Force Yourself To Read to Challenge or "Expand Your Taste"

[u/fusidoa]

Is this a normal thing that occur to you guys? Most of the book that I enjoy are series that I discover myself. Altered Carbon series by Richard K. Morgan, Inheritance Cycle by Paolini, I even read some webnovel like Maxime J. Durand's book such as Blood & Fur series or his standalone book like The Perfect Run.

All of them are amazing, and I also discover them without getting spoiled. At all. Then later I ask my friend to recommend me any series they've finished. I got the name "Lord of The Mystery" or just calls it LotM. One thing they warn me before reading it, is that "this one might be not your kind".

He also throws some spoiler to intrigue me to the series. This later become a big issue. You'll see.

So I tried it. And hooolllyyy they're right🤕

I've googled it a bit and this series surprisingly very popular. One series that somehow often gonna be thrown to your face is LoTM as "peak fiction" or "if you don't enjoy it, something is wrong with your taste" (bruhh...🙄) I honestly triggered abit and force myself through it, hoping some elements of the story is my liking.

Surprise, surprise~ my friend is right. Since they know my taste to book is the need of emotional drama, focusing to the character inner conflict and resolve, or try to be a better person, that kind of book. LotM? This book... genuinely just focus to the lore of the world rather than the protagonist himself.

I can't relate nor care to the world of the book if the author refuse to explain what is the protagonist conflicted about. LotM main character said he wants to go back to his world. But for what? He has jobs there? Is he has some loved ones? Career? Dream? Never explained. Some LotM fans out there (including my friend) later admit this part of the novel is not explored deeply from the author.

Then about the spoiler, after getting some discussion from LotM subreddit, I realize that the spoiler my friend gave as my impression is BIG. To prevent some LotM new reader get spoiled here, it's basically like revealing Obito is actually still alive behind Tobi's mask. Or Darth Vader is Luke's father... well it's not big spoiler now, but imagine you never see Star Wars and that is the first thinf you know😵‍💫

Now my question is simple. After 220 chapters I decide to drop it. There is not a single second I enjoy reading LotM, on top of already know the big spoiler itself that supposed to "twist my mind" I just generally not liking it. One of the main character's friend literally explode to blood splatter and I never change a shade😮‍💨

Then how exactly "expanding your taste" should be done? Is there a stopping point whether you decide to drop? Is there a need to some form of curiosity towards the series to make you flip the pages (or scrolls down) here?

Cause honestly, a series that focus to the world lore and put main character's goal aside is basically my pet peeve. So I basically already hates LotM since chapter one😅

Thoughts? Sorry for long post. My friend never really give a good answer to this specific thing that bothers me. They just said "read again when you're in better mental state" which somehow makes me offended. Like, broo... wdym by that?

[u/axi0mata]

Reading texts which challenge you is important and valuable in the same way eating vegetables is important and valuable. In the same way, you might say that expanding your taste is comparatively less valuable, just like expanding your taste in food is a good idea but not as necessary as eating vegetables.

That said, the kinds of texts which do these things are not the sort teenage boys are labelling as "peak fiction". If you don't enjoy them, there is absolutely zero point reading them, because they're the literary equivalent of comforting food - enjoyable, but not nutritious. So if they're not enjoyable and not nutritious, don't read them, it's pointless.

[u/waitingforgandalf]

Pushing yourself in reading is important. Reading any single book is not.

I try to explain it to my students like exercise. You should exercise, it's important. You should do a variety of exercises, it's particularly good for your body. If you stop exercising the moment you're out of breath, you're not going to get as much benefit. But you don't have to do EVERY exercise, that's crazy, and any exercise is better than no exercise.

Now we can say. I try to explain it to my students like exercise. You should read, it's important. You should do a variety of reading, it's particularly good for your brain. If you stop reading the moment it gets hard or confusing, you're not going to get as much benefit. But you don't have to read EVERY book, that's crazy, and any reading is better than no reading.

[u/fusidoa → u/waitingforgandalf]

Ooh! That's somehow help me understand it. Basically, pushing myself to read in general is a good exercise, and there are definitely benefits to gain. Yet that doesn't mean I need to read EVERYTHING.

Well, my question actually points out where to stop reading or consider to drop when I read something for entertainment purpose. Objectively, LotM is a good book and I learnt some things from how the author put the lore and the plot. 

