Guest Post: Amy of the Useless and Obscure Facts

I am currently buried under family members, food, festival, and fun, so some kind bloggers have graciously agreed to guest post here on eclectic / eccentric.

Today, Amy from Amy Reads shares with you her thoughts on reading eclectically.

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When Trisha sent out a request for guest posts I immediately felt flattered and excited to have been asked. Wow, I thought, I’ve never done a guest post before! Then I sat down and wondered what I could write about. Thankfully, Trisha also included a list of possible topics to discuss. One of those topics made me think of something really relevant to her and her blog, and also to me and my blog, Amy Reads.

The topic I choose to discuss today is why I read eclectically (and the benefits of doing so).

If you’ve seen my blog you may have noticed that I read an odd mix of books. If you haven’t, no worries, I’ll explain.  I read some young adult – mainly urban fantasy / dystopian / paranormal, but also some based more on real life. I read some fiction – translated and international fiction, the occasional classics, some bestsellers, some odd random ones that I find at second hand bookstores. I read some non-fiction – women’s issues, biographies, gender studies, race and cultural studies, human rights textbooks, narrative non-fiction on just about any subject, bestsellers, obscure titles, anything I can get my hands on, really.

That is quite the mix. People often ask me why I read such a wide variety. The thing is, I don’t know how people can possibly always read the same thing. Reading eclectically is the only way I can do it.

Today I might feel like reading a biography, tomorrow I might want to read something about bees, the next day I might want to read that novel I found by that Croatian author I’ve heard so much about. Often times I will read a book and get started on a trend. Currently, for example, I’ve read 2 books by Nigerian authors in a row. I will read a book and if there is a bibliography I will go off on a reading tangent of similar books or just books on the same topic. But then I’ll get sick of that topic and switch to something completely different. Or the latest book I read will mention something else, like a Nigerian book about twins that mentions religious violence that makes me think of a non-fiction book about religious violence on my review pile, and I decide to go off and read it next.

If I try to force myself to read any particular book, I might love it, I might just get more and more frustrated. I’ve learned that it is better to let my mind decide what it wants each day than to force a book on myself. It is hard to guarantee what I will want to read next at any given time. (The obvious solution is to have piles and piles of books to be read that you can sift through whenever the mood hits you for any random obscure topic. Which is, of course, exactly what I have, thank goodness!)

So that is why I read eclectically. My mind just works in strange and mysterious ways that I cannot control. As to the benefits of eclectic, I would think that is obvious. I have a head full of useless and obscure facts. Any time random conversations come up I usually have some random fact or figure to throw in – though sometimes a few years old. Definitely useful, in my mind ;)

In my mind, the better question is how, exactly, do you always read the same thing? Don’t you get bored? Don’t you ever need a change of pace, of scenery, of topic? I want to know, what is your take on eclectic reading?