Everyone Reads Differently

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Last week, I joined a book club session whose participants are women, mostly mothers. It was my second time attending their offline reading-together event. We read our own books in silence for around 30 minutes. Usually, we discuss the books we're reading, but the organizers came up with a unique agenda that day. We were asked to fill out a paper with our favorite genre and name two book titles from that genre.

A fiction girl at heart

I came late that day and was a bit in a rush to think of my favorite genre. If anybody ever asked what my favorite books were, I'd say Agatha Christie's. I grew up reading Conan (the comic) and loved mystery and problem-solving so much. My introduction to Agatha Christie's books was apparently when I was still in junior high school. However, now I can't name even one of her books that I like the most, LOL. Surely, I love the genre, but maybe that's because my reading list wasn't that extensive at the time. While I couldn't remember any book title I could write down (except The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, which was easy to remember), I decided not to pick Mystery.

Then I started thinking about which books I actually liked. In the last five years, I realized that my reading frequency was much lower than when I was younger. But I also explored a greater variety of book themes. My younger self wouldn't care much for reading cultural fiction, memoirs, or literature. I pushed myself to explore more nuances in my reading, and even picked up books that I wouldn't have even glanced at before, like Eka Kurniawan, Kafka, Han Kang, several memoirs, and non-fiction. I'm also surprised that lately I've bought and read more non-fiction books. I'm a fiction girl at heart.

So, I tried to decide on my current favorite books—the ones I would want someone to read if she asked me for a recommendation. They are:

1. Pachinko, by Min Jin Lee

2. The Miracles of the Namiya General Store, by Keigo Higashino

These two books are very different from each other. The first one is a historical fiction novel, while the latter is more like a fantasy book. Their only common thread is that they both belong to fiction (or maybe that the authors are Asian, but I don't like that kind of grouping).

Pachinko tells a story set during the period when Japan occupied Korea. The main character, Sunja, becomes part of a story that follows the difficulties faced by Koreans who migrated to Japan, how they survived, and how their descendants endured hardship and discrimination for generations after the war. I liked the book because it was very well written. I believe the author did very deep research on the subject. I actually learned a lot from the book about Korean history during that period. Since Indonesia also experienced Japanese occupation during the same era, I found some relatable feelings while reading the book. I think that was natural when reading historical fiction. I actually became more interested in this genre and would love to read more books like it.

The Miracles of the Namiya General Store is about some young men who get caught up in a time-traveling journey without even realizing it. They commit a crime one night and hide in a general store. While hiding there, they mysteriously receive letters that were supposedly written to the store's owner. They couldn't believe that the letters had been written decades earlier. Miraculously, they receive new letters after writing replies to the previous ones. Then they realize that they are somehow communicating across time inside the store. What struck me about the book was how comforting the story was. I would recommend it to people who want something easy to read yet still capable of leaving a lasting impression.

People have their own reasons to read

Each off the participants then shared their favorite genre and books, and why they loved them. The reasons were diverse.

Someone actually wrote down Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie's books (she should be my bestie, haha). Someone picked the titles because they were books she and her husband could both share the reading experience with. Someone picked memoirs because of an experience she had while hearing bad news during COVID-19. Someone chose children's books because she had never liked reading, had just started, and thought children's books would be easier to read. Someone chose non-fiction because she could only enjoy fiction when the story felt relatable to her.

The most interesting one was someone who stopped reading fiction after becoming a mom because fiction felt too emotional for her. Only after becoming a mother myself could I understand why that reason was valid.

My thought

I realized how personalized reading experiences can be. One could fall in love with storytelling. One could only pick a book if it is relatable. Another may pick up a book simply because everyone is talking about it.

Nothing is wrong with someone's taste.

I myself have grown through my own reading journey. Currently, I read more non-fiction than fiction. But I'm very picky when selecting the non-fiction I'm going to read: I read the reviews, look into the author's values, and think about whether the book contains the knowledge I want to gain. For fiction, I would just briefly read the back cover and some reviews, then get curious about how I would enjoy the story.

It's very interesting to know that two people could pick up the same book with completely different intentions, and the same book could leave very different impressions on them.