Are You an Adventurous Reader?
Because, truth be told, I don’t think I am. When LynnAAR sent around her request for Buried Treasures from all of the AAR staff, I racked my brain (I don’t keep a book list) and realized that I hadn’t read anything that would qualify.
Why not? Well, I’m jealous of my reading time. With work and my responsibilities to AAR, leisure time is sparse and there’s a lot competing for my leisure attention. Would I rather read a book by an author I’m not sure about or play it safer with an author I already know and love? The safe bet wins almost every time.
And, gee, what about TV? Would I rather take a chance on a book or catch up on episodes of Angry Boys?
Digital downloads have changed far more than the world of books. Now with my Roku player, I have access to almost every movie or TV show ever made — and that’s a whole lot different from the VCR days when I had only what I’d taped and the limited availability of my local video store. Want to watch the British version of The Office again? I can. That and a whole lot more.
So, back to my dilemma. With so much competing for my attention during my leisure time, it’s getting tougher and tougher to make the cut. And that leaves me the odd woman out when it comes to things like Buried Treasures.
Obviously, I do read new authors, but that’s after hearing significant buzz about somebody who’s too good to miss. I discovered Sherry Thomas and Elizabeth Hoyt that way and I’m very glad I did. Now, they’ve taken their place of my list of tried and trues. But, am I missing some good stuff? Absolutely. I’m certain of it.
So, that leaves me in the unadventurous category of reader. And for the most part I’m okay with this. I’m a far more adventurous TV watcher than I am a reader — I love offbeat comedies like Summer Heights High. I’m also a big drama fan. I loved The Hour on BBC America and, while I think I’m finally done with American Idol, I’m totally hooked on The Voice. Thanks to digital downloads I can watch all these great shows on my time.
And it’s definitely cutting into my reading time, leaving me in that unadventurous reader category.
What about you?
– Sandy AAR
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I’m somewhat adventurous in my reading. Each time I select books for review here, I try and pick at least one or two by authors I haven’t tried before. As a result I’ve come across some authors I’m now a big fan of.
I also belong to a mystery book group which means each month I read one book that I pretty much wouldn’t have selected on my own. Some of those have resulted in new auto-buy mystery reads.
I’m a fairly adventurous reader. Most of that is driven by my reviewing – I usually try to review authors I haven’t reviewed in the past, so I’m usually reading someone new or at least new to me. I also read something for book club once a month, so I cover a lot of new ground that way.
I would say I’m much less adventurous with TV. Watching any new show seems like a huge time commitment to me.
Reading is more labor intensive and takes up much more time than catching an hour or even half an hour of a new show. My lesiure time is quite limited as well and so I would have to say that I am not “”adventurous”” about readings given my time contraints. Depending on the size of the book, it takes me anywhere from 8-15 hours to read a novel. So, I rely on word of mouth and strong reviews to alert me to new authors and novels. I love reading book reviews, movie review, and literary criticism and put all potential books to a pretty strict test to assess their “”readibilty”” factor for me each month. I love the process though!
Like many of you, price is a factor in how adventurous my reading can be. A lower price point is certainly an incentive for me to branch out and try new authors. Plus, if I totally hate the book, I don’t feel quite as bad giving up on a $0.99 ebook versus one for which I’ve paid full list price. Right now I am enjoying the heck out of Stacia Kane’s Unholy Ghosts, which I bought for either $0.99 or $1.99 (my brain has frozen and I don’t recall which lol). It’s the first book in an Urban Fantasy series and I’m certain I’ll read the following installments. So that is certainly one instance in which a lower price worked to the advantage of reader, author and publisher.
I also tend to try new authors when there is considerable positive buzz surrounding their work from my fellow reviewers and our message board posters. Of course there is no guarantee that I will love the same thing, but for me I think the name of the game is minimizing risk and trying to maximize resources in order to read more and better quality books. Again, no guarantees, but I hardly ever have a negative reading experience this way and have discovered some truly wonderful books and authors.
I’ve become more adventurous because of my Kindle. I’m always looking for free books on it and a lot of the ones I find are by authors I’ve never heard of. Before my Kindle though, I’d have to say no, I wasn’t adventurous at all either :)
I have to say yes, but it’s strictly because of my Kindle. Not only do I sample before I buy, I also take advantage of free and $.099 books. I am much more likely to buy a book I have sampled, and yes, that 7 day return thing is working out for me also. With my Kindle Prime I also get one book to “”borrow”” each month and I use that for authors who are new to me, figuring if I don’t like it, it hasn’t cost me anyting. I found Kathryn Shay through this website, and am now working through her backlist. I have finished the 3 books in her “”Firefighter”” series and am on to the O’Neills. I am constantly on Amazon checking out their free and low cost selections and have found some real winners Heather Killough-Walden,Grace Burrowes,Beverley Kendall, Sondra Carr and a few others.
