Do we turn to books or authors?
Certain moods demand certain kinds of books. Or do they? Do we actually bend towards certain genres during certain times?
We bow at the altar of fiction to provide us with joy, warmth, peace, intrigue and sometimes even terror. But do we just look for an emotion or do we also look at the creator of that emotion, the source?
People have gravitated towards Shakespeare when they are looking for big emotions – love, pride, vengeance, hate. Towards Poe for indulging their darker sides – secrets, violence, crime. Towards Austen for misunderstandings, zeal, wit. You get my point.
For me, I think it is highly dependent on my surrounding state of affairs. On a scale of joyful to rock bottom, I think my choice of books and or authors goes as below -
- Happy – unknown book by an author unknown to me.
- Meh – unknown book by an author whose works I am familiar with.
- Sad – completely worn out book read hundreds of times by an author whose works I am familiar with.
Most psychological studies would concur with the last one, since any individual would look for familiar rocks while drowning in a stormy sea.
The meh stage is the one I am wanting to dig deeper into. Is that affinity towards a book or just the author? Hoping to find out soon, since a meh-phase is about to begin!
