Reader Confessions Pt 2

One of my most popular posts is my Confessions of a Reader, where I delved into what issues I needed to get off my chest about how I read. But I have a few more I suppose I should talk about today because the truth is…I haven’t been much of a reader in the last few months. And so I shall regale you with my woeful tale of how I have strayed from the goodness of literature in a tale of my seven recent deadly sins of reading.

Sin #1: I started off the year great! With tons of free time before I left to study abroad I had a ridiculous goal to read a book every day! I read nine…and slowly started drifting further and further away from my goal. Soon it was a book every three days. Then one a week. And by the time I was off on study abroad I’d almost completely forgotten what I’d set out to accomplish. Summary: I set too lofty of goals, as I often do, and quickly fell short only to give up rather than choosing to revise my previous goal.

Sin #2: Studying abroad was fun of course, but it gave me a good excuse not to read. Because reading in English would completely distract me from learning French, right? And reading French is much too hard! I brought a total of one book with me. Figured I could read some ebooks on my iphone if I got truly bored. I read the one book, picked one lame free ebook and started trying to read Sherlock Holmes. And yet, without classes to get me reading literature, or a goal of some kind, I slowly slipped away from the world of reading and wasted my life on the internet instead. Summary: I allowed slothful behavior to dictate my life in the name of becoming better at French (and yet spent plenty of time on English using internet pages) and was too lazy to try reading more French books in the name of frugality and avoiding feeling overwhelmed.

Sin #3: I read one French book for my class as part of a project. I showed my professor my choice (recommended by my host mom) and she told me it was too hard. Stubbornness kicked in and I read it anyways…or rather did my best struggling all the while before reading summaries to improve my meager understanding. Summary:  Rather than taking the advice of my professor, I chose to pursue the book and in doing so over-challenged myself to an extent where I had to rely on Sparknotes rather than truly delving into the literature.

Sin #4: I picked up a few paperback books for my trip home, figured I should try to get back into reading. Should be easy right? Wrong! I had to force myself to finish most every book I had other than The Marriage Plot (a fantastic read if anyone wants a recommendation). And I did so in the name of reading. Summary: Should reading be forced? Maybe after a study abroad where I’d done none. But this will follow into sin 5.

Sin #5: I came home and read one book this summer. ONE! It was a good book, but I look over my reading list and am shocked to see the horrible results of where my sloth led. The main reason I failed is because, like with my trip home, I was trying to force myself to read what I really didn’t want to. Classics. I love good classic literature, but the problem is when it comes between playing games on the internet, or reading a book that takes time and concentration- internet wins out every time. Summary: I failed to choose books I actually really wanted to read after several months of reading nothing. This was an utter misunderstanding of how hard it would be to get back into the habit of picking up books. And thereby I did next to no reading this summer.

Sin #6: I assumed I could just jump back into school. Funny after spending months not doing any practice. But somehow I just assumed I could do it. If any professors are reading this, my apologies, but I definitely didn’t do a thorough reading of the first few weeks material. Even now it’s still a struggle sometimes. Even making myself read Jane Eyre again, my all time favorite book was hard! Summary: I may or may not have made good use of Sparknotes (after having read of course!) and definitely felt no joy reading any material for my classes the first weeks. Also, reading 150 Shakespearean sonnets after a semester of almost no reading is the worst punishment imaginable and I like Shakespeare.

Sin #7: I have begun reading Divergent series in an attempt to get back on track. Nothing wrong with reading some poorly written teen fiction of course, but the only reason I have started is because my computer is broken, and I’m left to using the school ones during the day. Hence, my start of these is simply for the fact that I am bored without internet and again not out of true love of what I have to read. Summary: If you take my computer, I’ll begin reading. Sad fact of life I suppose. I’m an internet addict who loses her reading skills due to the copious amounts of time she spends on it.

So those are my reading confessions to get off my chest and tell the world. Hoping to get back in and start working on improving my skills again, letting go of my laziness and embracing the joy of reading once more.

Anyone else want to get any confessions out there? I promise I won’t judge. Can’t really be cruel after displaying my own literary faults to the world.

Confessions of a Reader

So, reading is one of my greatest passions but within the world of reading I’ve discovered several problems, or perhaps bad habits. So I’d like to highlight some of my problems as a reader and relieve my burdened soul. I hope you feel free to put your own confessions in the comments below!

I am a bookaholic- So I’ll confess that this is the biggest problem. I am addicted to books. Obviously there are worse things to be addicted to but this comes with a few problems of its own.

1. No shelf space- I currently have two shelves that are double stacked with books. I’m horrible at finding more space and yet for some reason every time I see a book at a yard sale or discounted at a bookstore I seem to forget all about what my room looks like.

2. Skimming- I’m a skimmer. It makes things difficult when I’m reading for class and the professor quizzes on minute details, but otherwise it does have its handy uses. I’m just so eager to get onto the next book I can’t seem to make myself read every word. This bad habit is something I am working on. I don’t believe every book should be skimmed.

3. Multiple books- I rarely finish a book before I pick another up. As you can see from my goodreads shelf on the side I have a problem with reading multiple books at once. I just read such a variety it makes it hard to pick just one thing to read.

4. Skipping ahead- As a kid I was especially bad about this. I used to just skip to the end and read it. If the end was worth it I’d finish the book but otherwise I wouldn’t.

5. Kidding myself- Sometimes I pick up books to read that I honestly know I’m not going to read but somehow try to convince myself I will. I can’t think of a specific example right now but far too many books I’ve gotten from the library have gone back untouched because I checked out the book for the wrong reasons.

6. Bad quality literature- as an English major there is a certain standard you feel you have to live up to in your reading. It’s always a bit embarrassing when people ask you what you’re reading and instead of replying Walden, or Great Expectations you have to admit it’s some teen romance novel. To be honest I know it’s good to read a variety and to know what’s out there besides classics, but this is still something I struggle with. Those guilty pleasure books are just too easy to pick up sometimes after struggling through a “classic”. As I am now 20 I still do feel a bit embarrassed going to the teens section and picking out a book, but I’ll admit I still do it anyways.

7. Books are my friends- now a days it’s usually my computer that consumes my time, but in the past I’ve had problems with picking up books instead of socializing. As a teenager my friends used to hide my books from me at lunch time so I would interact with people instead of pages.

8. Books before movies- I have always had a rule about books and movies. Always read the book first. Of course, while I state that rule I often lie about how well I follow it. Here is a list of movies I’ve watched before reading books or without reading the books:  The Help, The Lord of the Rings, Silver Linings Playbook, Life of Pi, The NeverEnding Story, The Jungle Book, Escape to Witch Mountain, Bridge to Terabethia, Ballet Shoes, Matilda, Pride and Prejudice, A Little Princess, Emma, Harriet the Spy, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and so many more. So, I confess I am a liar about this rule. I’ve likely seen more movies before reading the book than the other way around.

9. Being a nerd- This weekend I’ve been playing an old Harry Potter computer game I have and I have to admit there are a lot of inconsistencies with the books or what I know to be true. Sometimes I’m a nerd like that, knowing too much about the books I read. But to be honest I’m ok with that.

10. Travel issues- I always bring at least three books anytime I go on vacation. Sometimes even more. And of course that leads to a sore back when I return from carrying a heavy backpack or suitcase around. But I love my books and even if I don’t read them there’s something nice about having them along just in case.

So those are my confessions to make right now. Anyone else have some to share?