What Are Your Reading These Days?

Yesterday, I started reading The Atomic Weight of Love and am absolutely riveted. Reading fiction has taken a back seat over the last eighteen months, collapsing under the weight of my crippling fatigue. Yet, those few chapters have quenched my thirst, and I didn’t even realize I’d become dehydrated.

Earlier in the day, I had listened to a Patreon podcast hosted by author and my long-time friend, Tim. The dialogue between he and his guest, was all about books and writing: brilliantly-crafted characters, authors romanticizing abuse and which candy Harry Potter would be. For two hours, the conversation waxed and waned on literature, storytelling and creating space for writing. After two years of telling myself that I don’t have the energy to read, I’m calling bullshit.

I don’t know how it happened but my desire to read has slowly taped off. Worse yet, when I climb into bed or a chair with a great book, I doze off within ten minutes. And this is coming from someone who read at least 50 books per year from age six to twenty-six. What gives?

In those two hours, I realized that people with families, full-time jobs and side hobbies are still able to carve out time for one of life’s greatest pleasures: a damn good work of fiction. Even after work and sleep, I can still make time for reading. I just need to be strategic about it, i.e. not in bed and not after 7pm.

Overnight, quite literally, my love of fiction has been rekindled and I’ve already begun scribbling down ideas for possible stories. I feel limitless and, for the first time in quite a while, I’m once again excited by stories–those captured on the off-white pages of a whimsically-adored book and those floating about in my own head.

After The Atomic Weight of Love, I’m considering We Were The Lucky Ones, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Little Fires Everywhere or Turtles All The Way Down. What do you think? I’ve not been paying much attention to new releases lately, so maybe you can help me out.

What are you reading right now? Have you read anything great lately?

By the way, how do you make time in your busy day to sit down with a good book?

7 thoughts on “What Are Your Reading These Days?”

  2. I like how two of the books I was going to suggest (Little Fires Everywhere and Turtles All The Way Down) are already books you were considering. Beyond those, I’d recommend the following books (in no particular order) from the ones I’ve read this year:

    – Educated by Tara Westover
    – The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
    – When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink

    Liked by 1 person

    1. I’ve been eyeing Turtles All The Way Down since it’s release was first announced but was admittedly worried that maybe I’d “outgrown” his work, so I’m thrilled to hear it’s a winner. As for Little Fires Everywhere, I first heard about it on your podcast but 100% trust your judgement on books, so your recommendation is as good as 100 reviews by strangers. I’ll look into the other three, as well. Thank you, thank you!! 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

  3. I read a lot, but more in the fantasy genre than general fiction, so I’m not sure if I have anything to suggest. But for what’s it’s worth, the last ‘new’ (as in, to me. It was published in the 80s) book I read Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones and I found it delightful, while the last ‘re-read’ book I read was The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson which actually managed to creep me out even the second time through.

    Like

    1. Ooh, I’ll need to check those out–thanks for the recommendations! Have you read any Robin Hobb? My boyfriend loves fantasy novels and Hobb’s Assasin’s Apprentice series is his favorite (and rated #1 by his former landlord who is a fantasy novel editor by profession). I actually read them and was impressed, though not typically a fan of fantasy.

      Liked by 1 person

Comments are closed.

Create a website or blog at WordPress.com

Up ↑

%d bloggers like this: