No suelo leer ese género, pero últimamente me apetece probar algo diferente.

Here, suelo is the first-person singular present of the verb soler.

• soler + infinitive = to usually / to tend to do something
• No suelo leer = I don’t usually read

Yes, there is also a noun suelo meaning floor or ground, but that is a different word with a different function.

Because soler makes the idea of habit much clearer.

• No leo ese género can mean I don’t read that genre, but depending on context, the simple present can sometimes be less explicitly habitual.
• No suelo leer ese género clearly means I don’t usually read that genre.

So soler is a very common way to talk about what someone generally does or doesn’t do.

Because soler is normally used with an infinitive.

The pattern is:

• soler + infinitive

Examples:

• Suelo estudiar por la noche.
• Solemos ir en tren.
• No suelen comer mucho.

So in your sentence, leer stays in the infinitive because it is the action that is usually done.

Not really. Soler is most commonly used in:

• the present: suelo, sueles, suele...
• the imperfect: solía, solías, solía...

These are the tenses that naturally fit habitual actions.

For example:

• Suelo leer antes de dormir.
• Cuando era niño, solía leer mucho.

It is much less common in some other tenses, so learners usually meet it mainly in the present and imperfect.

Here, género means genre, not gender.

Because the sentence is about reading, ese género means that genre or that type of book/literature.

Género can mean different things depending on context:

• gender
• genre
• type/category

In this sentence, the reading context makes genre the natural meaning.

These are Spanish demonstratives:

• este = this
• ese = that
• aquel = that over there / that one further away

So ese género means that genre. It usually refers to something already mentioned, known in the conversation, or conceptually a bit removed from the speaker.

Also, ese agrees with género, which is masculine singular.

Últimamente means lately or recently.

It is not the same as English ultimately, so this is a useful false-friend warning.

Examples:

• Últimamente estoy muy cansado. = Lately I’ve been very tired.
• Últimamente me apetece salir más. = Lately I feel like going out more.

In your sentence, it shows a recent change in tendency or mood.

Apetecer works a lot like gustar.

The structure is basically:

• me apetece X = X appeals to me / I feel like X

So:

• me = to me
• apetece = is appealing / sounds good / I feel like

In other words, Spanish expresses this idea from the point of view of what appeals to you, not with I want as the grammatical structure.

That is why me appears even though the English translation often starts with I.

Because the grammatical subject is the whole action:

• probar algo diferente

An infinitive phrase like that is treated as singular, so the verb is singular too:

• Me apetece probar algo diferente.

Compare:

• Me apetece leer.
• Me apetecen esos libros.

In the second example, the subject is esos libros (plural), so the verb becomes apetecen.

Not exactly.

• quiero = I want
• me apetece = I feel like / it sounds good to me / I’m in the mood for

So me apetece often sounds:

• more spontaneous
• more emotional
• less forceful than quiero

Compare:

• Quiero probar algo diferente. = stronger, more direct
• Me apetece probar algo diferente. = more like I’m in the mood to try something different

In Spain, apetecer is especially common in everyday speech.

Probar can mean several related things:

• to try
• to test
• to taste
• to try on (depending on context)

Here, it means to try in the sense of to give something a go.

Since the sentence is about reading, probar algo diferente means something like:

• to try something different
• to give a different kind of book a chance

So it does not mean to taste in this context.

Because in Spanish, after algo, the adjective normally comes after it:

• algo diferente
• algo interesante
• algo raro

That word order is the natural one.

Also, algo means something, so algo diferente is a very common way to say something different. It sounds much more natural than using something like una cosa diferente in most contexts.

Because it describes algo, which is treated as singular.

So:

• algo diferente
• algo nuevo
• algo bueno

Even though algo is a bit vague in meaning, grammatically it behaves like a singular idea here, so the adjective stays singular too.

Because Spanish often leaves out subject pronouns when the verb already makes the subject clear.

• suelo already tells you the subject is I
• me apetece also clearly fits the context

So yo is unnecessary unless you want extra emphasis or contrast.

For example:

• Yo no suelo leer ese género, pero mi hermana sí.

There, yo is used for contrast.

A few useful pronunciation points:

• género: the g before e sounds like the strong Spanish j sound
• últimamente: the stress falls where the accent mark shows it
• apetece: in most of Spain, c before e is pronounced like th in thin

So in Spain:

• género sounds roughly like JÉ-ne-ro
• últimamente like ÚL-ti-ma-men-te
• apetece like a-pe-TE-the

The written accents in género and últimamente are there to show the correct stress.