Why I Love Contemporary

Wow, it has been a super long time since I’ve done Top Ten Tuesday. I couldn’t pass up today’s chance though to talk about my favorite genre of…well, everything. 🙂 Top Ten Tuesday is a meme created and hosted at The Broke and The Bookish. Every week there’s a new bookish list for the blogosphere to do.

I’m sure you can probably guess my favorite genre, if not from title, ha, then by being familiar with my blog already. It’s Contemporary! I just love it a lot. I love Contemporary books, movies and TV shows. It’s all so great.

I’ll be including links later today! Until then, you can try to find everything in Goodreads. 😉

~*~Top Ten Reasons I Love Contemporary-Everything~*~

Relatable

I can relate to it more than I can fantasy. I love how it’s grounded in reality because it makes it seem like anything’s possible. I mean, okay, chances are you won’t find out you’re a vampire slayer and you may not run into the drama of Grey’s Anatomy every day, but those emotions characters feel are real. I love reading Contemporary because I can really get inside a character’s head and find out their motives.

Wide Range of Subgenres

There’s a wide range of Contemporary. There’s regular realistic fiction, then there’s also mystery, drama, comedy, memoirs and even paranormal romance.

Wide Range of Topics

This goes hand in hand with reason #2, but I love how you can basically find a Contemporary book/show on almost anything you want. Torn from the headline stories, happily ever afters, second chance love, family dynamic fiction, stories that end in sadness, etc. You want to see something about a virgin who ends up pregnant? Boom, there’s Jane The Virgin. You want a mystery? Check out Veronica Mars. In the mood for something family dynamic related? Gilmore Girls is calling. I think there’s a great deal of diversity as well, you can find different races, disabilities, religions, etc. in Contemporary.

It’s What I Know

A big reason why I love Contemporary is because it’s what I know. I grew up reading it and watching it. I’m very grounded in reality as well so it is “what I know”. I know what real life is like.

Escapism

Contemporary is just as much an escape for me as fantasy is for some people. I prefer it to any other genre because like #1 said, it’s relatable. I can escape into a character’s problems and see how they face them. It gets me out of my head and life.

Drama

Contemporary can be full of a ton of drama and as a fan of Degrassi, I love my drama. Although, i am a bit particular about my drama. I don’t like drama for the sake of drama and I don’t like drama piled on to more drama (see Anna and The French Kiss). I don’t like a lot of over-done tropes, including miscommunication which is one of my biggest annoyances (All The Feels deals with this a little).

Inspiring

I find a lot of Contemporary inspiring. I like seeing what other characters do and thinking I can do the same. I like reading about how people overcome things or even just going after something they want.

Educating

I think one of Contemporary’s biggest pros is that it can be really educational. Contemporary can talk about a lot of subjects that people may not get exposure from. It also helps people form or alter opinions about various things. I think a few of these topics are police violence (All American Boys, How It Went Down, school shootings (Violent Ends, This Is Where It Ends) and rape culture (What We Saw, Asking For It, All The Rage and Wrecked). I love how by reading these books I can get a more thorough look up close and change my opinion about something. Or even just see it shared there on the page.

Easier To Swallow

Now, this isn’t because it’s “less than” other genres, it’s because of the cast! A big reason why I’m not big on fantasy is because of the big casts. I am terrible at anything with more than 8 people. Unless it’s Les Miserables. Or Hamilton. Okay, neither of those are Contemporary! Moving on. I love Contemporary because there’s generally a small cast of main characters. Therefore it’s much easier for me to follow along with. 🙂

Diversion

So, this isn’t true just for Contemporary, but it mostly is? It’s also mostly book related. I love having a book to steer people away from me. This doesn’t always work because, you know, people are curious and want to know what you’re reading, if it’s good, if you like it, etc. Then they’ll probably say  “Oh, I liked The Hunger Games/I wish I had time to read/Oh, I don’t read YA”, but that is a whole other topic that I’m not discussing today. 🙂 Basically, it’s a great way to steer people’s attention from me. Or my attention from others. It’s kind of like how people will take out their phone and pretend to text if they’re in a group or an awkward situation (generally involving a group). Or is that just me?

~Bonus~

Feels

I love my feels. Anger, happiness, sadness. I love feeling something inside my heart that makes me react. I love the emotions that Contemporary bring me. Again, this goes back to Contemporary being relatable, having a range of topics and educating. I think it gives me the most emotion because I relate to it most and it could happen to me. Some of the books, movies and shows that have given me the most feels:

Books: More Happy Than Not, I’ll Meet You There, and Because You’ll Never Meet Me

Movies: A Walk To Remember, Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind, Listen To Your Heart

TV Shows: Degrassi, Veronica Mars, Boy Meets World

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Ah, and with that, I leave you with my top ten reasons why I love Contemporary! What is your favorite genre? Why do you love it?