BACK TO THE BOOKS: READCHELLA DAY THREE

As you may have seen in my first post last Friday, I've been suffering under a really disheartening and oppressive reading slump lately. With the advent of the weekend, I'd decided to do something about it: hosting what was, essentially, a readathon for one, coinciding with the first weekend of Coachella!

I gathered the necessary provisions, gave the required apologies, and strapped in, for what I hoped would become a weekend of pushing through difficult mental blocks, to reach the great, green, bookish landscape on the other side. By day two, as detailed in my second blog post, I had somehow managed to make it through two novels, and was about halfway into a third.

And now, the weekend is over, and I reflect back on how my Readchella ended. So, what do you think? Did I make it through the third book?

saturday pm -> sunday am

• So, I actually ended up finishing The Proposal... at about 12:30am. I stayed up a lot longer than I should have in order to finish it, but the momentum I'd built up to that point just wasn't ready to slow down yet! 
• The next morning - Sunday - saw a lazy breakfast, packing my sister off for an HR convention, and chilling out around the house. All told, I actually didn't end up sitting down to read until a little before noon, which had begun to make me a little anxious about whether I could finish at least one more book before the challenge was over... 
• Little did I know that my fears were pretty much unfounded. I managed to make it through Space Opera, by Catherynne Valente, a little bit before 8pm last night, leaving me to bask in the glory of a weekend well spent... 
• As well as pick up the next book I plan on reading! Consider this slump over! 

bookstack! 

Like I said, I ended up completing four different books this weekend. I think I'm going to save reviews of the new reads for a different post, because they're all worth delving into a little more than just a cursory paragraph would allow, but I did want to say a little bit about how each of these specific selections served to help push through my book block.

The Darkest Part of the Forest, Holly Black

an old favorite that I could probably retell in my sleep, with enough action and romance to keep me engaged and reading 

Nancy Drew and the Moss-Covered Mansion, Carolyn Keene (1941 edition)

a collector's piece I've been meaning to revisit, intended for young audiences and with enough chapter-ending cliffhangers to keep me enticed 

The Proposal, Jasmine Guillory

a fluffy contemporary romance, with an LA setting, that helped distract me from the weather outside, and also served as the first non-reread of the weekend 

Space Opera, Catherynne Valente

a slightly more difficult science fiction novel, with jaw-dropping descriptions and a highly comedic concept, that helped slowly maneuver me into feeling up to reading harder books again 

I also started a fifth novel, Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, but didn't include it here, because I didn't make it far enough into the book to feel like it warranted a spot. However, I did want to mention it, because a. It's my blog, and I think it belongs on the list, and b. because if I had tried to pick up this read a few weeks ago, I wouldn't have made it past page one. And yet, here I am, well on my way back into an old classic! 

getting it back, and going forward 

One of the first things I did when planning out this readathon weekend, was look up the best advice on how to get out of a reading rut. Here's what ended up being the most helpful: 

• Telling myself to stop being stubborn, and just DNF the book already. One of the first orders of business on my Readchella weekend was putting down one of my recent reads, for good. I had been slogging through Lauren Weisberger's When Life Gives You Lululemons, but kept getting put off... somehow, it's strange writing style and irritating characters made me feel both too young and too old for the story. However, I kept at it, mainly because I knew it was a really hyped book last year, and I wanted to stick with it... but when I finally gave it up to the Goodwill bags, I felt so much better! 

• Changing up the format of how I was reading. I was actually pretty surprised at how much easier everything became once I was reading a book on my Kindle, rather than a physical copy. Maybe it was the low handling effort required, or the fact that the percentage of completion was always in view at the bottom, but it felt like it went by a lot quicker, and I was less distracted from the brightly lit screen. Of course, there were times where I had to put it down and walk away, but it also made it a lot easier to pick back up again when I needed to, and come right back to the same place. 

• Reading something tested and true, that I knew I liked. There's a reason I picked Holly Black for my first read of the weekend: I'm an old fan of her work, no matter the audience, and I knew that I could get lost in her books, no problem. While I could have opted for The Cruel Prince or The Wicked King, those aren't exactly my favorite... The Darkest Part of the Forest is just enough of an underrated hit for me to keep reading it over and over again, and the story is so familiar to me, I could probably tell you the whole thing myself at this point. Same goes for the antique Nancy Drew I read, too! 

• Finding my footing in familiar genres, like Contemporary, Fantasy, and Romance. Bite-sized, easy to read, and not require a ton of brainpower to decipher, the first three reads I reached for were all very much popcorn books, which highly differed from the realm of meaty nonfiction I'd been trapped in. 

• Reaching for reads under 400 pages. One of the key elements of keeping my readathon moving, was not devoting a ton of time to each of these novels. Even the one that took the longest, took no more than a day to finish! This not only helped me gather back my confidence - hey, I can finish a whole book! - but kept me engaged enough to where I felt like I was always making progress on my challenge. 

Hooray, my readathon is over! (Or is it just getting started?) What should I pick up now that my Readchella weekend is over? Let me know, in the comments below!