Reader Problems Tag

Hello, my little addicts (Oh my, that is so your nickname now!), this is Evie coming back at you with another Tag post! Today I have had the honor of being tagged to do the Reading Problems Tag by Izzy over at The Reading Izzy! That girl is seriously great so go on and take a moment to hop on over to her blog? This tag was created by another awesome blogging buddy named Jay from over at Books ByJay! (She’s nice too, I swear!)

So, let’s quit yacking and get right down to it!

    1.   You have 20,000 books on your TBR. How in the world do you decide what to read next?

I am a horrific mood reader, me! If I am just not in the mood to read something then I simply can’t. My heart has to be in it, you know? How could I possibly read crime when I crave the sweet romantic pages of Anna and the French Kiss (I'm always in the mood for Anna...)? Read some sickly sweet and fluffy when all I want to do is strike a dramatic life-affirming pose and read a good feminist biography, huh? You see my point.

    2.   You’re halfway through a book and you’re just not loving it. Do you quit or are you committed?

Oh, my. All the secrets are coming out now, aren’t they? Sadly I’m a quitter. Quitters never win, winners never quit… But at least quitters don’t find out that Dumbledore dies, right? (I can say that little spoiler because it’s just about the worst kept secret ever.

    3.   The end of the year is coming and you’re so close, but so far away on your Goodreads reading challenge. Do you try to catch up and how?

Well actually, this is the first year I’ve ever attempted the goodreads challenge (why not check out my goodreads here?), but if I’m having a bit of a slump, not reading as fast as I’d like, well I like to take a trip to the local bookshop. Just the site of all those fresh-smelling paperbacks is enough to send me spiraling into a reading frenzy. TBR? What TBR?!

    4.   The covers of a series you love do not match. How do you cope?

I cope just fine thank you very much! I think a little bit of mix and match gives a bookshelf character, you know? Livens things up a bit! Why go red, red, red, when you can go red, green, blue, indigo, NEON YELLOW, black, white, rainbow, shartruce?! Besides, you should never judge a book by it’s cover! (She says a little guiltily…)

   

    5.   Everyone and their mother loves a book you really don’t like. Who do you bond with over shared feelings?

Well, I’d love to talk to you guys about it but I’m always so scared to write a bad review… But trust me, I may seem all nicey-nicey online but just see me in my Modern Studies class when someone starts talking about Sarah Manning or Carol Ann Duffy! I’m a wolf.

    6.   You’re reading a book and you’re about to start crying in public. How do you deal?

This actually happened to me in a reading lesson at school a few years ago when I was reading ‘Marley and Me’ for the first time. I think if you hold back the tears it kind of tampers with your overall experience of the book so I just bent my head and covered the 300^th page onwards with fresh salty tears! But luckily, with a book like that, all that I needed to say for the rest of the day when people questioned the puffy eyed look I was rockin’ was a simple, emotional ‘Marley’. They understood.

7. A sequel of a book you loved just came out, but you’ve forgotten a lot from the prior novel. Will you re-read the book? Skip the sequel? Try to find a synopsis on Goodreads? Cry in frustration?!?!?!?

Oh man, cry in frustration. I am such a simpleton. I STILL haven’t read Allegiant just because I can’t be bothered to spend a couple days going back over Divergent and Insurgent! It’s like, I’m dying to read it, but I’m also super lazy, but also I can’t remember whether Tris is Dauntless or Amity?! My brain goes into overdrive and deletes the very idea of the book I was wanting to read in order to avoid the prospects of a complete Evie meltdown!

    8.   You do not want anyone—ANYONE—borrowing your books. How do you politely tell people nope when they ask?

Well actually, I’m usually the one forcing books into other people’s hands! If I love a book then I absolutely need other people to love it to, otherwise I’ll have almost no release (well, apart from you lovely lot of course) for all my bookish emotions, and trust me - I usually have quite a lot of emotions. But every now and then there is that one person who will keep my book for years or bring it back like they used it to wipe the kitchen table, and in that case all you have to do is pull on your innocent eyes and tell them sweetly that you’ve already lent that book to your mum/auntie/sister/cousin/dog and so you couldn’t possibly give it to them for another 99 years… sorry! Problem solved.

