✨ Welcome back to another week of LTB! ✨
Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme created by Rukky @Eternity Books and co-hosted by Aria @Book Nook Bits and myself! In this discussion meme, participants get to talk about certain topics, share opinions, and spread the love by visiting each other’s posts! Learn more about LTB, past topics and future topics HERE.
This week’s topic is:
Right Book, Right Time? Reading for the Season You’re In
Suggested by: Alli @ Alli the Book Giraffe
Prompts: Do you prefer reading about characters who are in a similar life stage as you (age, career, relationships, etc.)? Has your preference changed as you’ve gotten older? Have you ever re-read a book and experienced it completely differently because you were in a different stage of life? Do you think books come into our lives at the ‘right time’ and are there any books you think you’d feel differently about if you were younger or older?
I was immediately drawn to this topic when I saw Alli’s submission in the ideas box and I’m so glad that she suggested it. Thanks so much for the awesome suggestion, Alli! I can’t wait to see what everyone writes today. 💜
Do you prefer reading about characters who are in a similar life stage as you (age, career, relationships, etc.)? Has your preference changed as you’ve gotten older?
For a long time since I started reading again as an adult, I was pretty much reading everything that I could get my hands on whether that was children’s or middle-grade novels, young adult, new adult, or adult. When I took up reading again in my mid-20s and made it my entire life (lol), the majority of what I read were Young Adult books and I truly loved them! At the beginning, I never really purposefully sought out certain books (i.e. books with Asian characters or books written by BIPOC authors) but for many years now I’ve been trying to actively read more diversely because not only do I love reading about different experiences and perspectives, but I also came to love seeing my own identity reflected in books. It might sound silly but it wasn’t until I joined the book community that I realised that I didn’t read about a lot of characters who looked like me or had experiences similar to mine (diaspora or third culture kids) so it was really nice to discover they existed!
That said, it wasn’t until the last, I wanna say, couple of years that I started to read a lot less middle-grade and in the last year specifically when I struggled to find YA books that hit. I don’t know if it’s me “outgrowing” YA in my late 30s but there’s something about the age range that I’m not finding as enjoyable to read now, so I’ve slowly started migrating away from it. That’s not to say that I’ve stopped reading YA completely because of course not, I’m just pickier with what I read!
I have been enjoying reading about characters who are older now. Even reading adult books, it’s not uncommon for most characters to still be in their mid-to-late 20s, and I found it rare to find books with characters in their early-to-mid-30s. Something that has really excited more recently is seeing more books with mature characters in all genres, but especially romance! There’s something to be said about following characters who are in similar points of life as you are, particularly if they also still don’t have it all figured out and are struggling, cos girl, I’m there! 🤣 So yes, I’m having a ball reading about characters who are around my age and above, and I only hope that we can continue seeing even more older protagonists in books in years to come.
Have you ever re-read a book and experienced it completely differently because you were in a different stage of life?
Well, I don’t really re-read books that often so not really. However, I have read certain books and thought, “wow, I think I would’ve enjoyed that a whole lot more several years ago when I was (probably) less discerning about the books I read, but also when I was reading a whole lot more YA!” This happened last year when I was reading a couple of Owlcrate books that I got from my old YA subscription. I was incredibly disappointed by how many of them I struggled with but I think that has a lot to do with how I’ve been struggling with YA…
Do you think books come into our lives at the ‘right time’ and are there any books you think you’d feel differently about if you were younger or older?
I don’t know if it’s like ‘karmic fate’ or whatever, but I do believe some books come into our lives at the right time—whether it’s to help you process something in the past, as it’s currently happening, or maybe even glimpsing possible future paths. I think the one book that always immediately comes to mind when I think about this question is Persuasion by Jane Austen. I was going through an amicable break up where it was a case of “right person, wrong time” (we were living on opposite sides of the world and starting completely new trajectories down very different roads) and there was something about reading Persuasion with that “second chance romance” that gave me a massive measure of comfort—so much so that it did become an all-time favourite comfort read. I think the angst was really cathartic but at the same time, it also gave me hope for whatever the future holds. And while I do love Jane Austen generally, I don’t know if it would hold as much significance to me now if I had read it at a different period of my life or had my circumstances been different. As it is, it holds a very dear place in my heart!
There have been plenty of other times when I’ve read a book, especially young adult or middle-grade contemporaries (or even fantasies), and I’ve thought that younger me could’ve really used a book like this back then! I really wish certain books had existed during my younger days because I think it could’ve really helped me feel seen in books, but also because younger me would’ve probably really enjoyed the story whether it had significant life lessons in it or not! 🤭
Don’t forget to check out the other bloggers who joined the discussion this week! 👇🏽
Annemieke @ A Dance with Books
Yolanda @ Past Midnight
Elle @ Unwrapping Words
Raji @ Worlds Unlike Our Own
Abyssal Librarian
If I’ve missed your post this week, don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments, and I’ll add you to this week’s list of community posts ASAP!
Do you prefer to read books with characters who are in the same ‘season of life’ as you? Have you re-read any books and experienced them completely differently because of when you read it?
dinipandareads 