If you’re into fantasy, do you ever pick up a romance and give it a shot? Or read a historical fiction book if you’re into scifi? It’s a leap of faith that doesn’t always work out but when it does it’s pretty sweet.
I asked a friend what her favorite book was, and she said The Goldfinch. I had never heard of it and hadn’t read any fiction/contemporary like it, but it ended up being such a great surprise. It was one of the few 5 star reads of that year and I never would have experienced it if I hadn’t taken the chance.
I’d say every so often, just take a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised.
There is nothing wrong with reading just for entertainment or relaxation. However, it’s an important value to me that I read to better myself, whether learning through nonfiction, empathy through personal tales or other cultures, or just abstractly through postmodern or erdogic literature.
As such, my “comfort zone” has shifted over time. I would say that Vonnegut is now well within my comfort zone, and that Pynchon and Faulkner are just outside it. This year I read Lot 49 by the former and Sanctuary by the latter, and both were very managable reads, by their standards.
Last year I read through The Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, Inferno, and Paradise Lost, and now feel that almost no archaic prose is beyond me. But next year will push out into Canterbury Tales and Pilgrim’s Progress.