Saturday, April 13, 2019

BATTLE OF THE BLOCK: READCHELLA DAY TWO


I promised you an update post yesterday, so I'm here. Granted, I don't really especially want to be writing this post right now, but I am. (Hey, two blood orange margaritas, and a boatload of chips and salsa at dinner, can do that to a person!)

You might have seen my blog post yesterday, about the book block I've been enduring these past two months. With only two Goodreads updates and two blog updates to show between both March and April thus far, I think that my statistics stand for themselves: sure, they still might be better than most people - according to my overly optimistic Mom - but they sure aren't on par for me. Far from it, actually.

And this might be a little "too heavy" of a moment for what is ostensibly a lighthearted topic, but it's necessary to include here: while "slowing down" and "taking a break" might be the advice I received from most people, it doesn't help my situation. While it might be okay to take a break from hobbies I've had trouble with in the past - like embroidery, or cooking - reading has always been an important part of my ability to self-regulate, and the absence of it in my daily routines can lead to spikes in anxiety and depression, both things I try to mitigate as much as possible on my own.

After a really hard anniversary came up again this past week - a week when I was, unfortunately, spending a lot of time by myself, and which passed by with little recognition from others - and I wasn't able to read through it, I realized that it was important for me to come up with a plan on how to fix things on my own.

And thus, Savannah's Readchella 2019 was born.

I've already told you what I planned to do about it, so here's what I actually ended up accomplishing last night, and so far today. Good news: it's kind of a lot!


friday night delight


Armed with my bevy of information, and with minimal amounts of forewarning to my family, I embarked upon my readathon weekend with as little overthinking as I could manage. I focused a little more on preparation than just simply reading, but still managed to get quite a bit done: 
  • I cleaned up my room and parts of my house, so that I'd have relatively clear reading spaces (or at the very least, I'd be less called away by the distraction of chores later on). 
  • I picked up a new cookbook from the library to glance through, as well as stalked through the movie section in order to pick up something that might serve as a suitable break, should I get burnt out on reading. In the end, I went for Brooklyn (2015), because I knew that I could probably get my film-buff sister to sit down and watch it with me! 
  • In the end, I did end up DNFing one of the books that I had been stuck in before: When Life Gives You Lululemons, by Lauren Weisberger. I'll end up talking about this more once my Readchella is over, but it just wasn't serving me as either entertainment, or interesting reading material. So, I took out my bookmark, thanked it for its service, and sent it away into the donation pile! 
  • I posted my first Readchella blog post (obviously). 
  • And I downloaded, and started to read, Holly Black's The Darkest Part of the Forest on my Kindle from a local library ebook database. I only got to about 50% through before I went to bed... which actually left me a little worried as to how much of this personal challenge I'd be able to complete. 

saturday distractions... and success!


To be honest, while I was okay with the progress I had made on Friday, it still wasn't too much to be excited about: sure, I'd written a blogpost, and gotten through half of a book, which was still a lot more than I had been managing up until that point, but it certainly wasn't the kind of outcome I'd been hoping for. 

After an impromptu family breakfast at IHOP, and family chores completed around the house, I buckled down and got ready to read at about 11am. Here's how the rest of my day has gone: 
  • I finished reading The Darkest Part of the Forest at about 12:46pm, making it my first completed read of this challenge! Needless to say, I was stoked... and wasted little time picking up another read. 
  • I figured that TDPotF had been such a success because it was 1. short, 2. compelling, and 3. familiar, so I aimed for a variation of that set of principles for my next read, with the expectation that the momentum would continue. I'd been looking for a reason to revisit one of my old WWII editions of Nancy Drew novels for a while, so I picked up my 1941 copy of The Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion! 
  • By 2:24pm, I'd finished that read as well, and had a really good time doing it. Again, more on this later, but I think the fact that it was such a nostalgic and slightly more juvenile read made it easier to get lost in. Readchella #2 complete! 
  • Without wasting any time, I jumped back into reading as quickly as I could, getting started on Jasmine Guillory's The Proposal. Contemporary Romance was one of the more recommended genres to try and break a slump with, and I can see why: within a twenty minutes, I was more than 30 pages in! 
Unfortunately, my habits got a little waylaid after that point: I spent an hour and a half playing a board game with my sister and her girlfriend - Ticket to Ride is the best! - but it was a little too long of a distraction for me. Then, when we were finished, it was decided that the family was going to go out to eat for dinner. 

Filler time struck again, when we arrived at the restaurant, only to find that we wouldn't be able to be seated for a little while, which ended up taking a little over twenty minutes. Naturally, I had forgotten to bring my book along for the ride! It's a good note to be taking forward in this challenge, and any others I might undertake in the future: simply having a book at your side, is a pretty good way to guarantee you'll find time to read it. 

what's up next?


So, that brings us to now! I'm going to try and get a little further into The Proposal tonight, but being that I'm only at page 87, I can't imagine I'm going to be able to finish it before bed (not when it has Saturday Night Live and picking up my brother from his school musical to compete with). 

Here's my plans for tomorrow: 
  • FinishThe Proposal
  • Get started on another book... I'm leaning towards Cat Valente's Space Opera, a lighthearted science fiction read I had anticipating getting to on my Oregon vacation
  • Maybe spending some time at a local cafe or restaurant, in order to get some reading done outside my own home 
  • Make some good reading snacks (I've had a craving for Rice Krispie Treats for the past two days... specifically, Mickey Mouse shaped) 
  • Taking the opportunity to do a little more blog drafting for posts coming up this month
For the most part, I'm trying to keep things loose and non-committal, so I can change up the plan if the mood strikes me! But you can bet that I'll get at least one more book completed (please!), and another post just like this one coming your way tomorrow afternoon. 


How do you think I'm doing? Any more tips for how to beat a slump? Let me know, in the comments below!

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