Today’s Topic:
Wednesday—Unexpected Treasure
We invite you to share with us a book or genre you tried due to the influence of another blogger. What made you cave in to try something new and what was the experience like?
Me (while thinking of how to answer this question): What book did I only read because of a blogger’s recommendation?
Ben: EVERY book you’ve read this year.
He has a fair point (although he said it with some amount of disdain in his voice). Most of my reading is formed by other bloggers. It’s how I know what’s out there and worth reading. As a result, I can’t single out ONE book that I tried because of a blogger’s recommendation. Instead, I am going to discuss two to knew genres and one new series I tried because of bloggers. I never was very good at following directions.
(1) Fantasy
I’ve read some light fantasy and young adult/middle grade fantasy but before this year, I had yet to read a real, adult fantasy novel (wow, “adult fantasy” give you the wrong idea, huh?). My IRL friend and sometimes book blogger, Susan, gave me The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan a few years ago, but it was Heather from Age 30+…A Lifetime of Books who finally convinced me to read it. She picked it as her That’s How I Blog book and I figured that was as good a time as ever to finally sit down and read it.
Well, I tried to sit down and read it and it didn’t work out. Heather’s show came and went and I still hadn’t read it. But I did pick up the audio from the library and even though it took me months (that’s a LONG time to stick with an audiobook) I finally finished it.
What did I think? Um, I didn’t really like it. You can read my full review here. But I am glad that I tried it. That’s part of the fun of reading, right? Figuring out what you like and what you don’t. I’ve gotten very good at picking out books that I’ll like but I still like to push myself a bit.
(2) Graphic Novels
Another genre that I had neglected as a reader was graphic novels. When Nymeth from Things Mean a Lot gushed about Blankets by Craig Thompson, I couldn’t resist. I grabbed it for the spring readathon, devoured it in a couple hours, and decided that graphic novels were my new favorite thing. I then promptly forgot to read any more of them and still haven’t to this day. But I want to. Because I loved Blankets. You can read my full review here.
(3) Betsy-Tacy
In my Favorite Books of 2009 post, I said that I will remember 2009 as the year I discovered Betsy-Tacy. It was a combination of Emily from Books, the Universe, and Everything and Jen from Bookclub Girl that finally got me to give these books a try. And, while I haven’t read them all yet, I love what I have read. I think part of me doesn’t want to finish it because it’s that good.
So there you have it, three new things I tried because of a blogger. What new books/genres have you tried this year?
my books. my life. 
I wrote about graphic novels today too- they are also my favorite new thing. Betsy-Tacy was a book I read to my girl because it was all over Twitter last year.
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I didn’t write about graphic novels, but bloggers are definitely responsible for getting me to try the medium.
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Heather got me with Eye of the World as well. I had a better experience than you, but it is a lot of reading if you don’t plan on continuing with the series.
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I have yet to read a graphic novel, by Nymeth and Marie (The Boston Bibliophile) have given me enough recommendations to last a long time!
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I’m just glad you actually READ the Robert Jordan book – how else would you know that it’s not your thing?! 🙂 I’ve tried graphic novels but the medium isn’t really working for me. Glad that I gave them a shot though!
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I hear ya on the fantasy books… I tried one out as well (didn’t finish and didn’t blog about it) and confirmed that fantasy is not for me. I have surprisingly liked graphic novels as well though!
And LOL at Ben’s reply to you. =)
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I read Fantasy if those are very good or I simply leave them!
Here is my BBAW: Unexpected Treasure post!
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I track who recommended the book to me on every post, so it was way too hard to just pick books!
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Epic fantasy can be hard to get through sometimes. I remember that about the WOT series…I think because it’s so many characters, so it’s almost like several books all in one genre.
I tried a PD James for the RIP V challenge…did not enjoy it. I think I would have liked it better acted out on Masterpiece Mystery or something. Haha. I am branching out of scifi-fantasy a lot more than I ever have before, though. 🙂
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*in one novel that is. Ha.
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Love graphic novels. And there are so many great ones out there. I love blaming my fellow bloggers for every book they introduce me too. And I love it when I get blamed for introducing someone to a new book. That’s I blog after all 🙂
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Fantasy and Graphic novels were blogging discoveries for me as well (well, I always knew about fantasy…I just didn’t realize how varied it was!!). Ana definitely had a lot to do with introducing me/informing me of both.
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Fantasy and graphic novels I’ve tried, but not Betsy-Tracy. I’ve seen it mentioned a few times today and am becoming intrigued!
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You’ve had some great recommendations by great bloggers. Glad you enjoyed them all so much!
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I had a tough time finding any obscure and wonderful books I had recently read, too. So I highlighted a book I haven’t read yet but was amazed that I couldn’t find any reviews for.
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Interesting post, Michelle! I want to read the first volume of Robert Jordan’s series sometime.
On graphic novels, if you haven’t read them yet, I would recommend ‘Persepolis’, ‘Maus’, ‘Asterios Polyp’ and ‘Logicomix’. They are all wonderful. And if you like reading manga, the ‘Nodame Cantabile’ series is wonderful.
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