Let’s Talk Bookish: Literary Palette Cleansers

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted with Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Book Nook Bits has hosted since April 2022, with Dini at Dini Panda Reads as co-host from February 2025.

Let’s Talk Bookish May 23rd:
Literary Palette Cleansers

Prompts: Do you ever feel like you need a reading reset? Maybe you’ve been reading dense literary fiction, or in a reading slump. Are there certain books you read to help reset? Do you ever take a break from reading? Do you find yourself needing those literary palate cleansers at certain times of year?

Yes, sometimes I do feel like I need a reset. It usually comes after reading too many similar books within a short space of time – typically either literary fiction or maybe horror. Both can, at times, feel like pretty bleak genres, so if I have read a few back to back, or just a little close together, I find myself reaching for something that’s going to be a bit lighter. Often romance.

I do think too there’s always a risk of even reading too many of the same kind of romances for me, and if I, say, read a lot of Contemporary Romance in a short space, I find myself itching for something different. But largely I think what tends to help me ‘reset’ is reading something lighter, usually with more personal stakes rather than, say, the end of the world. So I turn to romance. If I need a break from horror, I might pick up YA Fantasy. It’s really dependent on what I’m trying to ‘cleanse’, and it works the other way too – if I haven’t read Horror for a while, I might find myself itching for it. If I’ve taken a break from second world fantasy, I might have an urge to dive into another world.

I don’t really take a break from reading, but I definitely take a break from certain kinds of books – it helps that I have a very wide range in reading tastes, so there’s always something different for me to dive into.

And for me, it’s less about time of the year and more other factors going on – at certain times, I do find I need to avoid certain books or will reach for ‘palette cleansers’, but the other stuff going on in my life also has an impact. If I’ve been a bit poorly, or something has impacted my mental health, or I’m just finding I’m really busy and trying to cram a lot in, I might reach for something either shorter or lighter as a bit of a cleanser or reset.

How about you – do you find yourself needing a break from certain books? What are your typical, go-to literary palette cleansers?