Top Ten Tuesday is a meme hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl, featuring a different top 10 theme each week. This week’s topic is Books I Enjoyed that Were Outside My Comfort Zone.
I don’t know that I have a particular comfort zone when it comes to reading. I read across genres, and wouldn’t say that certain types of books or topics make me uncomfortable. Still, there are books that are more unusual choices for me, and those are the books that I’m highlighting today.
Here are ten books that are not my typical reads! For a variety of reasons, these books were out-of-the-ordinary when it comes to my reading habits… and I’ll share why!
1. The Roommate by Rosie Danan (review): I enjoyed this contemporary romance, but it was WAY more spicy (i.e., extremely explicit) than anything I typically read.
2. The Blind Side by Michael Lewis: If you’d asked me in advance if I’d consider reading a book about football, the answer would have been no! Not a football fan, and really, little to no interest in reading about sports. And yet, after hearing an interview with the author, I decided to check out the book, and found it surprisingly fascinating.
3. Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (review): After geeking out on Hamilton (the musical), I decided to read the biography that inspired it. I would not normally pick up a massive history/biography like this… but I’m glad I did.
4. Vietnam: A History by Stanley Karnow: Yet another massive history book that I picked up thanks to pop culture! I went through a phase (many years ago) where I was very into both TV shows and movies set during the Vietnam War, and decided I needed to go deeper. As a fiction reader to the depths of my soul, reading a big history book like this was definitely an unusual step, but it paid off.
5. Red Earth and Pouring Rain by Vikram Chandra: A book group I participated in many years ago picked this book, and I was not prepared for the writing style or subject matter! I stuck with it for the sake of the group discussion, but this was not a typical read for me by any means.
6. An Immense World by Ed Yong: I do like to pick up pop science books from time to time. This one was a gift, and was much more science/detail-heavy than what I might typically read. I’m glad I was gifted this one — I might not have picked it up otherwise, and I found so much of it really fascinating.
7. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: An unusual reading experience for me, in that I only succeeded in finishing this book on my 3rd (or possibly 4th) attempt. At various times in my life, I’d started this book, only to quit somewhere around the halfway mark. For a long time, I considered this my own personal unreadable book… and then finally decided that I was going to give it one more try and actually finish it, no matter what. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t love it, but I’m still glad that I made it happen.
8. Death of an Eye by Dana Stabenow (review): If not for being a fan of the author (I love her Kate Shugak series!), I probably would have skipped right by this book. A mystery set during Cleopatra’s reign, there was so much about the time period and setting that I had to Google while reading that it took real perseverance to see it through. It was a good read, but the subject matter made it an unusual choice for me.
9. Reading Shakespeare for myself, not for a class! A catch-all category here… I’ve now read Shakespeare plays a few times over the past several years, just for my own enjoyment. Again, definitely not something I’d consider part of my typical reading habits! I’m looking forward to continuing — there are still plenty left that I haven’t read or studied.
10. Moby Dick by Herman Melville: At some point a few years ago, I decided that I had to read Moby Dick. Just because. Maybe as a point of pride, to be able to say I’d done it? Overall, it was a rewarding experience… but the endless chapters about different types of whales? Definitely not something I’d ever thought I’d spend that much time on!
And finally…
One extra book — this is one from my to-read pile that truly feels outside my comfort zone… mainly because I keep hearing how hard it is to get through it!
Have you read The Silmarillion? Thoughts on whether it’s worth the effort?
Have you read any of the books on my list? Do you have any particular books that were unusual reading choices for you?
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Bookshelf Fantasies 