Your Next Favourite Book Probably Isn't One You'd Pick Yourself

This is post three of More Than The Book blog series. Catch up on post one (The Best Book Club Conversations Don't Always Start with the Best Books) and post two (Sometimes the Most Fun Book Club Discussions Start with "I Hated It) if you're joining us here.

Confession: before joining Chapter 25 Book Club, I was pretty much only reading romantasy. I'd quietly decided that was just what I liked; when actually, looking back, I used to read classics, historical fiction, translated fiction, genuinely anything I could get my hands on. I'd boxed myself in without ever really noticing I'd done it.

I don't think I'm the only one.

A few signs you might have done the same:

• You can predict the twist before you've picked the book, because you already know exactly the kind of book you're about to read.

• Your last five reads could all sit on the same shelf.

• You've had a book recommended to you more than once and still haven't opened it, because "it's not really my thing."

• You've decided what you like so firmly that you've stopped testing it.

  
  

We All Default to Our Comfort Genre

There's nothing wrong with knowing what you like; I'm still very much a romantasy girl, and I'm not about to apologise for it. But left unchecked, a comfort genre narrows over time until you've forgotten you ever read anything else. It's an easy habit to fall into and an even easier one not to notice.

Book Clubs Widen the Net

A monthly pick chosen by a group is never going to sit neatly inside any one person's comfort zone, and that's the whole benefit. Obviously when Heavenly Bodies by Imani Erriu came up as a book club choice, I already knew I'd be obsessed, but in some ways that was predictable, and less exciting than when something completely outside my usual lane gets picked instead.

Some of my best five-star reads this year have had nothing to do with dragons or love triangles. Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall and Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris are both historical fiction, a genre I'd have walked straight past on a shelf, and both ended up among my favourite reads of the year.

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Before book club: romantasy, on repeat; nothing else really got a look in.

Since book club: still a romantasy girl at heart, but some of my proudest five-star reads have been the ones I never would have chosen.

The Best Surprises Are the Unplanned Ones

If I'm honest, it's rarely the romantasy pick that gets me most excited when Chapter 25 announces the new book: I already know I'll enjoy it. It's the one where I look at the cover and think "that's not for me" that ends up surprising me most. More than once that's been the book that had me in floods of tears by the final chapter, having gone in expecting to feel nothing at all.

Final Thoughts

None of this happens in one dramatic leap. It happens quietly, one slightly-outside-your-usual pick at a time, until a year later your reading list looks nothing like it did in January.

What's a book your club picked that you'd never have chosen yourself – and are you glad you read it?

Last in the series: ten reasons it's always worth staying, even after a pick that wasn't for you. Read on in 10 Reasons to Stay in a Book Club (Even When the Book Isn't for You).

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Written by: Anita, Host & Freelance C25 Admin Co-Ordinator

Anita will read anything she can get her hands on, with a soft spot for fantasy and Japanese fiction. Joining the Chapter 25 family in 2025 as the host of the Bury St Edmunds Club gave her love of reading a whole new lease of life. You'll find her in the garden with a book or down a BookTok rabbit hole looking for her next read.