I have an odd situationship when it comes to audiobooks. I used to swear by them. I still enjoyed actually reading the words, but when I worked out in the public, I would almost always have an audiobook playing in the background.
But now I work from home, and I don’t use my audiobooks as much as I used to. (On a side note, I also don’t listen to podcasts as often as I used to either).
I have a long history of adoring long books. When I first started reading, I quickly moved away from kids books to what I charmingly called “chapter books, mama”. I read my first Tom Clancy book in fourth grade. Why did I choose it? Because it was big.
There was something in my brain that was quite impressed with myself for reading a book that was almost too heavy for me to carry.
After my lukewarm experience with Mistborn I didn’t really think I’d ever go back to Brandon Sanderson. But Tress of the Emerald Sea was really good, so I decided to get back out of The Cosmere, and go back to Sanderson’s Special Projects, this time with The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England.
This book is much more science fiction than fantasy, which is a good thing, I think. It is so different from Mistborn, that I didn’t feel any lingering bad thoughts about the author that I might have if it had more similarities. Overall, I really liked this book. It is unlike any other book I’ve ever read, and it is phenomenally easy to read. It does what Tress did: it makes the entire book digestable and enjoyable without having to read a 1,000 page monster book.
So, I used to read a lot more. The last two years I’ve slowed down some, mostly because of some truly epic reading slumps. I’m kind of back on track right now, but I still have days where I just don’t want to read a book. Sometimes I want to read some fanfiction or just watch a movie.
This got me thinking about the pressure I feel to read every day and to read a lot every year. I wondered where that feeling comes from. And the answer is social media. I like to follow book YouTubers and Instagramers, because they give me ideas and it’s entertaining to watch other people’s reading journey. But they all read a hundred books a year or more, and often read 7 books a week if they push themselves. It’s not all of them, but if you get into BookTube, you’ll see the number of super readers on there far outpaces the normal paced readers.
I’ve been trying to read the Dresden Files for over a year now. I love wizards. Harry Potter is one of my favorite series of all time, despite the many qualms I have with it. I’ve read many other books with wizards. Why? Because magic is effin’ cool.
So, I thought I’d be able to pick up the Dresden Files and have a good time. But I didn’t. I really, really, did not. Let me explain.
I’ve finished my reread of Ready Player One, which was this month’s book of the month for The Bookies, so I’ve moved onto another book on my list. I’m still very much starting The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon, and I’m actually kind of getting into it. I’ve blatantly ignored all the reviews that are trying to stir this book up as “too woke”, and just trying to enjoy it as a fantasy book about dragons. I can always get behind a book about dragons.
Stephen King has never written an ending I’ve really enjoyed. I’ve read many of his books, most of them from his younger days, and I’ve never really left any of his books satisfied. There is a fundamental disagreement Mr. King and I have. I truly believe that the ending of the book should never make the journey feel worthless. What I mean, is that you should never write an ending that makes the reader feel like they’ve wasted their time, and with almost every King book I’ve read, I’ve felt that the ending just didn’t quite make the story worth my while. The juice wasn’t worth the squeeze, as they say.
So, September has been a total bust when it comes to reading. I just have not been able to settle my attention enough to actually get any reading done. I wrote back at the half way mark, that I was hoping to catch up. That did not happen. Not at all. I’ve opened a couple books, but I don’t think I’ve read a single page.
I’ve read some fanfiction, but I can’t seem to settle on a book and actually read it. So, I’m challenging myself. From October 1st (tomorrow) to October 31st, I’m going to strive to finish every book on my currently being read list. Right now that consists of:
Honestly, this title is a lie. This has been a horrible reading year. I’ve read 15 books, reread 3 books, and that’s it. That’s about half of what I usually do. I’m a little ahead of last year, which was also a down year. So, I guess that’s good?
It’s not as if I have to meet my goals of reading so many books, but it feels like I’ve been going for a long period of time between books. I finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King back in the end days of August, read a smutty harem book, and then nothing since then. Oh, I got about 90 pages read of the next Dresden Files book, but nothing significant. I just can’t seem to keep my interest on anything lately.
I just finished 11/22/63 by Stephen King. I’ve written my review for it, and it will likely go somewhere on the net eventually. One spoiler for the review is that I really hated the end of the book. Like, with a passion.
I’ve talked before about how I tend to get into a reading funk after reading a really good book. But now that I think about it, I also have the same problem when I’ve finished a book that I didn’t like.