It has always been my norm to stay fairly within a genre or range of reading for an extended period of time, the selections being whatever hot thing I was into at the time. Stuck to horror and mystery for years; however, ranging from Poe to nonfiction true murder mysteries. Did the romances for a very, very short time, and spent quite a bit of time on contemporary novels. Did a whole library full of the paranormal and life after death books seeking proof, or rather seeking to disprove the theory of ghosts and goblins. Back to mysteries in the form of Patricia Cornwall and the series "A is for…" all the way through J, I think; whatever my next door neighbor had.
Once I got into more serious writing and taking courses on literature, my tastes have changed. In reading Symposium, Phaedrus, etc. along with novelists of the mid to late twentieth century (and, I’m a-wanting to get into some earlier, perhaps to the late 19th century), and the wonders of new media in the form of game-stories, I’m learning to multitask my reading. It ain’t as easy as it sounds. Hopping around in time, in motive, in direction, calls for certain mental control to eliminate my seeking out the whodunit in Plato; the philosophical relevance in Best American Mystery Stories.
But I do like the merry-go-round of ideas that somehow are all structurally the same. Building a house of story.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology