Question Novel Taste: How did your taste evolve?

So I've been mainly reading Korean novels like "I'm not a Regressor", "The Regressed Demon Lord is Kind" and "The Main heroines are trying to kill me", but before I used to read a lot of Japanese novels like "Realist Hero", "Rising of the Shield Hero", "Strange Grief wants to Retire" and other Japanese novels.

I used to avoid novels that were not Japanese for some reason, but after finishing Volume 05 of "Dungeon Defense" wayback in 2019, I began to read Korean novels and eventually it came to a point where I read more Korean novels as opposed to Japanese ones.

I observed that the thing that draws me to Korean novels more is that I like Korean characters more than Japanese ones. I like how Korean characters actively pushes the progress of the story as opposed to Japanese ones that is passively being pushed by the story itself. Don't get me wrong there are exceptions to said observation but sadly it is not the majority. I do not enjoy novels where characters have no agency in the progress of the story.

So this got me curious. How did your taste evolve specifically how does your old reading preferences compare to your new one?

Ohh and novel recommendations are welcome and appreciated hehe~

 

I went from wattpad cliche to Chinese cliche to chinese bl to now anything bl

 

As for me, i start reading OP, Harem Xianxia Webnovel like A Against the God, Desolate Era, etc. I like repetitive, face slapping to nonsensical harem. Basically i consume everything from trash to great, from CN to JP to KR Webnovel. Then after few year i start distance my self from Harem or just Repetitive face slapping, to avoiding a Webnovel base on the sinopsis, rating, if it generic or not to nitpick every little thing i could think of, well im past that phase now. Right now im very much casual reader, i had no particular taste or genre, im back to the starting point basically, hell even i start liking genre harem once more.

 

I went from
Smart tactic power couple with mutual respect (no love triangles, angst or be)
To
Op couples or op charismatic fls
To
Helpless pititful Mc but with strong heart
To
Slightly bearable toxic relationship or manipulative ml
To
Angst and wife chasing crematorium(though always drop it when plot is mundane)
To
Few oneshots or short be or tragedy stories
To
Any type of bg or bl novel with sufficient romance (no harem, no love triangles, no brain dead or stupid, reckless Mc, no 2d characters, no bullshit face slapping at every chapter, no naive white rabbit Mc getting trapped by blackbellied ml, no reverse harem )

 

It depends on whichever new in the top 25 rankings. Different genres and tags, but they do follow the same formula, and that's my daily dose of quick fix dopamine.

 

Still love/hate how I considered those cringiest wattpad stories to be the best thing ever lmao. I shudder when I think about it

 

Anime- manga - light novels- chinese webnovels - korean ones- royal road fics - some more chinese webnovel, machine tls this time -forum fics (sufficient velocity, spacebattles, questionable questing etc mostly older and hiatus only noticing when I reach latest chap and look at dates)- webtoons - back to mtl trash.

All kinds of genre. Fantasy, sci fi, isekai, slice of life, strategy (from medieval all the way to sci fi range), romance, infinity, xianxia, xuanhuan, system stuff,.........

Lately on the burnt out part of the cycle (too picky for the piles I already sifted through multiple times, not feeling for trying new stuff currently).

Definitely getting pickier and looking more for author's sheer ability to draw a reader into their work feeling rather than any specific genre.

 

I went from high fantasy adventure to urban fantasy harem, from psychological horror to comedy horror game, from slow burn romance to flash marriage, from reborn to 90s and step by step getting rich to shenhao become billionaire on the first chapter.

Nowadays I just like to do quick reading...

 

From Jpn novel to Kor and stay with Cn mostly.
Because it's easy to find the resources.
From shounen, shoujo and romance to 'enough with dilly dally romance and cliche shounen/shoujo plot pls'. And disliking angst so much because it's stressing the soul.

 

Anime —> Manga —> Mahouka koukou (my first light novel) —> Lots of japanese light novel. If there's an isekai tag, then I read it and liked it. Mahouka and Overlord were the pinnacle.
—> Then korean light novels. Reincarnator is the pinnacle.
—> Then Chinese light novels: all xianxia, xuanhuan and wuxia consumed. After chinese arrogan mcs, I despised japanese dumb, dense main characters. I despised my old self who liked all that garbage isekai novels as I had read them just because they were isekai. Reverend Insanity is the pinnacle.

I try to watch anime and read light novels now. But they are thrash. I can't find anything that surpasses their genre pinnacles. Nothing surpasses death note or HxH in anime. Mahouka and overlord in japanese light novels. Reincarnator in korean light novels. Reverend Insanity in Chinese light novels.
Nothing is even close. They are all thrash. My tongue has become so sharp that it can only taste top 0,1% of the light novels.

What do I do now then? I want to write my own books. I have several ideas. A cultivation novel about a 14 year old reincarnated boy who can revive infinite times. A western fantasy novel with mixture of everything I liked: RI, HxH, Reincarnator, Megamind, Overlord... A movie like Leon except the assasin is like Hisoka. A movie like pulp fiction.
I started with the hardest. The western fantasy novel. The toughness of writing prose(diverse and quality english) with english being my second language is so f.cking real.