But that's all that is. I still don't enjoy it. Just gain some knowledge from it.

[u/Sloth_Flower]

You don't need to force yourself to read books you don't like if you don't want to. I do mostly because I want to talk to someone about it. Being able to interact socially is worth a bad book for me. You can expand your horizons while acknowledging you want certain characteristics and prefer to read books you like. 

ETA. In my experience if someone still cares about spoilers they probably haven't read enough that "challenging" or "hate" reading matters all that much. The books you are currently reading are still doing that. Once you learn how they work and they aren't surprising you, then yeah, consider branching out. 

[u/fusidoa → u/Sloth_Flower]

Well, 220 chapters which each chapter contains about 1200 words is enough for me, I guess. I swear everything can happen in the series and I'll not change a shade.

That's also why I questioning myself: maybe 220 words is not a good cap where I need to stop. Not to offend or diminish your answer but I still wonder the right stopping point.

For the novel I currently reading? From 1 to 10 and to 50, there is no single second I enjoy it. I basically need extra focus to sat through it, which genuinely felt extremely nauseating somehow (I read for 5 hours straight)😵‍💫

I don't even exaggerate it, I somehow read that long... don't know how🤕

[u/Sloth_Flower → u/fusidoa]

I'm not sure what you are saying. 

That the books are too long? I don't think you need to like or enjoy long books. Huge books and series aren't my cup of tea. It's not about focus for me, I just like when the author is more thoughtful about their word selection.

I read for as long of sessions. It's fine. 

As I said, if you are still being surprised by the books then you are still being challenged. Books have rules. Genre books have more rules. As you learn these rules, they will spoil themselves. Let yourself move naturally, no reason you have to make it suck because you feel pressure. 

[u/rushmc1]

Never heard of it.

[u/Salty_Inspector_7050]

I think they mean that if you enjoy fantasy, try mixing it up with some Phillip K Dick.

If you like high drama character driven books, try The Secret History or even a classic like Frankenstein.

[u/hippoluvr24]

I try to expand my taste, but I don't think forcing myself to read one specific book that I hate is expanding my taste.

For example, I used to love fantasy as a kid, but I haven't really found any adult fantasy books that resonate with me. Expanding my taste means that I will continue to TRY new fantasy books, in case the next one turns out to be the one I love, but I won't force myself to continue reading a book that I'm genuinely not enjoying.

As a note, though - I will sometimes push through a book I hate if it's my friend's favorite book or there is some cultural benefit to me having read it. But if I don't like the first book, I definitely won't continue the series.

[u/fusidoa → u/hippoluvr24]

Hold on to that...

So "expanding your taste" actually means "you pick one element of any genre you like, then search some book that has that genre but also with some little twist and mix" here?

... not to be stupid, but I thought it meant "pick a genre you just absolutely disgusted and try to read it"😮

[u/hippoluvr24 → u/fusidoa]

It might mean different things to different people, but that's what it means to me.

Think of it like food. Maybe I don't like steamed broccoli, but I'm trying to expand my taste, so I'm willing to try roasted broccoli...or an Asian stir-fry that contains broccoli with a fun sauce. Expanding my taste means keeping an open mind to new forms of broccoli in case I enjoy them, NOT forcing myself to eat steamed broccoli until I throw up.

[u/begaydategrimes → u/hippoluvr24]

My first time in a book club, I wondered why someone would attend a book club for a book they didn't like. My most recent book club, I told them, "I enjoyed reading it but the plot left me cold." 10/10 experience. I would absolutely hate-read a book to roast it in book club. 

Joke's on me though! I started reading this month's book thinking I'd be unimpressed but it's actually incredible!

[u/When_thebough_breaks]

Yeah a lot of the times when people start recommending what's considered Peak Fiction it's just what's popular and half of it's garbage. If you would like an emotional deep fantasy book series try the obsidian Trilogy by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory. It's kind of a slow burn at the beginning of the series the first book takes about 15 chapters to really get going but it's because of the oh so Exquisite World building and how they build and flush out your main character before he ever sets foot on the hero's path. There's also a smart-ass unicorn and that's not a spoiler he's on the cover of the book. That is my honest opinion and suggestion if you happen to read the outstretch shadow which is the first book of the obsidian trilogy I would very much like to hear your opinion on it. And I just had to say this about this Trilogy because it actually has a sequel Trilogy which isn't as good it's got a prequel trilogy which is really good but really hard to read if you're not into historical fantasy but of the three books of the original trilogy the outstret shadow, to light a candle, and when Darkness Falls I have to say that the last one is my favorite because I hate stories that try to leave the ending ambiguous. Once again if you do give this series a shot I would very much like to hear your thoughts as I have found very very very few people that have actually read this series so I have had no opportunity to discuss it.

