No suelo leer ese género, pero la trama me gustó desde el principio.

Suelo is the 1st person singular form of soler, a verb that means to usually do something or to tend to do something.

So:

• suelo leer = I usually read / I tend to read
• No suelo leer = I don’t usually read

This is a very common structure in Spanish:

• suelo + infinitive
• sueles + infinitive
• suele + infinitive, etc.

For example:

• Suelo madrugar. = I usually get up early.
• No solemos salir los lunes. = We don’t usually go out on Mondays.

Because soler is followed by an infinitive, not by another conjugated verb.

So the pattern is:

• soler + infinitive

Correct:

• Suelo leer
• Suele comer
• Solemos viajar

Incorrect:

• Suelo leo
• Suele come

This works a bit like English I usually read, but in Spanish the idea of usually is built into the verb soler.

Yes, the meaning is very similar: both mean I don’t usually read that genre.

But there is a slight nuance:

• No suelo leer ese género sounds very natural and idiomatic, and it expresses a habit or usual tendency.
• Normalmente no leo ese género is also correct, but it sounds a little more direct or explicit because it uses the adverb normalmente.

In everyday Spanish, soler is very common for talking about habits.

Ese means that.

Spanish has three common demonstratives:

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

So:

• este género = this genre
• ese género = that genre
• aquel género = that genre over there / that more distant one

In this sentence, ese género refers to a genre already known from context, so that genre is the natural translation.

No. Género can mean different things depending on context.

Common meanings include:

• genre (in books, films, music, etc.)
• gender
• type/kind in some contexts

Here, because the sentence talks about reading and plot, género clearly means genre.

For example:

• Me gusta ese género de novelas. = I like that genre of novels.
• El género gramatical = grammatical gender

Because gustar works differently from English to like.

In Spanish, gustar literally works more like:

• the plot pleased me

So:

• la trama = the thing doing the pleasing
• me = to me
• gustó = pleased

That is why:

• La trama me gustó = I liked the plot

Not:

• Yo gusté la trama

With gustar, the person who likes something is usually expressed with an indirect object pronoun:

• me = to me
• te = to you
• le = to him/her/you
• nos = to us
• os = to you all
• les = to them/you all

Examples:

• Me gusta el libro. = I like the book.
• Me gustaron los personajes. = I liked the characters.

Me gustó uses the preterite, which presents the liking as a completed reaction or overall impression.

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about their response to the plot as a whole:

• la trama me gustó = I liked the plot

If you said me gustaba, it would usually suggest an ongoing, repeated, or background feeling:

• La trama me gustaba, pero el final no. = I liked the plot, but not the ending.
• Mientras leía, la trama me gustaba cada vez más. = While I was reading, I liked the plot more and more.

So gustó fits well when summarising a finished opinion about the story.

Because the subject is la trama, which is singular.

With gustar, the verb agrees with the thing liked, not with the person who likes it.

Compare:

• Me gustó la trama. = I liked the plot.
  
  • subject: la trama → singular → gustó
• Me gustaron los personajes. = I liked the characters.
  
  • subject: los personajes → plural → gustaron

This is one of the most important things to remember with gustar.

Desde el principio means from the beginning.

It suggests that the speaker liked the plot starting right at the beginning of the book, film, or story.

Breakdown:

• desde = from / since
• el principio = the beginning

So:

• Me gustó desde el principio = I liked it from the beginning

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.

• desde el principio = from the beginning
  This emphasises that the positive reaction started at the beginning and continued.
• al principio = at the beginning / at first
  This just locates something in the initial stage and may imply a contrast later.

Compare:

• La trama me gustó desde el principio. = I liked the plot from the beginning.
• Al principio, la trama me gustó, pero luego se hizo lenta. = At first, I liked the plot, but then it became slow.

So in your sentence, desde el principio is the better choice if the speaker means they were engaged right away.

Because me shows who liked it.

In La trama me gustó:

• la trama = what was liked
• me = to me

Without me, the sentence would be incomplete or would mean something else. The pronoun is essential with gustar-type verbs.

You can think of it like this:

• La trama me gustó = The plot pleased me
• La trama le gustó = The plot pleased him/her
• La trama nos gustó = The plot pleased us

Yes. Spanish word order is flexible, although some orders are more natural than others.

These are all possible:

• No suelo leer ese género, pero la trama me gustó desde el principio.
• No suelo leer ese género, pero me gustó la trama desde el principio.
• La trama me gustó desde el principio, pero no suelo leer ese género.

The original sentence sounds very natural. Putting la trama before me gustó gives a nice emphasis to the plot as the thing that was surprisingly enjoyable.

Yes, it sounds completely natural in Spain.

Everything in the sentence is standard and widely used:

• No suelo leer... is a very natural way to talk about habits.
• ese género is standard.
• la trama is a common word for plot.
• me gustó desde el principio is also very idiomatic.

A speaker in Spain might also say similar things like:

• No es el tipo de libro que suelo leer, pero me enganchó desde el principio.
• No suelo leer novelas de ese género, pero la historia me gustó mucho.

But your original sentence is already perfectly natural.