What's genre got to do with it?

The Tipping Point

                                                  

At any point in time, I usually have at least two shelves lined with untouched books, a pile of new books lying on my bedside table, and about 50 freshly downloaded books on my Kindle. Add to that the books I have designated as 'To-Be-Read' on Goodreads and my Amazon wishlist , and the number of books I have yet-to-read-but-really-want-to-read will shoot up to at least 150 (a very conservative estimate)!

So I was wondering last weekend: which book from that pile should I read first. Understandably, it turned out to be a complex decision-making problem, which had to be figured out quickly as my weekend target was completion of at least three of those unread books! I started wondering: maybe there is a pattern to it? How is it exactly that I decide which book to pick up first, considering that I have a seemingly unlimited number of equally lucrative options to choose from? Do I have a particular preference or order of reading? 

                                                 

Here's what I figured out about my book reading process. 

Sometimes I pick up a book based on my mood of the day - am I looking for a fantasy or a goosebumps inducing horror novel? Maybe I should go on a high adventure spree today? Am I in the mood for an intriguing time slip or past-present novel? A little murder and mayhem perhaps? This is more of a spur-of-the-moment book, which I may or may not end up liking. It may just be a way of passing the time and generate a been-there-done-that feeling after completion. Such books are usually dime-a-dozen and meant to be forgotten the moment I finish them.

But once in every few months, there comes a landmark book - which I may have stumbled upon unsuspectingly, but which eventually manages to be powerful enough to alter the course of my reading future! In spite of all the endless number of books I read every year, this book has something so potent that it single-handedly ignites in me an intense craving for similar books with similar settings. For example, early in February, I picked up Rebel of the Sands, and it cast a spell so strong that I immediately rushed to my trusty Amazon store and downloaded the 10 top-rated fantasy-adventure books. So far, I have read at least 20 books of this genre, all within a month, and the hunger still shows no sign of abating. I know, I know what you will say - this is how infatuation feels like! 

                                       

This phase continues for anywhere between two weeks to six months, depending on the intensity of the emotional upheaval caused by the first book which initiated all this madness. During this phase, some classic symptoms exhibited by me are bleary eyes caused by insomnia, partial amnesia resulting in skipping meals, lack of concentration, occasional late arrivals in office, frequent procrastination and extreme unsocial behavior (you have been warned!).

But the question is: does this starry-eyed phase last indefinitely? Fortunately or unfortunately, no. Like all infatuation, this too does pass. By chance, I pick up another path-breaking book which unknowingly takes me to a radically different world or generates in me an unprecedented (?) liking for a particular fictional character, and so another journey into another genre starts. 

But do I prefer a particular genre or type of book always? No, that would be a truly difficult choice and one I'm sure I can never make.

                                                          

                                                     

Carlos Fuentes, the Mexican novelist once said: “Don't classify me, read me. I'm a writer, not a genre.” However, dear authors, I beg to differ. As an eclectic reader and a connoisseur of books, I am addicted to my cyclical, unpredictable genre phases - from angst-filled passion to fantastic adventures, from funny coming-of-age stories to creepy horrors, from historical sagas to suspenseful dramas - I want them all, but in small doses at a time, and in the right mix.

So which book are you in the mood for today?