I have always been in love with reading, ever since I was a little girl. My Dad used to read me stories about Monsters that lived in bogs called 'stinky poo', and my Mum introduced me to the wonderful world of Harry Potter when I was only 6 years old. She used to read it to me each night, doing the voices of each character in such a unique way; it is a memory I cherish very much.
I remember being in year 3 at Primary School, bringing the Goblet of Fire (which was a bloomin' HUGE book!) with me and being one of the most advanced readers in class for what I was able to read.
Reading is what inspired me to start writing, and in turn, is probably the reason I enjoy writing a blog. There is something about putting words to paper, or in this case, on screen, for others to see and enjoy with me.
So why then, haven't I touched a book in almost two years?
It all began when I started my first year at University. I didn't get to take the course I originally wanted because I didn't get the grades to make it into the University I had planned on going to. I originally wanted to study creative writing, to expand my knowledge and increase my skills to eventually become an author.
But since this was no longer possible with the grades I got, I decided to go to a much smaller university and study English Literature.
I didn't see this as a big deal at the time, I mean, I loved books, so why wouldn't I love working on them every day?
Alas, I was incredibly wrong.
Within the first term, we were asked to read things such as Homer's Iliad. How many of you reading this now have experienced this book yourselves?
If you have, you know just how difficult that is.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, let's just say its this Ancient Greek 'Epic Poem'. And what they mean by Epic is that it's 50 million pages long!!
Not only was the poem ridiculously long, it was also in a very old language that was very, VERY difficult to read. If you weren't concentrating on it, you wouldn't understand it. Period.
Having to focus so hard on a story I wasn't invested in, and I didn't really enjoy, was the beginning of my loss of passion for books.
Don't get me wrong, University also introduced me to some amazing books that I am so thankful for, such as The Great Gatsby & The Secret Garden.
But reading around 2/3's of books I really disliked, EVERY SINGLE DAY, and having to analyse them in such depth, for 3 years, just killed my passion.
I cannot say I haven't read ANY books since I finished University, because I have. One book I really enjoyed reading is We Were Liars by E. Lockhart.
But within this one and half years period since graduating, this is just one out of TWO books I have read.
I used to be able to read books with hundreds of pages within days, all consecutively. I remember going on holiday to visit my Grandparents in Ireland, and on the drive to Wales for the ferry I read almost 3 books in the car, within hours. Each book had about 300 pages each!
To think about how little reading I have done in the past year or so, upsets me immensely. And although I do have spare time in which I could potentially be reading something, I'll binge-watch Netflix or find something else to do.
I no longer sit and think, 'I've got some free time, I should read this!'
Which is why I have decided that I am going to change that.
Starting from tonight, I am going to start reading a book I have had for a while, and update my twitter each day with how far I have got with it.
For those of you who follow my twitter feed, if I don't tweet about it, tweet me and tell me to buck my ideas up!!
I am also going to start doing little reviews on each book once I finish them. So keep your eyes peeled for something (hopefully!) within the next few weeks!
Reading once was an incredibly important part of my life, and I want to get that feeling back. It may then inspire me to finally get my ass in gear and finish my own novel that I started 6 years ago and still haven't finished!
But for now, I am going to take it one chapter at a time...
Image taken from Pinterest
Good piece of writing that baby. I know what it's like to be so distracted by tv and ipads that a 300 page novel takes two months to read! I look forward to your tweets! Xx
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