    9.   Reading ADD. You’ve picked up and put down 5 books in the last month. How do you get over your reading slump?

I’ve actually done all my scientific research on the reading slump already and have published my ground-breaking findings in a post right here: How to Cure the Reading Slump! So, if you really want to know, and you know how to open a new tab you can just go read that! Go on, I’ll wait here.

    

   10.  There are so many new books coming out that you’re dying to read! How many do you actually buy?

Well, being sixteen, I’m poorer that bloomin’ Oliver Twist, so probably not as many as I’d like! Occasionally I beg my family to spend a few quid on poor old me, like the little begging cretin I am, but mostly I just harbor all the teeny tiny pennies in my purse until I can afford one or two all on my own!

Rich little blighters. 

   11.  After you’ve bought the new books you can’t wait to get to, how long do they sit on your shelf before you get to them?

I finish whatever I’m reading and then GO, GO, GO! I don’t see any point in waiting until my excitement has died a slow and painful death to read a book! All the fun is the buy-and-read-immediately buzz!

And that, my little addicts, (see, I told you I was gonna use it!) was the Reader Problems Tag! It was such lovely fun, but what would make it even more fun if we could have a wee chat about some of your answers to these questions down in the comments section. It’s comfy and warm down there, you’ll like it!

But before we do so, I would like to tag a few of the best blogging pioneers in the business (bar Izzy and Jay of course!)

Morrighan Rose from Elysian Fields Book Reviews

My girl Tika from Fangirl Confessions

Yvonne from A World Between Folded Pages

Ellen from Quest Reviews

Maz from Two Handed Library

And finally, Emily from Forever Literary

Thank you very much addicts! ( the third time makes it a definite thing )

How to Cure the Reading Slump

The reading slump: a disease, exclusive to readers only, in which one cannot get their face stuck into any books for a stupidly long period of time. Symptoms of the reading slump include loss of interest, total boredom and an overwhelming desire to hit one’s self in the face with a large hardback from the cookery section.

        Yes folks, the reading slump, it happens to the best of us and it happens to the worst. It’s hideous, entirely unavoidable and up until now, thought to be incurable, but I’m here to make all of that change! Use my newly discovered method and you’ll be out of bed with your hardback-harry-potter bruises fading away in no time. So, let’s put our lab-coats on, grab our stethoscopes and get right down to the bottom of this horrific illness. Doctor Evie - reporting for duty.

  

       Firstly, why does the reading slump even happen? The disease seems so random and spiteful that even the most wiggly bookworms (I mean the kind of people who can flip between Charles Dickens and Diary Of a Wimpy Kid without even a couple minutes break to make a cup of tea) could easily be infected. You can wash your hands all you like, but there seems to be nothing stopping you from being poisoned as well. Or is there?

Well, if my research proves true, the slump is most likely to thrive in those who place too much pressure on themselves. Don’t force yourself to read! In fact, that’s probably one of the worst things you can do. There’s nothing worse than pressing yourself to crawl through a long, monotonous book just because you think you have to! Who cares if Johnny, Greg and Tabitha have all read ‘The Great Gatsby’ and you haven’t? Who cares if you don’t know what the hell an ‘Avox’ even is? Who cares?!

This substance may be of detriment
to your health. 

 Read because you want to, not because you feel you have to and I promise the slump won’t be hiding round your bookshelves any time soon. This, I think, is why the slump always hits me hardest when I’m trying to get through a novel for English class. Sadly, English class reading cannot be helped and this is when we need the cure! Cue Evie's medical science! 

        So, here you are. You’re sitting on the couch with your old battered school copy of ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ for the sixth time that week; you’ve just read the same sentence about sixteen times over when you decide you’ve had enough. You go to find a different book from your bedroom, but you’re not really sure what you’re looking for. You must have started and gave up on five different books before you realise… you’ve got it. The slump has hit, you are infected.

