Another expectation that I find affecting my enjoyment is the sense of obligation--to enjoy a book because it was a recommendation, it's a lauded book in the literary canon, or it's a more cerebral read than I typically pick up and I want to GET IT. When I've got myself caught in this awful groove, not only is it grueling to spend time reading, but I am picking the work apart before I've had a change to perceive it as a whole.
Last year I read Middlemarch and listened to pretty much every podcast about it I could find. Literary Disco did a series of episodes back during quarantine and one of the hosts was basically expecting to hate it from the get-go simply because of its length, and as a creative writing teacher (at least I’m 99% sure that’s what he was) in modern times, they discussed that clear and concise is just his perception of the “right” style of writing, but that wasn’t necessarily the case in the Victorian era. Spoiler - he ended up really loving the book. I feel like he probably wouldn’t have if he didn’t have people to discuss and adjust his expectations with.
Personally, I don’t have expectations of older books the same way I do of modern, and usually I spend a little time researching the era/ influences of an older book or a classic so that I can meet it where it’s at. I don’t do that as much with modern books, but looking back -- when I do, I get a lot more out of the reading experience!
I love this post! You hit on so many of the reasons my expectations can be so high when I pick up a book. So far this year I had very high author expectations for new releases by 2 of my very favorite authors and they both were disappointments. That's one reason I love debut authors- no expectations!
I’m one of the people who absolutely loved We All Want Impossible Things and it may just be that I loved it so much because I knew nothing about it going in (I read it months before release) and picked it randomly from my kindle galleys. You’re so right about how our expectations impact our reading experiences!
Another expectation that I find affecting my enjoyment is the sense of obligation--to enjoy a book because it was a recommendation, it's a lauded book in the literary canon, or it's a more cerebral read than I typically pick up and I want to GET IT. When I've got myself caught in this awful groove, not only is it grueling to spend time reading, but I am picking the work apart before I've had a change to perceive it as a whole.
Last year I read Middlemarch and listened to pretty much every podcast about it I could find. Literary Disco did a series of episodes back during quarantine and one of the hosts was basically expecting to hate it from the get-go simply because of its length, and as a creative writing teacher (at least I’m 99% sure that’s what he was) in modern times, they discussed that clear and concise is just his perception of the “right” style of writing, but that wasn’t necessarily the case in the Victorian era. Spoiler - he ended up really loving the book. I feel like he probably wouldn’t have if he didn’t have people to discuss and adjust his expectations with.
Personally, I don’t have expectations of older books the same way I do of modern, and usually I spend a little time researching the era/ influences of an older book or a classic so that I can meet it where it’s at. I don’t do that as much with modern books, but looking back -- when I do, I get a lot more out of the reading experience!
I love this post! You hit on so many of the reasons my expectations can be so high when I pick up a book. So far this year I had very high author expectations for new releases by 2 of my very favorite authors and they both were disappointments. That's one reason I love debut authors- no expectations!
I’m one of the people who absolutely loved We All Want Impossible Things and it may just be that I loved it so much because I knew nothing about it going in (I read it months before release) and picked it randomly from my kindle galleys. You’re so right about how our expectations impact our reading experiences!