The Book Nerd’s Guide to Experimenting With Genres

For this I credit the criminally underrated movie The Pagemaster, starring a young Macaulay Culkin who realizes all kinds of literature are fascinating because they are voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, Patrick Stewart, and Leonard Nimoy. It becomes very hard to dismiss fairy tales when they sound like cut scenes from Sister Act, and I believe firmly that this fact, coupled with Captain Picard’s swashbuckling turn as Adventure, created my love of fantasy works.
Not everyone had their life shaped by Macaulay Culkin in a magical library, however. I acknowledge this, and you. Feeling strong loyalty for and connection to a specific genre is understandable. In most areas of life, we encourage folks not to mess with success—or Texas, for reasons best left to another think piece.
It’s possible for you to live out your life, sticking to your reading comfort zone. Unless you’re into an incredibly niche genre, you’re never going to run out of books. (I can’t promise an exhaustive supply of erotic space opera noir, but there are likely corners of the internet for this purpose.)

Still, haven’t you ever wondered what it’s like out there, where mystery and magic mingle? Where nonfiction and graphic novels coexist peacefully? Where you can have both bustiers and literary darlings and never look back? Experimentation is healthy, and it can pull you out of many a reading slump, shocking your systems in ways you might never expect.
Ask yourself what’s holding you back. Do you fear graphic novels because color is abstract and frightening? Do historical romances cause you undue anxiety because you have never been comfortable with sincere affection? Have you avoided mysteries because British accents upset and befuddle you? When you finally hit paydirt on your quest to identify this blocker, you might realize it’s trivial—or you might figure out green-eyed Chosen Ones are deal-breakers for you. Either way, the exercise is illuminating.
Furthermore, while you’re interrogating yourself, try to pinpoint just what you actually love about the books you choose to read. If what you love about YA is its knack for diverse main characters, you can seek out that quality in other genres. If you’re into true crime for the detailed descriptions of dead bodies, well, you know, should I call someone?

Asking for help is also a perfectly valid option. We’ve all been done wrong by book recs in the past. I make it a rule to accept none from co-workers and distant family members because they see only a glimmer, a small facet, of the twisted creature I truly am. The people you need to be asking for unexpected book recommendations are your inner circle, the ones who’ve seen the way you eat at home. The folks who’ve seen you scarf down a burrito bowl when you thought no one was watching are the ones who know the real you. That’s a level of trust and acceptance that affords their opinion some respect.
Look, even if you decide that experimenting just isn’t for you—and if you remember nothing else from this piece—I ask that you watch The Pagemaster, because Christopher Lloyd as a wizard librarian is a cinematic experience that has not yet been surpassed in cultural achievement. That’s what this has been about all along, really.