   

I prescribe one dose of Vampire
Fiction. To be taken twice
daily. 

      Sadly in this case, my first curing method– to read something different that you actually want to read - has not worked. Sometimes a simple change of pace can get you speeding along again but not this time. We will be using method number two – re-reading. Though a book may not be so riveting the second time around, re-reading still provides a comfortable experience with book you know for a fact that you like. It doesn’t take too much effort and attention and because you’re certain to enjoy it your reading enthusiasm will be boosted enough to take on any library.

  

       With a sigh, you pick up your old blue copy of ‘The Fault In Our Stars’ and settle back down for a long-haul read. But, to your horror, not even Augustus Waters can perk you up anymore. This calls for some drastic action!

  

       Method number 3: The bookshop. Immersing yourself in a place so thick with scent of stories and characters can be enough to make your page-turning hand start to itch. The bookshop is magical. I don’t know about you but I always get excited buying a new book, in fact, I get so psyched that I always have to start my new book as soon as I get home. You buy something new, trying your best to get buzzed over your purchase, and nervously make your way home. Surely this will get you nose back between the pages of a book?

 

Quarantine Zone. 

        Nope. It hasn’t worked. You’re back on the couch, ready to burn your bookshelf to the ground. I have only one more method left. It is the simplest, most effective, yet probably the most ignored method that there is:

   

      Just stop. Let it go. Put the book down and walk away. It may take a day, a week, or even only an hour but I promise you that eventually you’ll regain your appetite for words and paper and stories once again.  You need to make reading fun again for yourself and this is never going to happen when you’re trying to make yourself read when, obviously, you don’t really want to.

  

       Uncommonly known fact about the slump: It can smell fear. So, the longer you fret and worry over the slump’s horrific symptoms, the longer the slump will trap you in its vice-like grip. Forget about it, stop worrying. It’s inconvenient and annoying, yes, but it isn’t the end of the world – you’ll survive. Soon enough you’ll get your hands on something so good that it’ll be all you can do not to swallow it up in one day or less. Because the best cure for the read slump, is really very simple – time.

   

      And with that I conclude my scientific research. May all those suffering from the illness be benefited and healed by my discovery. Doctor Evie is over and out.

Rainbow List of Must-Reads: Yellow - It's Kind of a Funny Story

This is the Rainbow List of Must-Reads: Where I review a different one of my favourite books each week! Third on our list we have a yellow book with a yellow cover:

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini

           ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’ is a book I picked up in the teen fiction section last year as an interesting summer read. If I’m quite honest with myself one of the main reasons I lifted it off the shelf was because I absolutely loved the quirky cover-art and there was nothing on the blurb that I found entirely unappealing. When I finally got round to opening the book up a week later as I lounged lazily on my deck chair in my garden, I was met with a pleasantly unpleasant surprise.

  

          ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’ is not the kind of book you would usually find amongst the brightly coloured stories of the teen fiction section, to say the least. The book did not give me that bright and happy feeling I would usually get when reading something of such a high standard, but instead would leave me feeling low and foggy when I emerged from between its pages. This is because ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’ is about depression.

           Depression books don’t usually find their way to my shelf. In the general I find them overly-dramatic and clichéd with transparent plotlines. However, when reading this book I found I connected with the main character, Craig Gilner, in a big way. When Craig sits in his friend Aaron’s house, smoking pot, his brain hazing with misery I could feel my own mind cloud over. When he stands on the Brooklyn Bridge, crazed by an erratic sort of desperation, I felt painfully desperate as well.

  

          I won’t lie to you. ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’ is dark. Really dark. You follow Craig as the pressure from his prestigious school becomes unbearable and he spirals into a deep state of extreme self-loathing. The book is a brutally honest depiction of what depression is really like. Not glorified in the way of a dark romantic interest or cool like the troubled rock star, but a pure, raw, awful emotion. ‘It’s Kind of Funny Story’ is a book that finally shows depression as what it is – depressing.

