You Are What You Read

What Does Your Favorite Genre Say About You?

Last year, we published a blog post about different shelf styles, the important question of how we keep our books. Now, we're shifting the focus to the types of books we've got on those shelves. What you read says a lot about you. Read on to see what your favorite genre reveals about who you are and what makes you tick.

Romance

If your beloved books include titles like Me Before You by Jojo Moyes or The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, this is for you, you hopeless romantic! You love LOVE! Even if you've suffered your fair share of heartbreaks, you still believe that happily ever after is possible. And not just for you, but everyone. You may even keep a collection of heart-shaped rocks. You're the matchmaker of your social circle and your friends come to you when they have relationship dilemmas. Everyone knows you'll help them feel the love again. Here are some recent releases we're falling for:

• Kamila Knows Best by Farah Heron: Emma goes Bollywood in this delightful retelling of Jane Austen's classic.
• I'm So (Not) Over You by Kosoko Jackson: Exes Kian and Hudson may only be pretending to be together—but is it really over?
• All the Feels by Olivia Dade: A charming romantic comedy about a misbehaving actor and the no-nonsense woman hired to keep him in line.

Sci-Fi/Fantasy

If your shelves are populated by such classics as Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, you may often feel that you're the smartest person in the room. Your mind is both logical and expansive. You're a dreamy adventurer and spent much of your childhood lost in worlds of your own creation. You've been known to dabble in a bit of cosplay and you've never met a role-playing game you didn't like. Some brilliant new books for you include:

• Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tann: A young woman’s quest to free her mother pits her against the most powerful immortal in the realm.
• How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu: For fans of Cloud Atlas and Station Eleven, this prescient debut imagines the aftermath of a climate plague.
• The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd: A story about enchanted maps that lead to our heart's desire and the people who will do anything to get their hands on them.

Classics

With favorites like Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca and Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, you're someone who believes in literature that stands the test of time. You were one of the few who completed the assigned reading in high school—and enjoyed it! You've been described as being mature beyond your years and you enjoy spotting all the literary easter eggs hidden in current pop culture. Here are a few lesser-known titles to add to your impressive library.

• The Waves by Virginia Woolf: Ahead of its time, this modernist novel traces the lives of a group of friends against the vivid backdrop of the sea.
• The Mandarins by Simone de Beauvoir: An award-winning roman à clef offering an unflinching view of Parisian intellectual society at the end of WWII.
• In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick: For fans of Moby-Dick, this riveting bestseller tells the true story that inspired the classic novel.

Historical Fiction

If your touchstone titles include things like Alice Walker's The Color Purple and The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, you draw perspective and wisdom from the lessons of the past. You like having a sense of where the story is going and you can't resist a sweeping epic. Museums are places of comfort and you're pretty sure you've lived a few past lives in your favorite eras. You have a sharp eye for detail and some people might even call you a perfectionist.

• The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks: An inventive retelling of Chaucer's bold and libidinous Wife of Bath.
• Violeta by Isabel Allende: The story of one woman and her volatile life in an unnamed Latin American country over the course of the last century.
• Four Treasures of the Sky by Jenny Tinghui Zhang: A Chinese girl fights to claim her place in the 1880s American West.

Mystery/Crime/Thriller

If you stay up late reading books like And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie and The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides, you're dead fascinated by the dark underbelly of civilization. You're an adrenaline junkie who loves roller coasters and all of the unexpected twists in life. You're an attentive listener, always taking in more than you give away. You nurse a not-so-secret fantasy about taking up work as a private detective and you're generally pretty good at guessing a surprise ending well in advance.

• Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka: The life and times of a serial killer on death row, told primarily through the eyes of the women in his life.
• The Overnight Guest by Heather Gudenkauf: A woman receives an unexpected visitor during a deadly snowstorm
• The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb: A riveting page-turner about a classical musician's desperate quest to recover his invaluable violin on the eve of a pivotal musical competition.

How'd we do? If you have anything to add to our genre-related personality guide, we'd love to hear from you. And in the meantime, embrace the magic of you and keep on reading what you love.

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Read more by Ashly Moore Sheldon