{"id":719,"date":"2016-02-27T19:41:05","date_gmt":"2016-02-27T19:41:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=719"},"modified":"2016-04-30T14:18:45","modified_gmt":"2016-04-30T14:18:45","slug":"enjoying-a-better-book-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=719","title":{"rendered":"Enjoying a better book diet."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"apple-256261_960_720\"<\/a>I fear a world where everyone reads the same stuff. <\/strong><\/p>\n

A new year just turned and with it came troves of book lists telling us all about the most best and\/or most popular reads of 2015. <\/p>\n

Gaggles of readers are now catching up with what the previous year’s “books that people read.” <\/p>\n

Some examples: <\/strong>
\n‘Washington Post’s Top 10 Best Books of 2015’<\/a>
\nNPR’s Best Books of 2015<\/a>
\nAmazon’s ‘The Best Books of 2015’<\/a>
\nNew York Times’ ‘The Ten Best Books of 2015’<\/a>
\nBarnes and Noble, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian… and the lists go on. <\/p>\n

Having a literary canon is all well and good.<\/strong>
\nThere is comfort in reading a popular book knowing that there is a greater chance of being able to discuss that book with fellow fans. For such a solitary act, reading is fast evolving into a communal experience. Social media has seen to that. <\/p>\n

And so many of us read the popular books and share our opinions. We key in on “hot authors” and the “it” books of our respective genre’s. Each genre becomes a sort of silo within which like-minded communities are built and nurtured.<\/p>\n

But variety is nice, is it not?<\/p>\n

Carrots are healthy for you, but can you eat carrots for every meal, every day?<\/p>\n

Your mind deserves every bit the nutrition and variety that your stomach craves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you read Sci-fi then read biography.
\nIf you read biographies then read fantasy.
\nIf you read fantasy read classic literature.
\nIf you read classic literature then read travel.
\nIf you read travel books then read horror.
\nIf you read horror then read romance.
\nIf you read romance then read Sci-fi.<\/p>\n

(I apologize for all the genres \/ sub-genres left out, but you get the point.)<\/p>\n

Perhaps the greatest challenge is to read more indie authors. <\/p>\n

Reading ought to be treated more like listening to music.<\/strong>
\nHow many of us browse Spotify, Pandora, Youtube, and any other multimedia outlets on the net? How many of us look for something special and new?<\/p>\n

Is it not satisfying to uncover that track with under 1,000 listens and yet repeating it a multitude of times? Better yet is the feeling of sharing a new music artist with friends. We kind of take ownership of our favorite artists, in a way. <\/p>\n

The world of books should be treated the same way. By all means read the most popular, the hot topic, the famous author. But every so often pick up something new — something that just might change the game. If you find a new author start by reading something short — a test drive, see how it feels. <\/p>\n

Let’s read different stuff. Let’s find more of the best books and share them with friends.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shop Amazon – Save $20 on select Kindle E-readers<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I fear a world where everyone reads the same stuff. A new year just turned and with it came troves of book lists telling us all about the most best and\/or most popular reads of 2015. Gaggles of readers are now catching up with what … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[11,12],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6aT9B-bB","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":463,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=463","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":0},"title":"Fantastic journey (A Fantasy Writer and Reader Prompt) #amreading (Michelle Reads)","date":"September 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 The Fantasy Readers and Writers Group challenged me with a question:\u00a0 What do you like about \/ look for the most in fantasy books? \u00a0 This prompt made me realize something: I haven't read many fantasy books at all (a problem I am working to remedy). For now, I'll\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":273,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=273","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":1},"title":"Ravens in the Sky Cover Concept","date":"October 25, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It's a sealed deal - I have an E-book cover for RITS should I go the self-published route. I have experience helping publish the e-books of others, so this is a very real possibility. Literary agents better act fast :)!","rel":"","context":"In "Books, Novellas, and Stories"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1353,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=1353","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":2},"title":"Getting back on track","date":"August 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"So the world is still the opposite of what it should be, and Social Distancing seems to be a bit closer at hand. No surprises there. I've been enduring a period of change and growth in my life, and so had to take a couple months off from writing. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1017,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=1017","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":3},"title":"5 Questions with Fantasy Reader and Hobbyist Writer John Blenkinsop","date":"July 16, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I think the real fun thing about this interview is that John writes for children he knows in the same way that Tolkien did. Stories written for specific children tend to resonate with others, and the same can be said about the Worlds of\u00a0Yifan books. Prince Yifan and Princess Yifan\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Author Interviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1289,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=1289","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":4},"title":"Five Questions with Chaaya Chandra of Rossi Publishing Games","date":"January 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Our guest this week is wolf-whisperer, Chaaya Chandra. Canines, wolves in particular, have had a tumultuous relationship with humans for a long time, from spiritual companions to competitive rivals, and I think Chaaya\u2019s work is steeped in the essence of this relationship. Chaaya is a veteran whose home is in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1116,"url":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/?p=1116","url_meta":{"origin":719,"position":5},"title":"The ravens are calling...","date":"August 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Raven's Bane, the sequel to RITS, is coming closer to being published. While the manuscript was finished a couple years ago, it remains in post-processing - my apologies. The good news is that the third and final book to the trilogy is coming along while RB is being polished. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=719"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":809,"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719\/revisions\/809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willbly.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}