Read What You Want

 Read

What

You

Want

I began taking reading seriously at age nineteen. Before reading meant anything to me it was just something that had to be done for school. Years went by until I dove deep into fiction where I noticed a peculiar trend, or maybe I should say habit from people on social media. Reading had become a game of politics. If you didn't read broadly you were pushed into a corner and accused of being hateful. This simply isn't a realistic thing to believe of someone, especially when fiction is a matter of taste and subjectivity.

You develop a taste for specific stories and genres, not specific authors. If an author writes amazing mysteries you'll want more from that one author. And as time progresses you will seek more authors with a similar style, or at least write within the same genre. This is how it all begins. To take possibly a more extreme view, reading taste is self bred into a person. The only time it isn't is when your parents' get you hooked on something they want you to read. Ultimately, its up to you to continue making reading choices as life goes on.

As for condemning people for what they read, ask yourself, would you want people to do that to you? Who or what gave you the moral obligation to attack people's interests? I'm speaking now, of course, to  those with a chip on their shoulder the size of a standard bookmark. There has never been a rule or law that was written or could be enforced to say you must read from certain kinds of authors to be accepted into society. I personally have read books from an array of writers. Granted a majority were from comic book writers because comic books were my first love in fiction. But I personally don't care what others read because I'm not the one buying the books. Will these people who want you to read from this author or that author foot the bill for your purchase at a bookstore or on the internet? I highly doubt it. I wouldn't. I don't and likely never will make that kind of money.

The moral of this blogpost (or rant) is to read what you want and allow others to do the same. And to clarify, not many people go around pointing out other's reading flaws, but those who do might want to work overtime. They've got a lot of books to buy.