Over the past few days I finished a graphic crime novel set
against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. At the same time I
was reading One Day in the Life of Ivan
Denisovich, originally published in Russian as an indictment of the Stalinist
era. Meanwhile, I was into a historical novel about the crusades, which turned
out, somewhat to my surprise, to be basically porno. After finishing the “Ivan”
book, I started a philosophical treatise from Kierkegaard on The Present Age, and a textbook on
evolution. The New Orleans graphic novel transitioned into a weird western
featuring Jonah Hex. Throw in two novellas, a sword & sorcery piece and a
southern noir. Before that, a collection of short stories about the Jim Crow
era, a nonfiction documentary piece on Hair Metal, a video game tie in called Metal Gear, some space opera, a
collection of Poeesque horror stories, a big book of science fiction flash
fictions, and a post-apocalyptic western by Edward Abbey. I wonder what is
next.
Do you tend to read across many genres, or focus on one or
two? If you do read across genres, do you jump about willy-nilly? Or do you
tend to do a few books in one genre before switching to another? Just
wondering.
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