i have been trying to get back into reading for a while, i used to do it nonstop in middle/high school but fell off after i graduated. i picked up Thursday Murder Club randomly at a bookstore a few weeks ago and finally sat to read it this week and it’s really doing it for me right now. i don’t have much time to read anymore with college and work but i think this will be the first book i have finished since i graduated high school 😅 so, i’m curious. what books randomly re-sparked your love for reading?
R is for Ricochet by Sue Grafton, surprisingly. Now I’m reading the rest of the books in the series.
Ty Cobb, a terrible beauty
Norwegian Wood - Murakami. Was recommended to me years ago but I finally gave it a try this year and it had me hooked from start to finish. I read Kafka on the Shore not long after and enjoyed that too, though not as much.
I can’t wait to try Norwegian Wood! Have you read 1Q84 or the Wind up Bird chronicles? I feel like those are both super strong Murakami
I haven’t yet, but they’re on my list!
interesting!! Norwegian Wood is on my started-and-got-really-invested-in-but-still-never-finished list, i loved the way everything was set up initially but i didn’t even really put a dent into the book. hopefully i can keep with reading this time around and finally get to the end of it!
It’s well worth it, I hadn’t enjoyed a book that much in years.
I just got back into reading this year after only really reading books for my degree. I knew I wanted to focus on getting through the literary canon, so I started with Moby Dick and Pride & Prejudice. While Pride & Prejudice is easier and shorter, I had a hard time getting through it due to disinterest. Moby Dick I enjoyed a lot more, I still think about it on a regular basis and it’s helped inform my taste going forward.
Going back to college is part of why I stepped away from my voracious consumption of literature. I finally got into my major though and it became better because I was actually interested in what I was reading.
Junky by William s Burroughs
After spending most of high school having the love of reading drained from me, in college The Stranger by Camus rocked my world. That and Blood Meridian really got me back into reading in a big way.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry!
I’ve JUST finished this and what a book! Not my typical read but enjoyed every page, blasted through in about 3 weeks
Was in a mega slump after getting a degree that involved reading hundreds of pages a day of medieval lit and a mentality that I should only read „serious“ texts.
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett broke the seal. It was just so funny and entertaining, and I was genuinely interested to find out what would happen.
I think for people who were big childhood readers, finding something in a genre or style similar to what you found absorbing as a kid can really do the trick.
Whenever I fall off the wagon, reading Harry Potter or books I have enjoyed in the past gets me back into the mojo again.
When I was really depressed/busy and couldn’t even get the motivation up to read, I finally got back into it by rereading some of the books I loved as a teenager. YA or fantasy is easy and fun, and rereading a book at a different time in your life is a really special experience you rarely get to do with so many great books out there and so little time. It was like listening to a song that takes you back to a great time but way more extended and layered. It really relit a fire.
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towes was one that just brought back that love of reading. In the same line, A Man Called Uve by Fredrik Bachman filled my heart.
The Twilight series. This was 15 years ago and I have been a voracious reader ever since. I actually always associate it with this time of year because I read the first book in November right before Thanksgiving and one of my fondest memories is how my mom sneaked out to B&N to buy the next two books for me as a surprise, so I spent Thanksgiving break devouring them (along with turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie!).
These books will always hold a special place in my heart because they gave me that spark to read for pleasure even though I have read hundreds of better books since then.
Until this year I had yet to read anything by Steven King. Started with the Stand which was great to pick up and read over the course of a few weeks. Since then I’ve read Salems Lot and currently reading Fairytale. It’s for sure got me reading a lot more regularly than I was a couple months ago.
The Outlander series
For me it was shogun which showed me I could get through a big read, and then the stormlight archive.
I’d read a bit when I was little but outside of books I needed to read for school I rarely ready until I hit 25 and somebody got me to try shogun. It was honestly one of the best stories I’d ever experienced and I was blown away to be as invested as I was.
Then once I was done I was lent the way of kings and my wallets never gonna forgive that friend for lending me that damn book.
I’m near caught up with stormlight, onto all of Brandon Sanderson’s other series, plowing through kingkiller, lonesome dove and looking to pick up some others all in a year.
Sometimes you just need to happen across the right book haha.