I’ll be the first to admit I have a problem. I make lists of the books that I own and haven’t read yet, planning to read them. But somehow I find myself at a bookstore buying new books, and that’s not even the worst part.

I somehow end up rereading the same books that I always read (I have read Looking for Alaska by John Green five times…five).

This doesn’t benefit me as a reader or person at all. I don’t learn something new, I’m not experiencing a new story, I’m just hanging on to old ones because I know I like them.

However, in 2019 so far this has not been the case. I have become a lot better at breaking out of my reading comfort zone, so much so that all of the books that I have read this year so far have been ones I have never read before.

Currently I am reading Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo (a book that has been on my shelf since 2015) and it, despite being sad, has reminded me of why I started to like reading as a kid in the first place.

Learning something new and getting lost in a good story.

It may sound corny, but so far each page has taken me on a new journey in the story and teaches me something new (whether that be a new word or figuring out part of the plot).

So, although I think I’ll always be attached to the books that I have previously reread over and over again (and probably will continue to do so in the future), I am definitely more open to the idea and willing to read new books.

This may seem like a good thing, and to some degree it is, however, my new open-mindedness has resulted in my ‘to read’ list growing exponentially and my trips to the Indigo across the street more frequent.

A few books that have been added to my current to read list (full blog post on this coming soon) include Beautiful Boy by David Sheff, Black Klansman by Ron Stallworth, the Crazy Rich Asians series, and The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris.

I think the next battle that I need to tackle is getting used to using my library card more often.

Behind the Beautiful Forevers cover is courtesy of Amazon.

Uncategorized Books Literature Reading