Welcome to my blog! As you can probably tell from my blog name, I was a Reading Rainbow kid, and yes I'm dyslexic. While I don't have an official diagnosis (I started school in the early/mid-80s before that kind of testing was common) I was held back after kindergarten. I was put in a "Readiness" class for a year before I was allowed to move on to first grade because I struggled to learn to read. My mom worked with me at home and as she says once I got the hang of it, there was no stopping me! Am I the fastest reader in the world? No! haha Do I sometimes have to read a word or whole sentence multiple times before my stubborn brain puts it in the right order? Yes! lol None of this has dampened my love of reading. In fact, I'm that sick person who will work all day at the library, come home and do readings for school and still pick up a book to read for fun! My Goodreads reading goal last year was 50 and I ended up reading 60.
So what do I like to read? I have pretty eclectic tastes. My favorite genre is probably contemporary romance (think rom-com, but in book form). As an anglophile, I have a particular weakness for anything set in the U.K. I also have a weird affinity for books written as diaries, journals, letters, and even text messages/emails. Bridget Jones's Diary hits my sweet spot. It's British and written as a diary! However, the third book in the series is infuriating. *Spoiler Alert* They killed Mark Darcy! Not cool! I also read some science fiction, literary fiction, young adult fiction, and LGBTQ fiction. Lately, I've been into books with Deaf main characters. I've also recently begun dabbling in mysteries, most notably M.C. Beaton's Hamish Macbeth series.
I also read a lot of non-fiction. I'm currently reading Madly, Deeply The Diaries of Alan Rickman. I read gardening books, astrophysics, astronomy, forensic anthropology (Bones is one of my favorite TV shows), and lots of other random stuff. As previously stated, I'm a very eclectic reader, pretty much whatever strikes my fancy at the time. Some genres that don't particularly interest me are political stuff, history, westerns, fantasy (sorry Tolkien), and harlequin-type romance.
Because of my eclectic tastes, it's hard for me to narrow down my preference for things like tone, storyline, and writing style as outlined in Novelist's Guide to Appeal. If pushed I'd say prefer character-driven plots. Some of the tones I like are humorous, darkly humorous, funny, feel-good, irreverent, moving, nostalgic, and romantic. I like diverse characters who are likable, quirky, sarcastic, and complex. Writing styles I enjoy are engaging, dialect filled, and witty, among others.
Some of my favorite reads over the past year include:
The Lost Ticket by Freya Sampson
The Happy Atheist by P.Z. Myers
The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Words in My Hands by Asphyxia
Still Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton
Dead Men Do Tell Tales by William R. Maples
The Reading List by Sarah Nisha Adams
Hi Tasha! I also really like book rom-coms! I think my favorites are the Brown Sisters series by Talia Hibbert (I think those count?), but there are so many good ones that it's hard to choose! I found it difficult to describe my reading preferences, too. I think a lot of it varies on the mood I'm in - is that true for you as well?
ReplyDeleteHi Chloe,
DeleteYes, I think what I read has a lot to do with what mood I'm in. During the pandemic I was pretty stressed so I read a lot of light, fun, stuff. Although, I also started reading Stephen King's The Stand...lol
Hi Tasha! I've recently discovered rom-coms, most notably through authors like Christina Lauren and Emily Henry. My favorite CLo novel is Josh and Hazel's Guide to Not Dating. It was the first one I read and I laughed out loud through so many parts of that book. Hazel is by far one of my favorite literary characters!
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like we have the same taste in reading! How funny. I'm a mood reader as well, but like you, there are some genres I just don't read, westerns and sci-fi/fantasy in particular. But I've decided with this class to step outside my comfort zone and read those exact genres.
Bones is also my favorite TV show!!! I'm re-watching the series on Hulu right now, haha.
Hi Gabrielle,
DeleteWow, we do seem to have a lot in common! :) I love Christina Lauren. It's interesting that those books are written by two friends. I would find it extremely awkward to write some of those scenes with someone else. lol I haven't read any Emily Henry yet, but I'm planning to use one of her books for Romance week. :) I'm definitely going to check out that book, thanks for the recommendation! I recommend Ali Hazelwood. She is relatively new, but she's really good. Her books really suck you in!
I love Bones, but I still haven't made it to the end of the series. I keep having a hard time with them killing Sweets. I've also read that Hodgins has an accident, ends up in a wheelchair and acts like a jerk. I love Hodgins, so I haven't been able to make myself watch that far yet... :/
Great profile! I also love books written as diary entries (I LOVED the dear America series as a kid). If you are into reading books about deaf characters - have you read True Biz?
ReplyDeleteThanks! Tru Biz is actually on my ever growing TBR. I'll get to it one of these days! Haha
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