 

Excluded from the start:
shoujo ai, shounen ai, yaoi, yuri, harem, reverse harem

+Romance
↓
+Romance
+Action
↓
+Xianxia
+Romance
↓
+Action
+Fantasy
↓
+School Life
+Fantasy
↓
+School Life
+Shoujo
+Comedy
↓
+Romance
+Josei
+Transmigration
↓
+Romance
+Comedy
↓
+Romance
+World Hopping
-Transmigration
↓
+Romance
+Drama
-Transmigration​

 

From werewolves and bad boy players with good girls on fictionpress, to male MC Korean novels, to a mix of Japanese novels, to male MC Chinese novels, to Chinese BL, to female MC Chinese novels. Now I'm stuck on the last two and I cannot go back to the bad boy playa type of ML anymore. I love the "clean" Chinese ML's now.

 

i went from enjoying anything to "hey isn't that too boring" " this is so cringy" "forced relationship forced relationship" "dude she literaly just went along with the confession mood" "bruh mc is so annoying " so predictable" "is this really mystery nowadays? ow cliche" "no character developement" events happening too fast" "no events" ...etc

 

Ohh have you tried "Despite Being Pursued As a Villain, All The Heroines On My Side?" thats the novel I'm reading with that kind of genre. I love it so much I read til chapter 181 using MTL hahaha

 

Well I was into anime and when I couldn't wait any longer to watch my fav anime I got into Japanese Manga and it was pretty good, after I finished reading all the Mangas I could I looked into other things that when I found Chinese manhwa and it got me hooked (fun fact: my first manhwa was something named immortal something, I totally forgot).
Anyway when I was reading wattpad (some cliches stories that made me cringe until now) I stumbled upon a Chinese novel (It was a reborn FMC novel) that I liked but the translation was so bad (because it was mtl) so I searched it up in the internet and I found novelupdates.
Anyway I just read until I found a bl novel (it was surprisingly a quick transmigration one) and I loved it.
So now I read bl Chinese, Korean or Japanese novel (mostly CN world hopping or unlimited flow because I find it more to my taste) and BG with good plot and a smart couple w/o Mary Sue mc.

(wow it's so long!)

 

Personally my taste hasn't changed much.. I've been following and coveting the same novels for like 3-4 years..buhuu but the one thing that might've changed is my opinions on some novels for example scumbag system and Quickly wear the face of devil Keke I do not like shizun/Disciple relationships that's for sure also Op ML ...hmmm maybe my tastes have actually changed but than again I didn't really have any strong opinion on things back then I have been saving some things to read/watch later for 3 years I still haven't got to cross them out from those lists tch tch not as free now even if I want to be.. grgrgrgrg

 

I started out mostly reading JP shounen novels since I was introduced to novel translations mostly through manga. I eventually stopped finding new JP novels to read and only occasionally look at old ones I've started already.
Some examples from this era:
Tensura; Kumo Desu ga; Death Mage; Tsukimichi; Death Flags

At some point (unrelatedly) I got into wuxia, which introduced me to xianxia. The main draw for xianxia to me was the fresh setting (I thought of cultivation and spirit stones and such as new and interesting). As one can imagine, I got tired of xianxia real fast. Now I pretty much only read xianxia parodies like HN1F.
Talisman Emperor (would not recommend); ISSTH; Perfect World; Spirit Realm

While I was reading xianxia, I started taking an interest in CN josei. It started out as transmigration to ancient China, then became just any sort of transmigration. It pretty much ended when I read INEBM since I lost interest in CN josei after that (I decided minimal romance was the way to go)
MDDYA; Doomed to be Cannon Fodder; Transmigrator Meets Reincarnator

Meanwhile, I had a resurgence of interest in KR webtoons, leading me to start reading KR josei and seinen/shounen. I got tired of KR josei pretty quickly (I swear, almost every KR male lead should get therapy, they're way too dependent on the FMC), and the KR seinen/shounen and CN seinen that have no romance kind of combined to make my current taste.

Oh, at some point I started reading CN josei/shoujo again, first through QT, and then in the form of everything is almost the same except for the MC's gender cliche danmei (BL). I got a little tired of that eventually, and don't pick danmei for the romance tropes anymore.

But even through all that, I've never wavered in my devotion to long-as-heck series. I don't start CN male-targeted novels until they have at least 200 chapters (because they're more prone to short chapters and filler), and don't start KR and female-targeted novels until they have at least 60, and the raws have at least 100.
Even with my recent dive into fanfiction, 90% of the fanfics I start reading have at least 10k words, and 50% have at least 100k. In short, I'm a dedicated binge reader.

I ended up writing way more than I needed to...

 

fantasy to....... fantasy with harem

 

I went from Transmigration with OP FL /revenge/ business woman at the top of the industry transmigrated to ancient china and starts making money. - To transmigrated with Normal thought process and is not ' as long as you dont make me angry then i wont do anything towards you'
The business woman at the the top of the industry should be around 40 years old to make it there because its really not possible when you're so young. and when transmigrated FL acts childish and is not mature and theres no wisdom that she should've gained as a person who is successful and has been through wind and rain to become the TOP businesswoman. Same goes to Doctor transmigration. To be a famous surgeon and doctor you gotta be very smart but also old cause no matter how smart you are its still impossible to be a genius doctor when you are so young cause you need experience and study stuff like that. and to earn a Rep it takes years so....you'll be in you're 30's and you should have a mature mindset but usually they dont. The FL mindset are "dont touch me or I'll make you regret it".

 

I feel I'm goind down: I began reading quality literature/classics and now I'm reading webnovels xDDDDDDD