This year I have stepped up my reading game by exploring genres that are out of my comfort zone. This has ultimately helped me diversify my reading and it’s helped me find some really amazing books along the way! Now I know reading genres that you don’t typically read may sound daunting, but it’s actually pretty easy. Reading out of our comfort zone can has a couple of great benefits such as encouraging us to learn new things, diversify our reading, and improving our emotional intelligence by learning to be more empathetic. Now you may be asking yourself, that sounds all great and dandy, but how do you actually do go about reading out of your comfort zone? Check out these helpful tips!

Read a book recommend by a friend or a loved one.
Reaching out to trusted friends or loved ones on book recommendations are always a great way to start. Not only does the recommendation get you out of your comfort zone, but it gives a bit of comfort knowing that someone else liked this book and it ends up being a great discussion to have with the person who recommended the book.

For example, one of my friends recommended that I watch the Hulu limited series 11/22/63 and then read the book by Stephen King. I really liked this approach because horror isn’t really thing, but the recommendation of historical fiction and sci-fi intrigued me. Once I watched the series and read the book, we had a great discussion about what aspects we loved from both and if we liked the show or the book more.


Join a buddy read/read-along.
Buddy reads on books that are out of your comfort zone are a perfect way to get a better perspective on what you’re reading. With buddy reads, there are some newbies who are reading the book for the first time and then there are others who are doing a re-read and have insights to share.

Buddy reads are super helpful to me especially for books that I wouldn’t typically pick up myself. The Jane Austen buddy reads that two of my friends hosted occasionally over the summer helped me develop my love for Jane Austen novels. Before that, I never thought I’d ever pick up a classic again because I was forced to read them for school and wasn’t sure how I felt about it. But I found buddy reads to be helpful because we were able to discuss how we felt about certain characters and interpretations of specific scenes.


Read a book from an author versus a genre.
If you can’t bring yourself to read a specific genre because you don’t know where to start or are wary of it, I’d suggest to start with an author instead. For example, for horror, you could start with Stephen King or for romance, start with Colleen Hoover or Alisha Rai.

Fantasy is out of my comfort zone, but earlier this year, I wanted to try it out. I decided to start with Neil Gaiman because I’ve heard incredible things about his work so I was very excited to pick up his books. The first book I picked up was Coraline because I loved the movie so I thought that this would be a great segue to his work. Turned it was and it opened the door to other fantasy books for me. Now fantasy has become one of my favorite genres to read!

What’s one genre that’s typically out of your comfort zone?