I don’t think I would have considered myself a big reader when I was younger. The Babysitters Club series sticks out the most in my mind from my pre-teen/early teen years. But once I grew out of them, I don’t remember reading much after that.
When I was 15, I went to visit my sister and her husband in New Jersey, and it was there that I began to get the itch to start reading more. Since they’re both big readers, there were a ton of books around the house, so one day while they were at work, I browsed the bookshelves and picked up Dragon Tears by Dean Koontz. I started reading and could not put it down!
It wasn’t until I married my husband that I started exploring my love of reading more. It was difficult at first to find books that I liked (there’s only so many Dean Koontz novels! ;)). Sometimes when I would try to read a book, it would take me forever and I wasn’t comprehending what I was reading so then I would get bored and not finish it. If it doesn’t grab my attention pretty quickly, I can read until I’m blue in the face, but I won’t retain any of the information. In the beginning I mostly stuck with authors I knew I liked.
I’ve branched out some since then. I’ve learned what to look for in a book to see if it’s a good fit for me and for awhile I thought I only liked murder/sci-fi/mystery books, but as it turns out I like romance, drama and memoirs too. Thanks to the internet (where I can read reviews) and the Kindle (where I can try before I buy), I’ve been enjoying reading a lot more lately. I still have my lulls where I won’t read for months at a time though, so one of my 2014 goals is to read more…14 books to be exact. 14 in 2014…ha! I’m so clever, eh? I know, it doesn’t seem like a lot, but I’ve probably averaged 10 (or less) over the last two years so I think 14 is a pretty good start.
We’re only a quarter into the new year and I’m happy to report that I’m almost halfway to my goall! Woohoo!!
Now that I’m reading on the Kindle most of the time, I found out that there’s a downside to digital reading. A screenshot of books doesn’t give me near as much satisfaction as a stack of real books.
To remedy this, I took a little trip to the bookstore…roamed around, gathering up as many books as I could find and snapped a pic! I could only find four of the ones I read, but I was happy seeing them all together. 🙂
My favorite of the ones I’ve read lately is probably Glitter and Glue. It’s a memoir about the relationship between mothers and daughters. There were so many parts that resonated with me as both a daughter and a mother of a daughter. I really enjoyed this book. Almost enough to buy a hard copy of it!
While I liked all of the books and don’t regret reading any of them, my least favorite is probably The Story of Beautiful Girl. It was a nice story, but I didn’t like how they dealt with certain characters and it had it’s slow moments.
Brain on Fire, The Fault in Our Stars and the Husband’s Secret were all great reads! One for the Money was a fun easy read and I’ll likely read more in the series, but some of the 80’s references I just couldn’t relate to. For example, when she got dressed for the day she wore bike shorts with a big t-shirt, big slouchy socks, sneakers, big hair and a headband and that was an awesome outfit to her. I know it’s typical 80’s, but I just couldn’t take her seriously!
I’m currently on my 7th book, Eleanor and Park. An easy read about the romance between two teen outcasts. I’m liking it a lot so far!
I’m always looking for books to add to my want-to-read list so tell me, what good books have you read lately? Anything on your to-read list that you can’t wait to start reading?
