Reading Through The Year

  I was never really a "book worm" growing up. I did the minimum daily home reading for school and always fudged my numbers on my local library's summer reading challenge so that I'd win the prize. On the rare occasion I did read for pleasure, it was always some girly graphic novel such as Raina Telgemier's Smile or Drama.

At least that was the case until quite recently. Last year in 2023 I had a goal to read more. I never made my goals very specific though (we've fixed that though, see my recent podcast episode!). I mainly did it so that I'd have something to do on my transit ride to and from school other than stare at my phone. My classmates would always comment on how I was always the girl with the book while waiting for class to start. Outside of school however, I rarely read. That's part of the reason why it always took me forever to finish even a short book. On average I would take a month and a half to two months to finish one ~350 page novel. I definitely was not the library's favourite customer... 

On my most recent trip, all of that changed! I took a book with me on my week long holiday, a 400 page book. We had a lot of travel time, two planes, a train, and of course some downtime at our apartment. I ended up reading constantly. I'd read before bed, in the morning, basically whenever we weren't out and about I was reading. I ended up finishing that book on the plane ride home, 6 days after starting it. Needless to say, I was beyond proud of myself. I think that might have been the quickest I've read a book of that length ever. 

That made me realize that I am completely capable of finishing books quickly, all while actually enjoying them. 

I used to read a lot of books which already had film or tv adaptations; stories I knew I already liked. But because I already knew the stories, I wasn't very excited about them. I was more so just seeing how the book differed (it's almost always better). After running out of those I began to try new authors with new stories. I discovered that reading a brand new story is far more captivating and exciting than one I already know. This change helped make reading for more fun. A lot of the books I began to read turned out to be such page-turners. I would be sad when I had to put my book down. I'd stay up late in bed to read "just one more chapter" (often 2 or 3 more...). 

And that's what led my to creating my new goal for 2024; to read 12 books this year, one a month. So far, as of February 23rd I'm already at 3 books! Way ahead of schedule. And this semester I don't even have in-person classes so I'm not taking my usual hour transit ride every day. I'm mainly just reading at home, in the morning and before bed. It's been lovely.

Reading is a new-found hobby of mine. I've been striving to find new ways to spend my free-time, away from my phone. Books have filled a large part of that for me. I enjoy walking to the library to drop off finished books and pick out new ones. I enjoy ready by candlelight, or in a café. I love being able to talk about books with friends. I love the feeling of accomplishment after I finish the final chapter.

Here's the books I've read so far this year:

Starry-Eyed Love - Helena Hunting

The Brightest Star in Paris - Diana Biller

Love on the Brain - Ali Hazelwood

I have a GoodReads too if you want to add me! Then you can stalk all my current reads.

https://www.goodreads.com/mckennacristine

Here's to more reading of books rather than screens this year,

Mckenna <3

P.S. I want to put out there that I really do judge books by their cover. That's actually how I've been choosing my new reads at the library. I just browse until I find a cover I like, and then that's my next read. Usually it turns out well!