This thread is making me feel so much better about myself. I read 7 books in September, but for both October and this month, I’ve only managed to read 1-2 books.
I’ve been reading The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern for about 2 weeks, and I’m only on page 58.
But I’m also reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy and I’m almost finished that one. I’ll probably finish it today.
I actually just read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke a few months ago, but as I was reading it, I did wish that I had read it back in 2020. I think it was written then… and you can kinda tell. A house so big oceans fit within, yet it soothes and comforts and provides everything one needs.
A warm embrace of a book for anyone feeling some things.
95% of the stuff they made us read in middle school.
I understand that they wanted to expose us to the greats, but we did not have the life experience to even vaguely understand what we were reading most of the time.
And in addition to that, the majority of it was dreadfully boring to a kid. So it served to also make so many of us think we hated reading.
Thank goodness I already knew I liked reading way before I hit 6-9th grade. But my mom, who is in her 60s… thought she hated reading until THIS year.
Never Lie by Frieda McFadden. Not only was it the worst book I’ve read this year, it is on my bottom 3 list for worst books I’ve read in my entire life. I hated it so much that it still surprises me that I could hate a book that much. I hated the characters. I hated the plot. I hated the prose. I hated everything about the book. To me, it was almost like the author was actively trying to write the worst book ever written.
When I was about 14, my mom (a non-reader at the time), bought me an L Ron Hubbard book. I think Dianetics lol.
I had the sense even then to not read it. But my mom and I were discussing this recently and I asked her point blank, “what were you thinking??” And she replied that she had no idea what it was. That she had seen a lot of people rave about it and say that it helped them so she hoped I would like it.
Her heart was in the right place 🤣