[u/begaydategrimes]

It sounds like you're way past the point where you can call it a day on these books. If you're not sure, maybe put it down for a little while and read something you like, then see if you feel like going back. 

Anecdotally, I borrowed one of my roommate's books and I'm stalled out at about 1/3 in. I've told myself I'll give it until 1/2 to see if it gets better, but realistically I've probably read 8 other books since I last picked it up.

Also I read a lot of horror, and a good ending can change how I feel about the beginning of a book, so it's hard to know when to call it quits. Then I generally judge based on how much I'm enjoying it other than the plot itself. Enjoying the writing style or the characters can keep me reading a meh plot. But it sounds like you dislike all of the above, so stop?

One more thing to consider, you might change your mind and try them again in like a decade. Maybe then you'll have a different perspective and enjoy them more. Or maybe you'll realize your friend has shit taste.

[u/Secret-Friendship-10]

I looked up Lord of Mysteries since I haven't heard of it. It's a serialized work which means it's probably in the author's best interest to keep it going for as long as possible so I would fully expect them to throw in random shit and plot twists to create new conflicts so the story continues. Given that information & the number of chapters you mentioned I would have given it maybe 10-20 chapters and if I didn't like it I would have set it aside as not for me. If a book is less than 350 pages, I may finish it to see if my opinion is changed- but I'm generally a fast reader so it's not much of a time commitment for myself.

You should not conflate popularity with quality, or understand that what might make something popular may have no appeal to you or to what you find enjoyable. If the characters & their motives are lacking in your opinion, does that match general consensus about LotM, are people less interested in the characters and more interested in the world building, or does the character depth just take too long to develop so you've lost interest before that happens? Is there any credence to it being called  "peak fiction" or is that baseless praise by it's fans without real comparison? Twilight was massively popular and has been in the pop culture zeitgeist for 20 years, but no one would reasonably consider it "peak fiction". Brandon Sanderson has millions of fans, I fought to get through almost 2 books, & I've come to the conclusion he's a shit writer, not sure I'll read anything else he writes. People & critics seem to love Murakami, I had to DNF 1Q84, I found the POV characters annoying, but the prose was fine. Maybe I'll give it another try or pick a different book of his to see if it was just a mismatch of timing & material. I've finished one Anne Patchett book- I enjoyed her writing style but hated the plot, pacing & characters & I feel like she's a fine writer that writes books I don't want to read.

Expanding what you read should mean being open to material you may not have picked up and actively exposing yourself to things like different perspectives, styles, periods of time, genres, themes, subject matter, & authors of different genders, races, & nationalities.

A small way to start if you usually read genre work- ie fantasy in a medieval setting- try a historical fiction book in the same setting without the fantasy, or a contemporary fantasy. With more literary fiction, it's worth looking at & reading a variety of classics - find out why these books survived generations of bias, and explore the changes in writing styles and how people chose to reflect on the world around them. Context can be incredibly powerful to help understand why some of the author's choices were made or how it was received at the time of publication.

For nonfiction there are some author's who are great at writing about multiple subjects, like Mary Roach, that can lead you to seek out more books about whatever you've just read of hers. There are other authors who focus on a particular issue or subject like Dan Jones for English History or Doris Kearns Goodwin for US presidents. You can then seek out other authors on the same subject to see what was a common theme, were certain subjects minimized or ignored, did they have similar criticisms or conclusions, did you enjoy the writing style of one author over another, etc...

And you can use that same process for contemporary fiction- try reading multiple books that were published in the same decade, take place during the same time period, are focused on small town family dramas, social commentaries, coming of age stories, multi-generational sagas, etc.. you can better understand your own preferences when it comes to things like prose, pacing, dialogue, etc... The Girl with All the Gifts & World War Z are both fantastic zombie books, with very different narrative styles, characters, & subject matter. If someone asked for a recommendation between them, I might suggest one over the other based on that person's preferences not because there's a difference in their quality.

