"Breaking out of one's literary comfort zone can be intimidating," the Wall Street Journal observed in a piece headlined "Stuck in a Reading Rut? How to Create New Book Habits."
Among those offering "tips on the best ways to explore new genres" was Consuelo Wilder, a book buyer at BookPeople in Austin, Tex., who said: "A person who likes coming-of-age stories can try one in the science-fiction realm instead of just general fiction."
"For people who read romance, it's not that they only like love stories, it's how it makes them feel," advised Gwen Glazer, a librarian at New York Public Library and co-host of the podcast The Librarian Is In. "There are lots of books outside that genre that will make you feel that way." Glazer comes to understand a reader by using the "librarian party trick" of listening to whether a person focuses on language, story, character or setting when describing a favorite book, the Journal wrote.