For most people, December means shopping and buying for the holidays. For me, my wife Kim Conrey, and other authors, December is all about selling—precisely because most people are buying gifts for family, friends, and, sometimes, themselves. Other than social media posts and emails that remind potential purchasers we have deals on books for sale, there’s little we can do to influence online purchases. Rather, my December focus for the past decade—and now Kim’s focus—has been on in-person sales at markets and bookstores. If you encountered us at one of the Posman Books stores or the Marietta Artisan Market with our dear friend Ben Meeks, you likely heard us ask some variation of “Are you shopping for a book lover?”

Quite often people were doing just that, and hopefully we were able to help these shoppers check a gift or two off their list. Sometimes, though, the shoppers were the book lover and shopping for themselves. And then the conversation became about what they liked to read. Here’s the interesting part: occasionally, the shopper said they normally read one type of novel or nonfiction book, but they recently tried something outside their reading comfort zone and really liked it.

Comments such as those reminded me of a blogpost I wrote previously about why readers should join book clubs: quite often, they end up reading and loving books they initially would’ve insisted were not genres of interest. It’s kind of like the old commercial with Mikey as the kid who “hates everything” discovering that he likes Life cereal.

But I get it: reading outside your comfort zone is a gamble. Unless you have time on your hands, your minutes or hours dedicated to reading are precious, and you don’t want to waste them by embarking on a book you might not enjoy. It’s why we gravitate to our favorite authors—we’re confident they will give us an engaging reading experience, even if it’s very much like previous ones (e.g., has Lee Child’s Jack Reacher done much that’s surprised anyone over the last ten books?). There’s almost no risk in those decisions. Many readers focus on a specific genre for the same reason: they know what they’re going to get in a romance/mystery/fantasy/etc., and that provides an assurance of a satisfying read even across a variety of authors. Again, low risk.

However, there’s an opportunity cost too—what are you missing because you tend to gravitate toward a subset of authors or just one genre? I recommend getting out of your comfort zone once in a while. Haven’t ever read a memoir or biography? Start with a well-reviewed one and try it, but give yourself permission to stop if you get 30 pages in and still don’t like it. You don’t owe the author anything, and they’ll never know regardless. Like romance but have never tried sci-fi romance? There are an infinite number of new worlds to discover with love in the air and the entire gamut of heat levels.

Joining a book club will force you out of your comfort zone and provides some new friends-for-life, but you can do this on your own too. Your local librarian or independent bookstore owner and their staff can recommend plenty of books outside your usual reading habits. Search functions on Amazon, Goodreads, and countless other websites can reveal a plethora of choices.

Space is the final frontier—well worth a visit—and there are also countless other borderlands in fiction genres and nonfiction topics you didn’t even know existed, let alone spent any time exploring. Who knows, you might discover a new favorite you can explore until deciding you’re due for another change, and then off you’ll go again, expanding your tastes and developing an even broader range as a reader. Enjoy the journey!