has different lists depending on whether you’re a light, avid, committed or obsessed reader.

If none of those suit, you can find a master list of dozens of reading challenges here.

Reading Together

One of the advantages of reading challenges is that you can often find online groups that are doing the challenge together and you can share the books you’ve been reading. If you can’t find a group, you could start your own Facebook group with a few friends. Perhaps you are already part of a book club and you have lots of healthy discussions and cheesecake to look forward to. If you’re doing a challenge on your own, you can still share your thoughts on sites like Goodreads. We all love reviews and book recommendations from like-minded friends.

Be Kind to Yourself

Regardless of whether you come up with your own list or join an existing challenge, remember that your reading journey is meant to be a blessing for you and not another thing to add stress to an already busy life. If you don’t complete a challenge, that’s fine. You will at least have read a few books you wouldn’t have read otherwise. Who says you have to complete it in one year anyway? If there’s a category on the list you really don’t want to read, skip it. There won’t be a quiz at the end! If you start reading a book and you can’t get into it, toss it and choose another. Life’s too short to read a book you’re not enjoying. Be kind to yourself and have stellar reading experiences along the way.

How about you? Have you set some reading goals for this year? I’d love to hear your thoughts.