I was thinking about doing a post on my favorite reads of 2017, but I honestly would not be able to say anything meaningful about the books I read back in January last year - my memory is pretty bad. That's why I decided to just write about what has been going on in the last few weeks in terms of reading, what books I discovered, how I felt about my reads, and so on.
My reading choices have been heavily influenced by Bookstagram lately - and I have made some amazing choices because of that, and two accounts especially have become my favorites (@herpickings and @relationsheep). At this moment, I am kind of in a weird transition phase when it comes to my reading. I've been reading young adult since I was 12 up until last year, and I kind of lost my love for reading because I was not relating to the genre anymore, I felt like everything was more of the same, the characters started bothering me - and so on. However, for the longest time it did not come to my mind that MAYBE I could also pick up books from another genre ?!?! Wow!! Yeah, it's embarrassing, but for the longest time I was intimidated by adult books and literature, forgetting the fact that I am, officially, and adult now and I can read these things and might even relate. Anyway, long story short: in this past year, I slowly started picking up more diverse books from a variety of genres, and I completely fell in love with reading all over again. There's so much more to discover! So I keep finding myself scrolling to amazing Instagram accounts like the ones I just mentioned, and I get so excited about all the books they feature. A whole new world has opened up for me.
I am a girl who writes in margins now! Imagine doing that with young adult books ("no stupid bitch, don't fall for him! DON'T DROP EVERYTHING FOR A GUY. For fucks sake. I'm out".)
And then this one time, Hayanna from @herpickings shared some excerpts from the book Bluets by Maggie Nelson, and it just struck me like thunder. It was beautiful, it was meaningful, the writing! So naturally I went on Bookdepository right away and ordered it, and naturally, I couldn't wait for it arrive so I went to the bookstore and bought Maggie Nelson's other book, The Argonauts. And this other short book 'Grief is the thing with feathers' by Max Porter. I don't even know what to call this genre - it's kind of like a memoir, kind of like short essays, kind of reads like poetry or philosophy. All I can say is that I have fallen in love with these type of books, and they made me fall back in love with reading, and even with writing again. I am a girl who writes in margins now! Imagine doing that with young adult books ("no stupid bitch, don't fall for him! DON'T DROP EVERYTHING FOR A GUY. For fucks sake. I'm out".)
This post is already starting to be shockingly long so I should probably stop talking so much - but on the other hand I don't really care (who is reading this, anyway)? So I read Maggie Nelson's The Argonauts, LOVED it, I read Max Porter's Grief is the thing with feathers, and felt very confused but I still cried, and I am currently reading Bluets by Maggie since it finally came in the mail yesterday, and I am loving it and I know I'll love it towards the very end. So there's that. I honestly do not have the words to explain this book, or even describe it, so I'll share the very first passage:
"Suppose I were to begin by saying I had fallen in love with a color. Suppose I were to speak this as though it were a confession; suppose I shredded my napkin as we spoke. It began slowly. An appreciation, and affinity. Then, one day, it became more serious. Then (looking into an empty teacup, its bottom stained with thin brown excrement coiled into the shape of a sea horse) it became somehow personal."
Yes.
But I have not completely ambandoned my old ways. I have been reading some middlegrade (at least I think it is): His dark materials by Philip Pullman. Okay, to be honest, I only read the first book, which I loved, and was so severely disappointed by the second one that I just let that be for a while. It was so slow, Lyra was so boring. I have been reading Howl's moving castle, which I would just call a twisted fairytale. I don't know why I didn't read it sooner, because it was absolutely wonderful, and like many, I might have developed a little crush on Howl. I bought some books in December, as well:
And then finally, what's to come? Well, there's still an order on it's way. A field guide to getting lost by Rebecca Solnit, which I hope will fit nicely into my new reading preferences. But also, again, some young adult! I ordered the second and third book in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy by Lainy Taylor. I read the first book around two or three years ago, but I remember loving it. It had some magical realism elements to it that made it so very different from all other YA, and there is no annoying love triangle either (big plus). Hopefully when I re-read it and continue with the series, I will still love it just as much. For now, this post is probably long enough so I'm gonna wrap this up and continue reading Bluets because I can't stop.