3 Reasons to Read Books in Your Genre

One of the most popular pieces of advice a lot of people say is “Read widely!” or, “Read good books and bad books, so you can learn the difference between them.”

Now, I’m not disagreeing with those pieces of advice at all. I think that reading lots of books in lots of different genres is incredibly helpful! It will submerge you in new writing styles, different character types, and many other valuable things.

Reading good and bad books can give you a good view of which books are high-quality and which are not, which then allow you to consider what is wrong with the bad books and what is great about the good ones.

However, I would like to introduce a new piece of advice to you. And that is, read books in your genre too!

I don’t think people stress this suggestion enough. Maybe they don’t stress it because they assume everyone will do this anyway. It’s your genre, right? So of course you’re going to read a lot in it!

Well, I made a very fatal mistake the past few months. I didn’t read a single book in my genre (which, in case you’re wondering, is Medieval Fantasy). What did this do? Well, I started losing my love for reading. I couldn’t really focus on the stories, and I didn’t really want to read. And, when I lost a lot of my love for reading, my writing also felt like a chore instead of something fun.

So, in honor of the fact that I am going to START READING in my genre again, I decided to make this post, and give you three reasons why you should read books in your favorite genre/the genre you write in!

Let’s jump right in!

Reason #1: Filling Your Creative Well

When you read in the genre you love, you’ll be reading about the things that spark your creativity. If you write in this genre, you may fill your mind with ideas similiar to what you’re reading about, which you can then write down and adapt into your own stories. So let’s say you like science fiction books. Maybe you read a cool description about a spaceship, and it gives you an idea of a different type of spaceship, which you can then add to your own story!

When you read in your own genre, you’ll be inspired to write so much more, and you’ll be able to come up with so many new interesting ideas to write about!

Reason #2: Familiarizing with the Genre

If you only read books outside of your genre, you might learn a lot about different writing styles, different plot ideas, and different ways to write characters, but you’ll never learn more and get familiar with the genre you actually want to write in!

That’s like being a chef who wants to bake pastries, but goes out and learns nothing but learning how to cook soup and pasta! A similar skill, but not directly what you want to be making.

Reason #3: You’ll Read More (and Write More)!

At the end of the day, if you’re reading the books that you love to read in the first place, you’ll probably spend a lot more time reading, examining, and learning from the books that’ll help the most.

And, like I said in the first reason, you’ll probably be much more inspired to write the stories you want to write, and that way you’ll get a lot more writing done as well.

So read widely, my friend. Read good books, bad books, and mediocre books. Read books in science fiction genre, fantasy, action, classic, and even poetry!

But do not let yourself stop reading the books that are in the genre you want to write in the first place. Keep reading those books, and read lots of them. They’re extremely important.

All right, everyone. That’s it for this post! I hope you found these reasons helpful, and I really hope that you’ll continue to read in your genre!

What are some of your favorite books to read? What genre do you enjoy writing and reading in? Please let me know in the comments below! Also, cartoons are back!! 😀

Until later,

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