In Addition To...
I'm an avid reader of Noisy Deadlines. In fact, discovering Noisy's blog is how I found out about the Write.as platform. I had been looking into starting a blog again via WordPress or Blogger, but after stumbling across Write.as I thought I would enjoy it more. So far, so good. I like the simplicity of it, the small internet feel, the lack of ads, but I digress.
If you're curious as to why I started blogging again, and you haven't read my first post, Why This Blog, you might enjoy reading it, or you might not. There's only one way to find out.
Anyways, why am I talking about Noisy Deadlines? Noisy's latest blog post, Embracing Lighter Reads struck a chord with me. So, I wanted to add to the conversation.
If you don't feel like reading Noisy's post, though you really should, here is a brief summary. In Embracing Lighter Reads, Noisy talks about the guilty feeling they experience whenever they abandon a book without finishing. Noisy goes on to discuss the premise of the right book at the right time and how our reading tastes shift as we age or encounter new lived experiences. Noisy wraps up their post with her current reading trends, which lean to the cozy because “reading should always be a delightful journey, not a chore.” I really liked that bit.
Noisy's whole post resonated with me. I DNF books all the time, and every time I do, I feel guilty about it. I try to tell myself that there are too many good books in the world to read one I don't like, but it's still a struggle. I recently wrote about reading James A. Michener's The Source. I DNF'd it shortly after that post went up. Good book, but a slog. The guilty part of me wants to go back and give it another go.
Other times, I force myself to finish something I'm not enjoying. I just wrapped up Adrian Selby's The Winter Road. I was really excited about this book. It's been on my TBR list for a while. I finally found it in a local Half-Priced Books and couldn't wait to dive in. The book's whole premise intrigued me. Plant based magic system. Traveling trade caravans. Frontier-esque setting. Grimdark.
In hindsight I probably should have put it down at around the 50% mark. It just wasn't hitting for me. Instead, I forced myself to take a Saturday morning to polish it off, just so I felt like I could move on to the next book guilt free. Am I glad I did? Not really. Sorry Mr. Selby. Cool magic system though!
Working in a library makes this whole process especially difficult. I run across books all the time that pique my interests. I take them home. They sit on my night stand untouched for six weeks. I feel guilty I've had them out for so long. Then I check them back in without ever having gotten past the front matter.
There's a word in Japanese that I love. Tsundoku. It describes this behavior perfectly. It basically means buying books, but never reading them.
I, like Noisy, dislike the guilt I have around not finishing a book. I've gotten better at this over the years. I used to read an entire series, even if I hated it, just because I felt obligated. I'm grateful I don't do that anymore. As Noisy said, “reading should always be a delightful journey, not a chore.”
We are always the worst at taking our own advice. I say something very similar to concerned parents all the time at the library. They are worried that their kid is not reading. I firmly believe in the right book, the right kid, the right time. In my opinion, getting them reading in the first place is the hard part. But making reading a chore by forcing them to read something they are not enjoying is not the way to go. Finding them the right book at the right time is key. Today it may be dinosaurs, tomorrow Fancy Nancy or Junie B Jones. Next week it's a Spider-Man comic, with a bit of Dog Man thrown in. I honestly don't care if my kid is not reading Little Women yet. I just want them reading.
The same should be said for us adults. Who cares if you want to read 50 Shades of Grey or one of the hundreds of new romantasy books flooding our shelves right now? If that's what you need in your life in this moment, you do you. I shall not judge. I'm just happy you're here at the circulation desk with a book in your hand and a smile on your face.
Noisy is in a cozy faze. I tend to read heavy. Maybe not always in complexity, but certainly in content and theme. If I'm not reading some kind of grimdark fantasy, I'm reading a murder mystery, a gritty medieval historical fiction, or a sci-fi novel heavy on the pew-pew.
While I love these stories for their grim subject matter, they can, over time, weigh on one's spirit. I get needing a break. While I enjoy a good nonfiction history book or something in the philosophy field, these aren't exactly spirit rejuvenating reads.
Sometimes you just need something on the lighter side. I absolutely adore Travis Baldree's cozy fantasy book, Legends and Lattes. The sequel, Bookshops and Bonedust is also excellent. The ending left me anxious for book three.
Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries, while not as cozy as Legends and Lattes, is a fun light read all the same. I still need to read the latest entry to the series, System Collapse.
I guess this ramble is my attempt at giving myself permission to stop reading something I'm not enjoying. We will see if it helps.
Thank you Noisy for giving voice to something that I too struggle with and giving me the impetus to do my own reflection on the matter.
Until next time.