Sunday, May 3, 2009

New Meme: I Would Read (Almost) Any Book About ...

This is a meme that I thought of the other night as I was falling asleep. I was thinking about tagging books on LibraryThing and how to convey what it was about a book that made me enjoy it and why I would choose to read a similar book. I am really interested to hear everyone's conclusions to this simple sentence. It's harder than you think! Post your answers here on this entry or post the link to your answers on your own blog.

I would read (almost) any book about ...

... Edgar Allan Poe. I love both biographical books (The Beautiful Cigar Girl) and historical fictions that feature him as a character (The Pale Blue Eye).

... Charles Dickens. Again, a great subject in both real life and fiction (The Last Dickens).

... a female detective in a non-modern setting. Miss Marple, Nancy Drew, Amelia Peabody, Flavia de Luce. Truth be told, I would even read those Jane Austen mysteries if they were sitting around.

... books and words. Non-fiction about literature and language, historical fiction about a specific book (People of the Book), or a mystery/suspense about an author, library or books (The Thirteenth Tale or The Club Dumas), I love them all.

... scientists or great scientific discoveries. From The Double Helix to Naturalist, I love learning more about science. Historical fiction about scientists (The Invention of Everything Else) are pretty cool too!

I may come back and add to this list later. I think it's been a really interesting exercise! An idea comes up but then I think of some segment of that genre that really is not interesting to me and so I have to scratch that one. I'm glad that I still have many books that I have just chosen on their own merit and not because they fit into a category that I will pick up no matter what. It makes me feel better about my reading diversity! (This list also makes me feel like a big nerd!)

Hoping many of you share your answers,
K

2 comments:

  1. I would read almost any book about a dystopian society.

    I also get excited by time travel, fairy tales, and characters who travel to exotic lands.

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  2. Yeah, I think the next level of this question is definitely "topics that I get excited about" ... that you would at least look at the book but might not choose it if the setting or the time period or the characters aren't quite right.

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