Top Ten Tuesday – Why I Love Reading Contemporary Fiction

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.  Top Ten Tuesday has been one of my favorite memes ever since I started blogging, so huge thanks to Jana for taking over the hosting duties!

This week’s TTT topic is Reasons Why I Love [insert your favorite book title, genre, author, etc. here].  Since I’ve been reading a lot of contemporary fiction lately, I decided to share some reasons why I’m enjoying reading it so much.  Many of the reasons I’m sharing of course also can be applied to other genres, but they just specifically add to the charm of contemporary fiction for me.

via GIPHY

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Reasons Why I Love Reading Contemporary Fiction

(in no particular order)

• I love the modern settings — places I recognize from having visited, or even places that I want to visit.  As much as I might enjoy reading about the same exact city in a historical fiction, there’s just something comforting and familiar for me reading about it in a contemporary. New York immediately comes to mind as I’m typing this.

• I love the overall timely feel of a contemporary, especially in terms of its inclusion of modern technology, social media, current events, etc.  Those things that make it so relevant to right now.

• Along similar lines, I love reading contemporary novels that are sprinkled with familiar pop culture references.  Whether it’s Star Wars, Harry Potter, or something else iconic, it’s just fun to actually “get” the references.

• I’m a huge fan of fantasy and all of the magic that typically accompanies those kinds of stories, but another appeal of contemporary fiction for me is just seeing ordinary, everyday people (Muggles, lol) facing and overcoming difficulties without the assistance of any kind of special powers.  Anne from Books of My Heart commented on one of my reviews this week and she says she calls this “Life Fiction” and I I really liked the term.

• Along the same lines, I also love contemporary fiction in that it often just gives us a snapshot of a character or characters’ everyday lives.  Sometimes I just think it’s fun to get a glimpse into a day in the life of someone else.

• Another huge appeal of contemporary fiction for me is that it feeds my inner mood reader because there’s such a wide range of subject possibilities, not to mention that you can easily find either a light, fluffy read or an emotional one that will have you grabbing for the tissues.  There’s a book for every mood!

• I can’t forget to talk about the diversity.  Contemporary fiction is doing such a wonderful job with representation these days.  I love that there’s so much representation out there for different races, cultures, religion, the LGBTQ community, mental illness, and so much more.

• I also love contemporary fiction because it is in these kinds of stories that I most often see myself in the characters.  They are definitely more relatable to me than a fantasy character or even a character from historical fiction.

• Romance is also a draw for me when it come to contemporary fiction, mainly because it seems to be the place where I find my favorite tropes and that snarky, witty banter that I love so much.

• Last but not least, the covers!  I know I shouldn’t judge books by their covers but I totally do and I adore the covers for contemporary fiction reads, especially if they’re those cute illustrated covers that seem to be the trend now.

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Question:  Do you read contemporary fiction?  What do you enjoy about it?