FnFS: something different…

Well, since Amy –hostess of Faith ‘n Fiction Saturdays– is doing a “roundtable discussion”, today, of a book I haven’t read, I am going to do something a little different with today’s “FnFS” entry…

Last night, I was reading over at Amy’s blog, and she had this great post! It talked about whether or not we will choose to read books outside of our reading ‘comfort zone’. To read the full post, please click here.

In her post, Amy wrote:

Earlier this year I read this piece on Salon from Laura Miller about challenging yourself to read a book you think you’ll hate in 2010…  it made me think about challenging yourself consciously to read something you think you won’t like … I cannot say it better than Laura Miller said it,

Champions of the book like to think that reading broadens the mind and expands the sensibility. It can’t do that, though, if the reading lists we choose from are too narrow.

Then Amy continued…

I’m not suggesting we all go fill up our TBR piles with something we think we’ll hate, but I am asking how willing we are to try to read a book we think we’ll hate and open ourselves up to experience life and humanity in a different way. To boldly assert that books speak…and that there’s value in reading all kinds of books… Will you join me in reading a book you think you’ll hate in 2010? Will you take the chance?

Since I review books, there are often books I’m not sure I’ll like. But, I definitely give them a go, anyway. And, most of the time, I do end up enjoying them. There’ve been the odd couple, here & there, that I didn’t enjoy at all, but I’m not sorry to have tried them.

I’m of the mind that you can’t limit yourself (not entirely), or you’ll miss out (kind of like what Laura –above– is quoted as saying)! Of course, that’s not to say that I don’t have any boundaries. I still have certain types of books that I won’t touch for certain reasons. But, I’m also not as “strict” as I used to be in what I’ll choose to try.

For example, I used to not like reading fantasy or anything of the sort. Then I started watching shows like “The X-Files” and “Heroes” on TV, and –funny that– I started to read books that fell into the same kind of genre! No longer did I think the subject matter so “strange”. And, this led me to give Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” a try, last year. I really wasn’t going to read it, given that it was about vampires. But, after some pretty persuasive convincing on the part of my book-blogging friends, I picked up the book from the library. And, yep — I loved it! Went on to read the rest of the series and loved that, too! And, if you’re a regular here, you know that that blossomed into my reading TONS of the same types of books — I’ve even started buying “vampire” books! LOL.

I’m not really all that taken with the “Classics”, either. But, I keep trying them, as I know they aren’t labelled “classics” for nothing. And, ya know, there’ve been a few that I’ve tried and actually ended up really enjoying: “Gone With the Wind“, “Persuasion“, and “Middlemarch“, are a few examples.

I’ve already set myself a goal to read two (2) books that are “outside of my reading comfort zone” this year, and that was thanks to the TwentyTen reading challenge. The books I’ve chosen are “Walking With the Wind” by John Lewis, and “God Is” by David Adams Richards. I started reading “Walking With the Wind” last year, but set it aside to finish some review books — I never got back to it, because it was a library book and had to be taken back. I’d originally picked the book up at Amy’s suggestion, actually, as she had a challenge going to get 50 bloggers to read from the “50 Books For Our Time” list put out by Newsweek.

I chose “God Is” as my other choice, as it sounded like something that will challenge me in my reading. Amazon.ca’s description of the book says, “In this invaluable contribution to the continuing debate about religious belief, David Adams Richards offers an exhilaratingly fresh perspective and a voice more impassioned, heartfelt, and sometimes furious, than anything written about God by an atheist… David Adams Richards, one of Canada’s most beloved and celebrated authors, has been wrestling with questions of morality, faith, and religion ever since he was a child. They have always informed his fiction. Now he examines their role in his own life and spells out his own belief, in what is his most self-revealing work to date.“

This brings to my mind a couple of other books that I have read, recently, that I originally thought I wouldn’t like. The first was A. J. Jacobs’ “The Year of Living Biblically“. This is one I thought would make me mad, and so I almost didn’t read it. But, yet again, an online book-loving friend gave it a positive, glowing review, and I couldn’t help but give it a go. And, I really enjoyed it, actually! In fact, this one even gave me an insight into something I’d struggled with for a long time, making me think that my reading it was “Divinely inspired“.

The other book was “The Unlikely Disciple” by Kevin Roose. At first I thought that, because the book is written about Christians from a non-Christian’s point of view, it was going to be a bunch of religion-bashing and that sort of thing… kind of like that movie starring Mandy Moore and the school full of kids that picks on her because she’s a devoted Christian who screws up. Thankfully, this book was nothing like that. Kevin’s reaction to the Christians he got to know was actually quite refreshing. I’m glad to have read this book, and I even ended up putting it on my Top 10 list, last year!

So, you just never know whether or not a book is going to grab you until you try it. Will you join Amy in choosing to read a book “outside your comfort zone” in 2010? If so, go on over to her blog and leave her a comment!

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