Getting Back into Reading

When I was a kid, I used to read voraciously. I’d tear through eight-hundred-page books in just a few days, and my to-be-read shelf didn’t exist; I’d read books as soon as I got them.

I am not that speedy of a reader anymore. I see eight-hundred-page books and skip right over them, because a book that long will take me two, maybe three months to read, if I finish it at all.

So, what happened? Why is it so much harder to read through books now than it ever was as a kid?

For one, there are a thousand more distractions. I didn’t have a smart phone as a kid, and there was no such thing as social media. The only access to TV I had was a television I shared with the rest of my family - and my parents usually controlled the remote after dinner. I had significantly fewer chores when I was too short to reach the sink, and no expectation to cook my own dinner.

Amazing how chores and meal planning eat up your day.

I still love reading, and I’ve been struggling to get back into the habits I had when I was young. I’ve had to find new ways to carve out time, adding just a couple of minutes here and there to get through a few pages at a time, and picking books that are sure to hold my interest against the allure of TikTok and Netflix.

I’ve also found that borrowing books from the library has been a huge help because of the book’s due date. Books not on hold can be renewed, of course, (and the Mercer County Library System now has automatic renewal if you forget!) but I see the due date as a challenge of sorts. A little bet between me and the book to see if I can read it without having to renew it.

It’s been a surprisingly effective method. Plus, it’s budget friendly, and we all need ways to save a few dollars these days.

Audiobooks have become my new best friends. I listen to them when walking on my lunch break, and even when doing chores around the house if it’s a particularly good book. I’ll listen while I crochet, too. The narrators bring a certain life to the story I can’t always get on the page, and it’s an exciting way to revisit a book I’ve read before.

Libby (eLibraryNJ) and hoopla are both apps patrons can use to electronically borrow eBooks and audiobooks, and they both make it super easy to keep track of books you’ve already borrowed and ones you’ve saved for later. They’ve even been a great way to discover books I might not have heard of otherwise.

The way I read now isn’t the way I used to as a kid. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to tear through a whole book in a single sitting again. But I have been enjoying the books I am able to read, and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.

Here are some books that helped me through my reading slump:

Dial A for Aunties by Jessie Q. Sutanto

What happens when you mix 1 (accidental) murder with 2 thousand wedding guests, and then, toss in a possible curse on 3 generations of an immigrant Chinese-Indonesian family? You get 4 meddling Asian aunties coming to the rescue! When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body.

Gallant by Victoria Schwab

Olivia Prior has grown up in Merilance School for Girls, and all she has of her past is her mother's journal--which seems to unravel into madness. Then, a letter invites Olivia to come home--to Gallant. Yet when Olivia arrives, no one is expecting her. But Olivia is not about to leave the first place that feels like home, it doesn't matter if her cousin Matthew is hostile or if she sees half-formed ghouls haunting the hallways. Olivia knows that Gallant is hiding secrets, and she is determined to uncover them. When she crosses a ruined wall at just the right moment, Olivia finds herself in a place that is Gallant--but not. The manor is crumbling, the ghouls are solid, and a mysterious figure rules over all. Now Olivia sees what has unraveled generations of her family, and where her father may have come from. Olivia has always wanted to belong somewhere, but will she take her place as a Prior, protecting our world against the Master of the House? Or will she take her place beside him?

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by Victoria Schwab

In a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever—and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Collecting books can be a dangerous prospect in this fun, time-traveling, fantasy adventure from a spectacular debut author. One thing any librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction... Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it's already been stolen. London's underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested--the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something--secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself. Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an option--because it isn't just Irene's reputation at stake, it's the nature of reality itself.

Her Majesty’s Royal Coven by Juno Dawson

If you look hard enough at old photographs, we're there in the background: healers in the trenches; suffragettes; Bletchley Park oracles; land girls and resistance fighters. Why is it we help in times of crisis? We have a gift. We are stronger than Mundanes, plain and simple. At the dawn of their adolescence, on the eve of the summer solstice, four young girls--Helena, Leonie, Niamh and Elle--took the oath to join Her Majesty's Royal Coven, established by Queen Elizabeth I as a covert government department. Now, decades later, the witch community is still reeling from a civil war and Helena is now the reigning High Priestess of the organization. Yet Helena is the only one of her friends still enmeshed in the stale bureaucracy of HMRC. Elle is trying to pretend she's a normal housewife, and Niamh has become a country vet, using her powers to heal sick animals. In what Helena perceives as the deepest betrayal, Leonie has defected to start her own more inclusive and intersectional coven, Diaspora. And now Helena has a bigger problem. A young warlock of extraordinary capabilities has been captured by authorities and seems to threaten the very existence of HMRC. With conflicting beliefs over the best course of action, the four friends must decide where their loyalties lie: with preserving tradition, or doing what is right.

- by Lydia, Administration Office