Like Bungaluna, I’m a readaholic. I have paper books stacked up, ebooks on the Kindle and iThings, and also have access to all sorts of tv/movies via streaming on the Apple TV (right now it’s “”Bones,”” from the first episode straight through to this season). What I’ve recently realized is that I don’t WANT to read every single book I start. I have too many choices, and I’m getting old (I’ve calculated my years to retirement, which makes me giddy and anxious at the same time). If a book strikes me as nothing really new, I’m liable to set it aside and move on, because there’s always something great, if only I pick up the right book.
I read a lot of new to me authors all the time. I have to. For me it is what keeps romance from growing stale.
I’m a readaholic and there is never enough supply to meet my demand. I search for new recommendations and posible new authors all over the place and will give anything that sounds interesting at least one try. That doesn’t mean that all comers with become favorites, but it has led to me discovering some interesting reads!
How I find new authors is reviews like this site. I read at night before bed for the most part and that is my “”special”” time to escape.
In the romance genre? Not really. Lately, I’ve been rereading favorite authors, due mostly to the easy access to all the great titles on my Kindle app. on my ipad. I am much more adventurous reading general or historical fiction. As for digital downloads, I’ve just started that. I’ve downloaded the 1st season of Downton Abbey and last night, the 1st season of Game Of Thrones. So, I will be busy with that, but I’m pretty picky with my reading time. I usually read at night and hate giving up that precious time.
I wish I had time to be adventurous! I’m relatively new to the romance genre, so part of me sticks with the few authors I’ve fallen in love with, and being a college student and working, I get through about a book a month. That being said, I’ve recently started reading on my iPhone, and I’ve found that I read a lot more when I always have access to the book I’m reading. If I have 20 minutes to kill before a class starts, I just pull out my phone and start reading! Hopefully this will help me get through more books and find more new to me authors.
Thanks, Ell for the tip about the Kindle. I didn’t realize that you could return books within 7 days for a refund if you don’t want to keep it.
Regarding being adventurous, digital books and audible have made me more adventurous. I am tempted to listen to books by narrators I like even if I would not ordinarily read the author. This has opened me up to a lot of great books that I otherwise would have missed.
Am I an adventurous reader? I’d have to say yes and no. For different reasons, I have lost a lot of authors off my automatic buy list, and am always looking for new authors to replace them. (Cecilia Grant looks like she might be one – thanks AAR!)
On the other hand, like everybody else, my real life keeps interfering with my reading life, so both time and money are definitely an issue. I tend to read reviews on this site first, and then go to Amazon, and check out what other readers have to say before I buy. In spite of my caution, I still end up keeping less than half of the books I buy.
My Kindle has turned out to be really helpful in this. If I decide I don’t want to keep the book after all, I can send it back, and be refunded if I finish it in 7 days or less.
Lorelei James is my guilty pleasure too! I’ve almost read all the books in that series. Fabulous. I read most of the stuff coming from the tried and true big publishers and authors and love it, but I found myself wanting more. So now I’ve turned to smaller epublishers because they print stuff the other publishers would reject because the print run would be too small. Lately I like being challenged with M/M romance. Different! So yeah, I guess I’d say I’m adventurous.
I have a Roku but I don’t use it as much as I thought I would. I still love my books. They come first!
Since I’ve gotten my kindle, I’ve become more of an adventurous reader. My guilty pleasure of 2011, Lorelei James, I stumbled upon while looking through amazons top 100 romance lists. I knew nothing about her and decided to give her Wyoming Cowboys a try. 12 books later, I’d say it definitely payed off. There have been a few others I tried, mostly based on a plot devices I like, marriages of convenience, sports romance. For the most part its been enjoyable.
I do try other authors however my first pick tends to be authors I know and love. Or a book that looks like it is going to be humorous and make me laugh.
I read what I like.
I’m somewhat adventurous in reading simply because I’m fairly new to the romance genre as a whole, and every author was a new treat when I started. Three+ years later I’m still working my way through the authors most people would consider “”tried and true”” as well as discovering the newcomers.
I push myself to be more adventurous by joining reading challenges, such as the SOA Listening Challenge, Wendy the Superlibrarian’s TBR Challenge, and an SFR Challenge.
But I’m NOT an adventurous digital download user. We don’t have any cable/sat TV, and I rarely watch TV/movies on the computer. My husband and kids do all the time, but I’m much happier spending my evening with a book than watching videos. The family pretty much has to twist my arm to get me to watch movies with them. I can sit still to read a book, but get restless watching movies. No, it’s not visual media that compete with my reading time, it’s housework, driving kids, tutoring…… all those little inconveniences. ;-)