Let’s just admit it, many of us have 2 or 3 genres that we love to stick to regardless of how many times we read the same novel repeatedly.
Now, what’s the harm in that?
Where your favorite genres are an excellent way to enjoy your quality time, you still leave LOTS of opportunities on the table by not reading books of different genres and diversifying your reading list. After all, reading is more than just a piece of writing that can keep you up at night.
Think of it like an adventure, where you grow with each book, each chapter, and each point of view. The more you are likely to stay outside your comfort zone, the more you will take a fresh look into your favorite genre.
5 Benefits of Reading Books of Different Genres
Here are 5 exceptional benefits that you get by reading books of different genres:
1. Improves Memory
Tell me if you haven’t heard this already: “The more you read, the more you know,” and you surely need an excellent memory to accommodate that amount of knowledge. Learning about unique characters, situations, and narrations exposes you to unprecedented information that will only help improve your memory.
In fact, according to a study by Northcentral University, reading topics and stories that aren’t related to your lifestyle have the potential to enhance memory in a way that no other method can.
2. Improves Vocabulary
Sometimes it can quickly glean enough context to make sense of the sentence; other times, you may need to count on a dictionary for classification. It is not uncommon to find unfamiliar words and narration every time you switch to a different genre.
This will inevitably help to broaden your vocabulary skills and make you a better communicator. You might not notice this at. First, you see the power of this improved vocabulary once you add extra words to your lexicon and change the way you view things.
These words aren’t just complicated ways to state something that can easily be conveyed in simple terms; they actually help you see situations and open up to emotions that you can only feel but not express.
Let me give you an example.
I recently stumbled across a word called Exulansis. In definition, it means to give up talking about yourself or your experience only because others can’t relate to it.
How many times have we been there? Luckily, now you know how you express it without fiddling around with words.
Thank me later!
Also Read: How to Improve Intelligence: Find High-Level Books To Read
3. You get to Discover a Wide Array of Possibilities
When you only stick to your favorite genres, you limit your reading list to those particular books. But what if you find ‘The Book’ in genres that you never bothered considering?
Sure, not all genres can be your cup of tea, and that’s okay. You don’t have to go big at first.
Start off by incorporating one different genre at a time, read a few books, and move on. This way, you could wind up enjoying a book as much as your preferred books. Where the same genres can have fairly predictable stories, you can enjoy thrilling plot twists and end only by picking up an original book next time.
That’s not it; this way, you get to grow your reading list and thus increase the pace you read books at once.
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4. Enhance writing skills
It is humanly impossible to write efficiently without having a crazy addiction to reading. For writing, it’s not just how much you read, but what you read as well.
As a lover of literature, I’m sure you have high standards in not only crafting masterpieces and judging the writing pieces of others.
Just because you have a technical writing style doesn’t mean you can make your writing stand out by including a few creative phrases that you picked up from fiction novels.
As humans, it is common to find binders that make it unable for you to see beyond our knowledge. And where do we gain that knowledge from? Books.
Thus, the vast topics and stories are covered by your books, the more you are likely to expand your horizons and improve your storytelling skills to add more weight to your writing.
5. Inspiration
If you are in a creative field or even starting out a new journey, it is never a bad idea to use the knowledge gained not only from the particular genre but from categories subsequent to that as well.
For instance, reading fiction is highly important for lyricists. However, incorporating a few nonfiction books can help you be more informed about the surrounding issues that can help people connect better with your songs.
Likewise, an entrepreneur starting a business can never learn everything but only focus on self-help books that will only fill you up with contradictory advice that will only confuse you down. Here, reading biographies and fiction books that are centered around the life you want to have can give you a rough idea of the struggles and help with personality development in the long run.
Ways to Add Variety to Your Reading List
Now that you know the benefits of reading books of different genres, the real challenge is to adjust your reading list with your new diverse genres.
The good news is, I’ve done all the homework for you. Here’re how you can stick to reading books of different genres without making it a failed experiment.
- Go slow: a drastic change can sometimes be too much to handle. Thus, try going for one new book at a time and accumulate the numbers as you go.
- Read Reviews: book reviews can be an excellent way to ensure you don’t waste your time reading a book that was not worth it. This will give a wrong impression of that specific genre to you. Thus, before you dip your toes in something completely different, make sure you are aware of at least the fundamentals.
- Recommendation: Whether it is your friends or a list of books you got online, they can help set up a guideline for you to begin with the most popular and quality novels that can make reading books of different genres easier.
- Switch between books: If the new genre is too hard to read, you can go easy on yourself and alternate days with books. If you are a romance reader getting into crime, switch between these two novels every time you get sick of reading one.
Also read: What Common Challenges Do Readers Face And 3 Ways To Overcome Them
Do you have a specific genre in mind that you disregard? Go ahead and challenge yourself!
You may not realize how it can do wonders in your life until you actually pick up a book to actively read and appreciate it for being this different.
Good luck!
