In On Connection, which I read a few years ago, Kae Tempest says:

If you are moved by a rapper that you listen to on YouTube, it’s really not a big deal. You shouldn’t have to apologise for it in literary environments. The same is true if you love a classical poet. It isn’t the case that you need to approach lauded works on bended knee. The pool of influence you draw from does not have to meet the approval of an academy or an institution, or be bound by the parameters of a genre, sub-genre or ‘movement’. Listen to everything. Read as much as you can. Try to stay present and connected with whatever you’re engaging with when you’re engaging with it.

I have a letterpress Faber print from On Connection above my desk, but it isn’t this quotation. Readwise reminded me of this one this morning.

It made me feel briefly guilty about admitting yesterday to abandoning a book. I’m pretty certain that’s the opposite of Tempest’s intention: I think the piece is intended to encourage us to unashamedly lean into the things we enjoy… but I am narrowing my gaze by abandoning a book from a genre I didn’t really enjoy?

I do try to challenge myself—I’ve even tried a bit of science fiction recently, despite it being a genre that I don’t usually enjoy. Indeed, Tempest’s book itself was an example of that, as poetry isn’t normally my thing.

Where’s the balance between leaning into things that we enjoy and continually challenging ourselves to expand our palate and mind?