Friday, July 3, 2015

I Finished A Book!

It's been weeks, guys. Weeks.

But I FINALLY MADE IT THROUGH AN ENTIRE BOOK AGAIN! I don't know what's been going on with 2015, but I've spent most of it in reading slumps and it's driving me insane. I think I'm six or seven books behind on my goodreads challenge. It's not the first time I've been this far behind either. It keeps happening. I get to the point where I'm this behind and then I'll go on a crazy spree, finish six books in a week catching up so I can go back into a bloody slump. It's not like I'm pushing myself to read a ton at once, my brain just starts working overtime and the only way to keep myself entertained is to start three books at a time. I don't seem to have the attention span for one book during these manic periods. The whiplash has been frustrating, to say the least.


But it seems this slump session is (hopefully) over and I'm trying really hard to keep myself from overdoing it. Instead of letting myself take on several books at once, I've been playing what I call the Chapter Game. I read a chapter, watch a video on a YouTube or some other quick thing, read two chapters, watch a thing, read three chapters, watch a thing, read two chapters...you get the point. It's helped me to not only read the last half of Guilty Pleasures today, but to also get over halfway through An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. Which I'm loving so far.

It's a silly game.

I love it.

But back to An Abundance of Katherines. I'd heard that a lot of people aren't huge fans of this particular John Green novel, so I was hesitant to start. John Green is one of my favorite authors of all time. I love TFIOS and Paper Towns has been a favorite of mine since high school. He's also one of my heroes in general. I don't know what it is about summer but I can't not read one of his books. I knew I wouldn't hate this book because I just really love John's writing style, but I think it might end up as one of my favorites. Colin is such a unique character, who's brain power and social ineptitude reminds me a lot of my Dad. Which is probably why I'm rooting for him so much. He's like an awkward little penguin trying to navigate the American Ninja Warrior obstacle course. Hassan is hilarious and I love the balance he brings to Colin.

The plot is relatively unrealistic to me, but I don't see that as a bad thing. It's a book, I like my books unrealistic. Even contemporaries. I only mention it because that was one of the things people complained about the most. I don't care that it isn't likely for two teenage boys to take off on a random road trip and end up living with a stranger they met that day but it was fine because their parents were cool with it. I wish I could take off on a random road trip with no destination, I'm just too chicken. So it's nice to read about.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

A New Book Can Make All The Difference

Seriously, the best advice I can give anyone dealing with a reading slump is to ditch whatever they're reading and start something new. After talking to you guys about my disappointment with ACOTAR I packed it away with the rest of my books and dug out a new one that's out of my comfort zone.

Theres another good move to make when fighting a slump; pick something you wouldn't normally read.

I've really been loving Shelf Life Extention over on the BookTube and she's always talking about the Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton. I found a super cheap copy on Amazon and figured I may as well give it a shot. It's an adult, urban fantasy series following an incredibly sassy and strong female protagonist. Anita Blake works on a special task force that deals with all things Supernatural in an America where vampires and other night terrors are out in the open. As an animator, Anita has a stronger resistance to the vampire's mind control, super human reflexes, and can raise zombies to help her on bad days.

I still feel like I'm in my slump, but now I think I'm heading in the right direction to escape. I read 70 pages last night, which on a good day is horrible but in a slump is amazing. I'll take what I can get, it's not the number of pages but what's on them that counts. (At least according to my overly optimistic mother.)



Wednesday, June 24, 2015

It's Not You, It's Me.

Guys. I have a confession to make. But before I make it, be warned that it will undoubtedly anger several people, even though opinions aren't really something to get upset over because everyone is entitled to theirs.

I couldn't get into a Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas.

Now before you start throwing things, know that I think Sarah is brilliant. Her writing is beautiful and unique, her characters generally lovable, and her worlds are out of this one. It also doesn't help that I've been in a bit of a reading slump since I started the book. I crammed six books in the week before I started and burned myself out a bit. I also kind of got evicted a few days ago and had to pack everything and be out in three days. Between those two things I haven't even felt like listening to an audiobook. But I think it might be coming to an end and hopefully I'll be reading again before the night is through.

I'd also like to say that I will be picking this book back up in the future. I hate reading slumps. They happen to me every couple of months and generally ruin a good book with their timing. I have a really strong feeling that if I try this book again while I'm in a different head space, I'll love it as much as everybody else does.

There were a few things about the actual book that got under my skin though. What really surprises me is that my problems are with her characters. I'm used to loving the people she writes, so it threw me off guard to automatically hate several of them. I can't stand Feyre's family. It's hard for me to sympathize with her being taken to Tamlin's when her whole family is horrible. Even her nice sister is petty, pathetic, self centered, and spoiled. The father is useless. I wasn't even a fan of Feyre. I found her whiny, rude, and socially incompetent on a whole new level. She's bitter, melodramatic and angry about pretty much everything. I get that her situation isn't ideal, but she got herself into this mess, the least she can do is suck it up. Again, I feel like my abnormally strong negative feelings are heavily influenced by my reading (being grumpy) slump.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Back To Blogging/What I've Been Reading

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in so many months. Between a move and the worlds worst internet I've fallen a bit behind. But that's alright, we'll just jump back in.

I hope you've all had a great few months filled with loads of books that have completely blown your minds. I've found some amazing ones since we've chatted last. I finally dove into the series Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi and I'm head over heels. I love everything about her beautiful and unique writing style. Her characters are messes, but so lovable and well written that you want to hug them all anyways. And the world, though it follows a few classic dystopian tropes, still managed to feel fresh. I've yet to be bored and can barely get myself to put them down. I only have the finally book in the series Ignite Me left to pick up. I always make myself break up a series, no matter how much I'm enjoying it, because if I don't I'll burn myself out on the characters/world. And when I say break up a series I mean that I'll usually spend years on one because I take so much time in between. But not with this one. This one has my full attention, and even though I've made myself read another book between each of these all I think about is finding out what happens to the characters I've grown to adore so much.

But since I break things up, I decided to finally finish the Infernal Devices trilogy by Cassandra Clare with Clockwork Princess . Even though I'm only about 250 pages in, its been an amazing 250 pages. You never have to wait long for one of Cassandra's books to pick up, and this one was jammed packed full of action from the very beginning. I love the this trilogy even more than her Mortal Instruments, which is another series I need to complete (I'm on book 5). I adore the Shadowhunter mythology in both series, but I love the setting in these ones. There's just something about London in the 1800's that I can't get enough of in books. I
also feel like she writes these particular characters exceptionally well. You can tell how much she loves them and it makes me love them all the more.

Thanks for stopping by! Make sure to let me know what you're reading and how you feel about the books I've mentioned above in the comments or tweet them at me here, RazzleFrazzleIv

Until next time, have a great life!