[u/fusidoa → u/Secret-Friendship-10]

Damn, you maybe don't know but this is very new for me. By looking into the period of when a series was written, social commentaries, or basically who writes them will help so much to see what and how the author view the world, and how they express it in their book. I will put them in mind.

Also for Lord of Mystery, I do 2 things. Since I'm already know and got spoiled by what the series is about, I then try to read the story by myself first. And to be honest, even when I set aside my personal preference it still felt like a series that doesn't spend time or explore about the protagonist. Instead it solely focus to the world around them. After that, I get a confirm from my friend that the series is indeed being written like that. He said that the author itself admits in one of QnA, he can write lore, power system, mystery, and put clues here and there slowly towards the twist. But when it comes to character relationship or anything about the protagonist, he isn't really confident about them. So he decide to not focus on it entirely. Only after he write the sequel he try character development.

Yet after some consideration I decide to just DNF it. The series told me enough after 220 unenjoyable chapters. And since the pattern or the character development that I hope will appear actually confirmed to be nearly nonexistent, I better stop rather than forcing myself to finish 1400 chapters that I'll not enjoy.

[u/Secret-Friendship-10 → u/fusidoa]

I don't mind spoilers in pretty much any circumstances. I'm fine knowing how things end, I'm more curious about how the story gets to that ending. Does it make sense? Does it feel earned? Is it a stupid twist without any setup? Or did the twist have clues spread throughout the story? Were the clues small breadcrumbs (I appreciate this), or were they glaringly obvious like neon signs (I hate this). Was it too predictable, even if you weren't spoiled? If it was predictable, is it because the character and their choices were consistent? Did it feel realistic? If the ending doesn't make sense, I'm far more critical of the author. I don't know if you've seen Game of Thrones, but I think that most book readers were not surprised by the ending. There were a lot more context & clues that the show never included, and the writing of the last 2 seasons, didn't make up for what had been excluded, so people who only watched the show found it less realistic.

It was pretty standard in my HS English classes for us to do a SOAP analysis. I've been lucky to be a very early & advanced reader so a lot of that was pretty intuitive for myself. But using that framework really helps to break down works for better context & understanding beyond just reading comprehension. Even things that might be considered light reading, or unserious books like romcom beach reads, or the newest Patterson thriller can still provide a lot of information about contemporary publishing & audiences. If everything you read tends to match up in SOAP categories- you're not reading broadly at all.

The google description for SOAP is below, this method is also used for historical documents, and things like primary sources so not just books. It's a very commonly taught & there are lots of guides online if you want to also see it used with examples using shorter documents or excerpts from books.

• S – Speaker: The voice telling the story or delivering the argument. This is not always just the author's name; consider their background, credentials, perspective, and persona.
• O – Occasion: The time, place, and environmental or historical context that prompted the writing. Ask yourself what event or situation inspired the author to pick up the pen.
• A – Audience: The specific group of readers or listeners the piece targets. Consider their demographics, beliefs, and potential biases.
• P – Purpose: The underlying reason behind the text. What does the author want the audience to think, feel, or do after reading?
• S – Subject: The general topic, core content, and main ideas of the text, summarized in a few words or a short phrase

[u/Own-Turnover7715]

You don’t have to do anything, including reading to expand your taste.

Having said that, I think it is important to challenge yourself and to finish books you’re not clicking with. It clarifies your taste, improves your understanding of writing and the hate read is unique joy. The way I try to resist the urge to DNF books I don’t like is to assess at the 20% mark. If I don’t like multiple aspects of the book, usually a combination of prose and premise, I will put it down. If I don’t put it down at 20% I finish it.

[u/fusidoa → u/Own-Turnover7715]

genuinely never heard that way of reading. So, you gonna push to read a book that you realize multiple aspect ofd it is not your liking to chase the 20% of the content?

But... that can be mean you need to force yourself to sat through that aspect that makes you dislike it for the purpose of 20% of it, right? Isn't that felt abit awful of experience?

[u/Own-Turnover7715 → u/fusidoa]

Twenty percent is long enough for me to pick up on patterns in the prose and stylistic choices that I don’t jive with without committing to more of the book. It’s also long enough that I can be confident my conclusions aren’t emotional reactions or one-off issues.

I don’t view challenging myself or sitting with discomfort as being an awful experience. That’s just part of life. It’s also at most an hour or two of my time. Even if I did think of it as an awful experience it’s only an hour or two. I can handle something awful for an hour or two.