Je veux lire plus souvent [I want to read more often]

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Reading slump (from what I can gather): Not reading as many books as often to not reading any books at all.

Reasons: It varies from person to person.

For me, it was simply because I keep on getting distracted from my personal life and school. Plus, there is the fact that the library isn’t that close (and the one that I’m forced to go to is all the way downtown). And I don’t want to make my older sister waste a ton of gas money, driving up and down a long canyon road every few weeks. And for some odd reason, I just cannot make myself check out another fictional book from the school library (mainly because it seems so small in my opinion). So, whenever I can (and if I’m in the mood for it), I try to buy my own books. Whether it be from WalMart to a used bookstore. So I don’t have to worry about having a limited amount of time to read them because then they’ll be right there on my desk just waiting to be read.

Another reason is that I’m starting to stray a bit from YA books (which is everywhere). They’re still pretty awesome, but something about them is just starting to make me go meh. It’s probably because I’ve read so many, and they helped me in some ways. But, after a while, it starts to get annoying reading about characters your own age doing awesome stuff, while you’re just there sighing because you wish that it was happening to you right now.

Plus, as I continually go through English class, I’m starting to wonder if many of these YA books actually have something profound to say. And some of them do, and I love them for that, but others just seem to be there just because it’s the newest trend. Also, it’s getting harder to read YA books when many of them just have to have some kind of romance involved. It doesn’t matter if it’s important to the main plotline at all; it just has to be there. And while that’s nice and all, but sometimes it’s nice to read something with no romance and just more friendship. Or enemies, or messing up and trying to learn from your mistakes, etc.

So, I started to read a teensy bit more classics, that is mainly for school. But there are others that I’m attempting to read for fun, like Emma by Jane Austen, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Lord of the Flies by William Golding, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd. And I actually want to try to understand them. Try to get the basic meaning of it all. And no, I’m not just doing this so I can get good scores on the AP English tests next year (however, I might not take them).

I want to expand my mind. Get into the viewpoint of someone who isn’t always a teenager. Read books that are banned. All the while, trying to catch up on a few book series that I honestly enjoy, like the rest of the books of the Harry Potter series (so far I’ve read the first book, and I really liked that one, even though it bored little nine/ten/grade school me, causing me to stop reading after a few pages). As well as books 4-8 in the Artemis Fowl series. And the last book of the Divergent series, Allegiant, and the third book from the Shadow and Bone series, as well as the third book in the Raven Boys series, and the third book in The Daughter of Smoke and Bone series. But the problem is the third books for the Shadow and Bone series, the Raven Boys series, and The Daughter of Smoke and Bone series doesn’t come out until later this year. There are still some books that I want to read, like Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell and [insert more books here]. Yet, I cannot find myself reading them all, simply because my passion for reading seems to have gone down. Just waiting for that one book to ignite it all again.

As well as the time (which I can easily manage). And, as I look through the list on how to get out of a reading slump, thankfully provided by Lauren, I can’t much relax about the fact that I’m not as actively reading this year than any of the other years. And, I’m procrastinating on reading popular books for some weird reason. For some reason, I don’t really like reading fan-fiction or at least long works of fanfiction. It’s not that they’re bad, they’re not really my cup of tea. Though the only exception to that seems to be some Cookies and Crime fanfiction written by cookiekhaleesi, and it’s because it has cookies, the twenties, and a storyline that I can indulge in as I patiently wait for the webcomic to come out. I cannot find myself reading my favorite works, mainly because I don’t own them or at least the ones that I want to reread again. Though there is one exception… (The Night Circus anyone?) I’ve actually been reading You Can’t Keep a Good Woman Down by Alice Walker, something that I wouldn’t normally find myself reading. And I cannot seem to just listen to audiobooks without actually have the actual book in front of me. For some reason, I just have to read the book at the same time, if I’m listening to audiobooks. And I’m not really sure why, it probably came from my elementary school days. I’ve actually been reading shorter books, but they still take me a long while to get through (mainly because I read them at school). A reading buddy, hmm…. I keep on trying to set goals but I cannot seem to keep them, for some reason. For example, if I just barely started reading a book, I always try to get to page fifty (if it’s a non-school book), but lately I can’t seem to make myself go to even that. I’ve kind of took a break for the last half year, and that is truly saddening to me because I actually like reading.

Reading is enjoyable. And it’s helped me avoid the boredom more than once. It helped expand my mind. It definitely helped me improve my writing skills. I like reading about worlds that aren’t like our own. Or looking into the facets of our world that I normally wouldn’t look at. I don’t really waste electricity when reading a book, like when I do when watching television (though TV shows are pretty nice as well). It’s interesting to connect with characters and actually feel for them in some ways, whether it was some kind of annoyance or sadness or even happiness. Plus, I like supporting an art form that authors have created, and worked so hard on.

But, I don’t know. As you can tell, I’ve been in a reading slump. And as you can already tell, I’ve been distracted because of school, home life, a certain guy, the internet, my thoughts, and various other things. But, I still do want to read. Because, I still like it. However, it seems like I have broken my motivation to read on my own that isn’t for school or at school. And I’m trying to piece it back together. Only it’s going at a slow pace for me, which is actually quite annoying. But, I’ll try anyway. It’s not a guarantee that I will get back to regularly reading. But at least it means that I’m not going to quit reading forever.

And that, my dear readers, is a good thing.

And now the weather:

Lost Boy by Ruth B.

- Stacy N.