Reading profile

CHOSEN GENRES

Thrillers (week 3) -Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

Horror (week 6) - Bird Box by Josh Malerman?

Science Fiction (week 7) - Artemis by Andy Weir

Fantasy (week 11) - Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss

New Adult (week 13) - ?????

Reading Profile 

Reading is one of the things that I miss most during the school semesters. For me, it is difficult to find time to read because some courses are so demanding that I just don’t feel I am giving a book the proper attention it deserves. Luckily, this semester I have an excuse which makes me very excited. Typically, I mostly read Historical Fiction (I was a history major, shocking), Fantasy, and Non-fiction, more specifically True Crime/Serial Killers. Those are my big three favorites. I like the new worlds and diversity of Fantasy, it makes for endless possibilities, as long as it’s not too far out there. However, I love the gore and messed up reality of historical fiction and true crime. It’s like a train wreck. I just can’t look away and I find it extremely fascinating. Really what I enjoy most are books that have been made into Movies or TV shows. I really like to compare the two or see how well they adapted the book into a motion picture. Sometimes the movies don’t always grasp the whole picture the author was trying to portray, or it leaves out important details that change characters or the story itself. I always try to read the book first even though that doesn’t always happen for either lack of knowing or time, but if that were a genre, that would be my area of expertise. However, recently, and I mean within the last few years, I have started to dabble in Thrillers and Sci-fi. Which honestly, I am not sure why I didn’t get into those genres sooner because so far, I have really enjoyed them. I have also recently gotten into audiobooks by the suggestion of my husband. I was always felt that an audiobook didn’t do the book justice, therefore I never gave it a shot. Now, I can’t imagine driving to work without a book playing rather than music. It just feels wrong if I don’t.

So, with all that being said, I have chosen the above genres for this semester because I feel, at least for me, it’s pretty diverse. For Thriller, I think that B.A. Paris’ Behind Closed Doors is going to be a good pick for me because it also sounds dark and mysterious as well as a thriller. The few thrillers that I have read and liked were Ruth Ware’s The Woman in Cabin 10, Amy’s Gentry’s Good as Gone, and Paula Hawkins The Girl on the Train. The Girl on the Train is really what got me into the genre because they made it into a movie.

Horror is always an interesting genre because they are so different compared to horror movies. Horror movies have the advantage of sounds and music to accompany it, making it easier to give you that scare. However, horror books really have to be good to get that similar effect. I don’t read much horror, not because I don’t like it but it’s hard to find that right one. A few that I do love is Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Dracula is one of my favorite books of all time. I actually collect different versions of the book just because I feel so in love with it at a young age and every child collects something when they are young. Mine was copies of Dracula. For this genre, I am honestly thinking of reading Josh Malerman’s Bird Box because it is the “in” thing right now. Also, I am one of the few people that have yet to watch the movie on Netflix, but now that I know it is a book, I have to read the book first before I watch the movie.

With my undying love of Star Wars, one would think that Sci-fi would be one of my favorite genres. However, in reality, I haven’t read much Sci-fi at all. The few that I have read and loved where Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, and Andy Weir’s The Martian. I suppose Frankenstein could also fit into Sci-fi. Honestly it could fit into either genre, but I think it fits better into horror. I have tons of Sci-fi books that I want to read now since I got into the genre. The two that are burning at me to read is Andy Weir’s Artemis, and Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. I am also interested in Hugh Howey’s Silo Series. My husband read them all and has been begging me to read them so he can talk about it with me, but I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I have chosen to go with Artemis because I loved The Martian. The way Weir wrote The Martian felt so effortless and comical that it just pulled me in and I was hooked. I read The Martian in two days after I found out it was a book (after seeing the movie 😊) and recently I found out that Weir published Artemis, so I am eager to get to that one.

Fantasy. If I HAD to pick my favorite genre, Fantasy would probably be it. Although, historical fiction is a very tight close second. I can thank my late Aunt for my love of fantasy. She is the one that got me into Dracula, and folk lore, as a kid. Dragons, fairies, pixies, and other mythical creatures were staples of my childhood. Most kids want a puppy or a kitty when they are young. I wanted a Dragon, more than anything in life I wanted a pet Dragon. My favorite children’s book was/is Little Golden Book’s Pete’s Dragon. To this day, Dragons are still my favorite creature. I have several of them around my house (statues, not real 😉), luckily my husband lets me fulfill my obsession. The first book that I remember reading that wasn’t a “children’s” book or my mom didn’t help me read was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Needless to say, I am a Pureblood Hufflepuff. Picking a book for this genre was hard because I have already read so many. The Game of Thrones Series, the Lord of the Rings Series, the Chronicles of Narnia, and the Golden Compass Series, all of them holding a place in my heart. This past year, I read Neal Gaiman’s American Gods, which I enjoyed, but other than that, I haven’t read much Fantasy lately. Either way, I decided to go with Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind. It is my husband’s favorite book and I am honestly surprised I have never read it. It has never come to my attention until recently when he was talking about it with a friend of ours. So, I figured, since it’s his favorite, and it sounds interesting, I will give it a shot. (However, I did tell him he had to read one of my favorites that he has never read so we are even.)

Lastly, the New Adult genre. This one, I know nothing about. To my knowledge, I have never read a new adult genre book. I might have, but I didn’t know it if I did. I picked this one because it is the one I am least familiar with. I actually had to look up what new adult genre meant because I had no idea. I honestly thought it meant recent publications for adults, which I know now, is not the case. Since I had/have little idea what the genre entails, I have NO IDEA what book I am going to read for this genre. Luckily it is the last book I will have to do for the semester, so I am open to suggestions!!! Since this is a reader’s advisory class, I am hoping someone can help me with that one. 😊

Some of my other favorite books and authors not mentioned are:

The Harry Potter Series - J.K. Rowling

The Cirque du Freak Series - Darren Shan

The Sherlock Holmes Series - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

The Modern Faerie Tale Series - Holly Black

Secondhand Souls or Coyote Blue - Christopher Moore

The Alice Network - Kate Quinn

Room - Emma Donoghue

The Devil in the White City - Erik Larson