The Subjectivity of Reading

[cathschaffstump]

So. My local SF organization, Mindbridge, has started a Mindbridge reads project. For every 25 books a Mindbridge person reads, we will put his/her name in a drawing, and at the end of the year, we draw for some gift certificates. Cool.

Of course, this makes me think about reading. And it occurs to me that I am a hard reader to please. Sometimes I feel like my drummer is moving me to march to syncopation.

Frankly put, I don't often find what others find delightful to be the best fit for me. I talked about this a little at Taos. Recently I was in a contest, and the story that won didn't fill me with delight. It wasn't in my top 3, even, when I voted. This is not to say that it shouldn't have won. It just informs me yet again that my taste is likely not to be the taste of the average spec fic reader.

And this comes back to haunt me as many of my favorite shows last briefly, or many of my favorite comics are cancelled.

I tend to like works that focus more on character than gimmick, and aren't afraid to dig around in that. I also don't mind the things I read to begin a little slow, because if there's a good pay off, I can handle it. I do like works that fall in the spaces, like historical fantasy, but not always, because I despise steampunk, which often skims the surface with stereotypes and smacks of colonialism and cliche. I like stories that don't follow the predictable choices.

This is not to say that everything I read is "good" or "literary" Come on, I've enjoyed a lot of Mike Mignola (rich in folklore though. You gotta give him that!). Like so many of you, I know what I like when I see it. I used to suggest that high fantasy was not my thing, and then I read some Lynch. Or SF wasn't my thing. And then I read Beggars in Spain. I am wiser and more open now. I read widely.

I dunno. Sometimes I worry that my tastes are so hard to please as a reader than maybe I can't produce writing that others want to read, especially in the face of my choices sometimes being the opposite of other choices. By having read so much classical style stuff, I like a marriage of modern and classic. I just wonder if there are others who do. That's a naive question. Of course people like that stuff, but one always doubts when one finds oneself yet again in the minority when it comes to making a call about writing.

Then again, Naomi Novik, Susanna Clark, and Mary Robinette Kowal. Stephanie Burgis and Carolyn Stevermer. There are a niche of writers that hit me write, maybe not all the time, but often. There are people out there writing what I want to read. And other people like these writers. It's not that I can't find things to read. I'm not sure, though, that I can legitimately think of myself as an SF lover, or a fantasy lover, as so much of what I try to read makes me go meh.

I wonder if it's that way for everyone? And I wonder if everyone feels like me as a reader.

Right now, what am I reading? A book of Egyptian history, so I can understand how religions interacted in that country after the Romans, and Shogun. I suspect to be a happy reader for a while.

Anyway, what do you find? Are your tastes more eclectic, or do you talk to your reading friends and find that you agree about what you're reading?

Mirrored from Writer Tamago.