Claire Legrand

To ring in the new year, I’ll be posting this week about some of my goals for 2012. I don’t like making “resolutions” because the word has such a sense of do-or-die finality to it. Instead, I like to work toward goals. For me, goals are not items to accomplish and then mark off a checklist, which can leave me feeling bad about myself if items are left unchecked. Rather, “goals” means gradual lifestyle changes, things to work toward slowly and steadily, things to try out and explore.

Obviously, the goals I’ll talk about on my blog are not my only goals for the year. Some are more personal. Some are things I don’t want to jinx by saying aloud (i.e., anything book-related).

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My first goal is to expand my reading horizons.

Recently, I posted about some of my favorite books from 2011. While compiling this list, I noticed something — something unsurprising, but more than a little troubling.

I need to read more widely.

Most of the books gushed about in that post are one or more of the following things:

1. fantasy (or at least fantastical in some way)
2. starring a female protagonist
3. written by a female author
4. and written for children (either for a young adult or middle grade audience)

Again, this isn’t surprising. These types of books are my favorites both to read and to write. They’re the books I was raised on, the books I aspire to, written by authors I admire and can relate to in various ways. As a writer, it’s important for me to read widely within the genres I write, to read books marketed toward the same audience to which my own books will be marketed.

But I have to wonder: Is it doing a disservice to me, my writing, and my creativity, to read so narrowly within genre and audience level, to read so few books about and written by men?

Definitely.

Yes, it’s important for writers to know their genre, their audience, their market. And there’s nothing wrong with knowing what you like and reading it. But, just as the best writers get out there and live, and experience, and enrich their stories with the places they see, the people they meet, the things they learn while out there exploring and adventuring and questioning — I think the best writers also read widely. They get out of their reading comfort zones. They try new genres and new authors.

It’s like when I tried cheesecake for the first time. I don’t remember when exactly this glorious incident occurred, but I do know that it happened far later in my life than it should have (I say, having seen the light). For the longest time, I thought, “Cheesecake? I like cheese, and I like cake. But that has to be one of the grossest combinations ever. Disgusting. No thank you.”

No way could I ever like cheesecake.

Until I tried it.

And loved it.

And never looked back.

My dessert choices multiplied. My culinary palette expanded. My taste buds got down on their knees and praised my decision, weeping with gratitude.

Similarly, I think that most of us shy away from the unknown in our reading — we read fantasy, or romance, or mysteries or literary fiction or non-fiction, and we CERTAINLY don’t read That Other Stuff. Those other genres that are somehow lesser, or just Not Our Thing.

But we should.

You never know; one of those Not Our Things could be the next cheesecake. We could find something new and wonderful that we would have never expected to enjoy — a new author, a tantalizing new form of storytelling, a new community of readers, even a new fandom, with whom to connect and speculate and share favorite fan-fiction.

And as writers, we can learn so much.

We can observe what works and what doesn’t across multiple genres, what makes a best-seller or a classic or a cult classic, despite where a book is shelved in the library or bookstore. As a fantasy writer, I can read a mystery and understand how better to drop hints and clues about upcoming plot twists. I can read a literary novel and learn how to dissect the idiosyncrasies of relationships and the surprising beauty of everyday occurrences. I can read non-fiction and learn how the real world works, and then modify and insert those elements into my novels to make them seem that much more organic. And I can read books narrated my male protagonists and by doing so give my male characters more authenticity.

It’s daunting, to think about exploring the unfamiliar. But it’s also exhilarating.

So, one of my goals for 2012 is to expand my reading horizons. I’m still going to read a lot of young adult and middle grade literature and a lot of fantasy, but I also want to read more mysteries, more non-fiction, more adult fiction, more books written by male authors and about male protagonists.

And to get started with this, I’m asking for your help:

What are some of your favorite books that don’t fall within the categories of young adult, middle grade, or fantasy literature? What about your favorite books written by male authors, or starring male protagonists? (These CAN be within the above genres.) Please leave me recommendations in the comments below! I’m open to considering anything and everything. And thank you!