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It’s not a part of my goals this year, I think, but I got back into reading books.

When I was younger, I loved reading but I couldn’t sit long enough without feeling drowsy. It’s the nature of kids and the comfort of a couch. I feel that I should defend that part of my history. Anyway, I enjoyed escaping to other worlds and being engrossed in something entirely unrelated to myself (until I start imagining becoming a part of that book-verse).

It was a fun pastime. I remember in grade school and middle school that I would even order from ‘Scholastic’. It was one of the things that my parents, a bit begrudgingly, indulged my brother and I in. The subscription wasn’t too bad if I think about it now but it was pricey at the time. Plus, more often than not we got books we didn’t read. At least, on the off chance that we did get books we liked, we liked them a lot.

It’s a very yes or no type of thing.

But I remember enjoying the choices.

In middle school, I enjoyed the library. There was something about borrowing books or trading books or purchasing my own (my choice). One of the books I really loved at the time was the Among Hidden series by Margaret Patterson Haddix. I love me some Dystopian stories which is why to this day I still love this series (despite never having finished it) and why I loved The Giver by Lois Lowry and 1984 by George Orwell when I read them in high school. Maybe I was prepped to love it.

I also love Historical Fiction thanks to Anna of Byzantium by Tracy Barrett and it is mostly why I even took Creative Fiction in art school and where I began to truly develop my voice as a writer.

It’s amazing how I can trace my beginnings as a writer by recalling my love for reading.

Images below are links to the books if you’re interested in reading them. They are affiliate links to an Amazon listing. I highly recommend reading them. ^^

If there’s a book that changed my entire life it would be Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I struggled through the first twenty pages of Philosopher’s Stone and stumbled through Chambers of Secret but I connected with PoA. At the time, I was 18 and I was lonely as hell, dreading going to college with this nagging feeling of denied depression. I was broken and the series helped me with my issues even if it only kept them at bay.

And if there’s a book that made me want to fall in love, I would give credit to at least two books: Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen both of which I had read in high school when the local library became my very best friend which I visited as often as I could.

So, I guess it’s not that strange that my return to books starts with the library.

I’m busy a lot of the days though. It’s hard to sit back on a couch and read. Therefore, I tried that thing that people use- audiobooks.

I started with Emma by Jane Austen because I had started it 3 years ago and kept on hiatus around Part 2 Chapter 11. I was around half way. And I still have this goal of finishing all of her novels. I’m not attached to Emma as I am with Persuasion because Anne is me in a different universe but I enjoyed the depth of the characters.

Then I moved on to A Man Named Ove by Fredrik Backman because I recall the book that I physically borrowed from a friend but haven’t returned since 3 years ago when I thought I would pick reading back up. (Spoiler, I clearly didn’t go through with it.)

Images below are links to the books if you’re interested in reading them. They are affiliate links to an Amazon listing. I highly recommend reading them. ^^

Least to say, I laughed, I grumbled, and I balled when I read this book or when it was read to me. I can’t say it’s world changing but I was moved and I wasn’t sure if anything could be read after this. At least not until I was over it.

I get like that, attached.

I powered through because now I wanted to read more. More! I want to read at least 10 this year.

So, I moved on… to like five other books or six, one of which I dropped because the writing was bad and that I couldn’t power through. Sorry Fallen Series by Lauren Kate, I can’t pretend that the romance is even there because it just sounds like a hollow imitation of love. Plus the poor writing of what is supposed to be suspense was just not doing it for me. Love is Ove and Sonja or ever so understanding Knightly to Emma not that Mary-Jane-protagonist that only has boys on her mind. Okay, okay, granted that Luce is a teenager and that Emma was kind of like that (but for other people).

But can we just compare the setting to further justify Emma? Luce lives in the 21st century and Emma in the 19th. Also the self-proclamation of being independent yet soooo very dependent on said boys was just soooo icky to me. Whereas Emma was very clearly self-sufficient and self-assured (to a fault). Coming from the strong heroines of Jane Austen and being spoiled by that, there was no way of loving Luce. Just no way.

All talk but no action, you know.

Anyway, I digress.

With that faulty book, I decided to go for some literary works. I added Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman to my list because I loved To Kill a Mockingbird. I explored a more mature genre because I should accept that I am 28 and that sexual innuendo shouldn’t bother me but also the library recommended The Kiss Quotient by Hoang Helen to celebrate Chinese Heritage or Asian Heritage. It’s a struggle, to be honest, because I’m not used to it but the characters are interesting. A notable pro-factor of this story is the heroine falls in the autism spectrum (did I say that right); she has Aspergers which the author too, has.

I also added a familiar genre of YA- The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon because I was excited to watch the film. Pretty much 77% done with that book and… I gotta say, I don’t think I’ll be watching the film. I’m much too attached to how the characters are in the book to open my heart out to the film. Lol, That and also because I saw some really bad reviews and reviews about how some details, important details had been written out which I don’t approve of.

To round it all out, I also added a fun book by Anna Kendrick, Scrappy Little Nobody which currently is proving to be very relatable and funny and I’m only 5% into it.

So, expect some ‘Novel Thought’ posts about the books I’m reading. First one will probably be about A Man Named Ove because I want to write about it.

Also I recently, like this week, finished The Sun is Also a Star and I thought I would write about that too!