Reasons to Read: Historical Fiction

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You know when you start compiling lists of things you love about your favourite book genres you're an out and out book nerd. But, hey we can't all be cool all of the time. Today's post is an ode to one of my favourite genres and the authors who recreate history for us. Here are my favourite things about this genre.

Reliving History. I was always a bit of a history buff at school taking both history and classics (although I failed classics miserably in my final year of high school, lets just say my passion for it didn't lie in the academic side.) I love that historical fiction allows us to time-travel, if only in our heads and experience other worlds, times and cultures.

Being Fascinated By The Ordinary. The daily lives of people hundreds of years ago is truly fascinating to me. Although I can barely remember how we survived without Google and mobile phones merely years ago, it's amazing to learn how people went about their daily tasks, washing, cooking and dressing pre all of our modern day technology.

A Rose-Tinted Outlook. Hey I'll be the first to admit that when I read historical fiction it's a usually a pretty rosy outlook on life back in the day. In reality I'd never want to live in a time gone by (too many lady rights to give up!) but it's also nice to wear rose-tinted glasses every once in a while too.

Meeting Famous Historical Figures. I love when historical fiction brings alive a really well known person from history. It's fascinating to get a glimpse of historical figures and not from a biographical point of view either. My most recent favourite example of this has to be William Shakespeare in Dark Aemelia: A Tale of Shakespeare's Dark Lady. Old Will is painted as quite the lad!