Monday, January 9, 2012

Book Chat: Reading Trends

 

Writers hear that they shouldn't write toward trends. As a reader, though, do the books you read fall into those that are trending? Do you read in your own trends?


I often find the books I choose to read can fall within popular trends. I've always enjoyed vampires, so I read The House of Night series, started the Vampire Academy series, and even read the Twilight Saga. I picked up Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse series. I was all about vampires for a while.

Dystopian books came out, and although I haven't had a chance to read most of them, I bought a ton of them. I do that with a lot of YA.
If I start reading mysteries, then all I want to read for a while is mysteries.

I've even picked an author and would proceed to read everything they read. I wanted to binge on books that were similar.
So I easily get caught up in trends. Do you?

17 comments:

farawayeyes said...

Oh yeah. Getting caught up in the current trend is easy for me. I have to admit the whole dystopian thing baffles me. Read the hunger games and did not like it (I did read all three to to see what happened). Went on to read Divergent and really liked it, but still found the 'dystopian thing' depressing, at least Ms.Roth's characters were not.

That said,maybe my thing in trends is more to the engaging character than the trend itself.

Miranda Hardy said...

I usually am not a trendy follower, but if the book is so great that many recommend it, I'll pick it up. I've read the Hungar Games and the Twilight series, but only after they were all out.

C D Meetens said...

I ended up in the vampire trend, but I was already there. I've enjoyed vampire stories for years, back before the interest in Anne Rice's "Interview with a Vampire". So, I probably don't follow trends. I like certain genres and tend to stick with them.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Right now I'm genre hopping because I'm reading books by my blogger buddies.

Jennifer Hillier said...

I think I'm the opposite, actually? After I read Twilight, I wanted to read anything but vampires for awhile. I may read two thrillers back to back, but then I'll be craving some YA. After YA, I'll want some Stephen King. I'm all over the place!

Tara Tyler said...

i like to mix it up
the story & writing do it for me (usually off recs like from here!)

Unknown said...

I do have a reading trend. However, i will read the work of writers I know and sometimes they fall out of that trend. Often the books that leave the trend are the coolest of all.

Christine Rains said...

I sometimes get caught in trends, and I try to read ones from different genres. I'm not a sucker for them, though. Yet then I find an author or an older book that I've never heard about, and it blows me away.

Krista said...

I don't usually follow trends in my reading. I read what I like. Sometimes read books that are suggested to me (which often happen to be trendy) - but I usually don't fall in love with them.

Sarah Ahiers said...

as far as i know, i don't read in trends. I usually just read whatever strikes my fancy at the time. It works out well for me.

Nicole Zoltack said...

I read whatever strikes my fancy. Sometimes that's the latest trend, but usually it isn't since my TBR list is so long!

Anonymous said...

So easy to do... I've done the same with the steampunk trend... haven't read them all, but I bought lots to read:)

Golden Eagle said...

It depends. If the trend is in a subject that already interests me (Dystopian, for example) then I will get caught up in it.

Peggy Eddleman said...

I don't read in trends as much as I read books the most people tell me to read. ;) I kind of just take them in the order that best fits my mood. So I guess if I'm in the same mood for a while, I tend to read in a trend then. :)

Anonymous said...

If very pretty covers of books count as a trend, then yes! Totally. ;)

Rusty Carl said...

I tend to read science fiction, my particular favorite brand of sci fi is a bit out of style right now. But occasionally I pick up something trendy, if it looks cool enough.

Anonymous said...

I like to mix authors, but if I know an author I like I tend to sprinkle my reading with them to give myself from others I may not have enjoyed so much or make for slightly more harrowing reading. Often authors follow their own formulae and so I can get rather tired of the same plotlines and issues, novel after novel. A good author may have a certain style without being tedious and those I will read more of.