I have always loved reading. So much so, that I chose to study English Literature for my degree. I really loved my degree, and loved that each week the seminars felt like a little book club, with the opportunity for us all to discuss and share our thoughts on the books we had been reading that week. It pushed me to read books I otherwise wouldn’t have, and gave me new things to think about whenever I read a new text. The cherry on top was the fact that my university campus was in Cornwall, so we had easy access to the beach, and the opportunity to take our reading there and ‘work’ for a few hours. It was just lovely. However, as I’m sure any of you who have also done a degree in literature will know, reading so many books in a relatively short space of time eventually catches up with you. So no matter however much I fought it, a few months after graduating I found myself sinking into a bit of a reading slump.
This reading slump came on gradually. So gradually in fact that I thought I had managed to avoid it. It wasn’t until months went by (or even last year for example, where I managed to finish one book the whole year) that I really realised my reading had properly slipped, and something needed to change.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I have read a handful of books here and there across the past few years, but I wanted to rediscover the love of reading that led me to study it in the first place. Ever since 2020 when I discovered a new passion for learning about space travel, I have predominantly reached for non-fiction books. I have read some absolutely brilliant books on space, and will definitely write a post soon sharing some of my favourites, as some of those are genuinely some of the best and and most interesting books I have ever read. However, I was really at a sticking point with fiction. I partly blame the likes of TikTok for shortening my attention span, but I also just felt a bit of a block when it came to reading fiction novels. This year I was determined to change this, and I set myself a small but comfortable (yet still challenging by last year’s standards) reading goal of 12 books this year. This could still be a mix of non-fiction too, but I just wanted to try and find the routine in it again – because lets be honest, it’s way better for our brains to be reading for an hour before bed, than to be spending that time endlessly doomscrolling!
I’ve been lucky to have a wealth of great book recommendations to get me back into reading too. My sister works at a beautiful local bookshop, and helps run their social media, as well as posting on her own gorgeous BookTok, LifesLibrary23. She loves a bit of contemporary fiction, romcoms, and thrillers, and is definitely very up to date with new releases! My childhood bestie also has a fab BookTok – Ellis Reads – which she’s absolutely smashing! She has a lot of excellent historical fiction and classics recommendations and reviews, which are definitely influencing me to try and tap into genres I wouldn’t normally go for!
I started the year off by doing a buddy-read with my sister. We had both been keen to read the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman at some point, so decided to start reading it at the same time. We literally agreed on a set number of pages to read each day so that I wouldn’t fall behind – and it worked! The series is really good so far, and I’ve really enjoyed it. We’ve only read the first three books at the time of writing this, so I would love to post a full review of the series once we’re done.
As the year has gone on, I’ve made my way through a variety of books from popular reads (The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid), non-fiction (Space: The Human Story by Tim Peake), easier/ seasonal reads (The Pumpkin Spice Cafe series by Laurie Gilmore for example), among many others. In fact, I recently finished what I think is now one of my all time favourite books, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece by Tom Hanks – this one definitely deserves its own post, and I think I’ll be shouting about it from the rooftops for a long time to come!
I want to get back into posting monthly reading reviews on here too. Not only do I love sharing my thoughts on books I’ve read, but it’s also a very good way of keeping me accountable with my reading!
It’s only October and I have already achieved my reading goal of 12 books for the year, which I’m really quite pleased about. Most importantly though, I feel like I have slowly but surely managed to find my way again with reading, and am picking up books a lot more regularly than I was before.
Feel free to follow me on Goodreads, and keep track on what I am reading throughout the month. Let me know in the comments below what you’re reading currently! I’m always looking for new recommendations. Also, I would love to hear what books helped you out of a reading slump!
Emma 🌙