           And how can we trust that Vizzini’s illustration of depression is not some exaggerated, over-the-top, version created for the sake of good fiction? How do we know that when Craig eventually finds himself in the adult ward of a psychiatric hospital that this isn’t just the psych ward of Vizzini’s imagination? We know because the author has experienced all this himself. ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’ is a memoir of Vizzini’s life. He has felt like this; gone through this; been to these places. Through Craig, Vizzini shows us his own experiences with depression. He has shown us how frightening and all-consuming depression really is.

           But he has also shown us that it can get better – and that I believe is the most important thing about ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’. Yes, in the first half of the book we are shown how trapped and lonely depression can make you feel, but in the second half we are shown that you are never truly alone. Only when Craig finally seeks help can he begin to climb back out of the dark pit that is his life. Only upon dealing with his feelings does he realise that every single reason he wanted to kill himself could be quite easily fixed. I believe that ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’ exists not only to acknowledge that there are people with these feelings in the world, but also to help these people break away from their lonely situation.

           Ned Vizzini dealt with a lot in his life. On December 19^th 2013, after an on-going struggle with depression, he committed suicide, leaving behind his wife and two-year-old child. When I read about Vizzini’s death it really hit home. Not only because his book was able to move me to tears, but because it made everything written inside ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’ all the more true. Because of Vizzini I will never undermine the feelings of anyone battling with depression. I will never see depression as anything other than unbearable, isolating and completely serious. Vizzini has more than earned his spot on this list, I only regret that I couldn’t honour him in a bigger way than this blog post.

            I opened ‘It’s Kind of a Funny Story’ with a light heart and an empty head, and I close it knowing profoundly more about the world around me than I had before.   


You can find out more about Ned Vizzini here!
You can read the other reviews in the Rainbow List of Must-Reads here: Red, Orange

The Rainbow List of Must-Reads: Red

      Hello and welcome to my very first post on my brand new blog! I'm really excited to start this new project and I have a lot of plans for it in the future. If you haven't guessed already this is a book blog - a place where I can rant, rave and celebrate about books! I've decided for my first seven posts to go with a bit of a theme. 

This is the Rainbow List of Must-Reads: a list of a few of my favourite books in rainbow order. Starting off the list we have our red book with a red cover:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time – Mark Haddon

Kicking off my Rainbow list of Must-Reads we have ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’, Mark Haddon’s eloquent yet quirky insight into the mind of Christopher – a peculiar 15 year old boy with a love for the colour red. ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ is as clever and thought-provoking as they come and offers up a reading experience like no other. The book is narrated by Christopher himself as he attempts to uncover the truth behind the tragic death of his neighbour, Mrs Shears’, dog, unravelling a much larger story in the process.

It becomes quickly apparent when reading this book that Christopher is not your usual teenage boy; he has a complicated relationship with emotions and is unable to identify facial expressions other than happy and sad; he calms himself in difficult situations by effortlessly carrying out colossal maths equations in his head; and he absolutely refuses to eat anything yellow or brown under any circumstances. After combining these strange behavioural quirks with Christopher’s peculiar way of recounting events, it quickly becomes clear to the reader that Christopher has some form of autism-like disability.

I first learned about the book from my sister when I was six years old – though did not actually read it until I was ten. When I asked my eldest sister what her book was about she gave me a funny smile and said:

     “It’s about a boy with autism, I think,”

     “What’s autism?”

        My sister thought for a while before answering: “It’s like… If I told you to stay off the grass, you’d just do it. But if I told a boy with autism to stay off the grass, you’d have to tell him when and why and for how long,”

This was a perfectly acceptable answer to my young mind and the explanation has stuck with me for all these years since.  Even before I had absorbed the story first-hand, the book had left a lasting impression on me, leaving me with a better understanding of autism and those affected by it.

Though Mark Haddon never specified Christopher’s condition, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ was able to explain mental disabilities to my sister in a way that was so simple that she could then go on to teach a six year old child. The reason I loved ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ is because I have never before found a book that has allowed me to look so clearly through the eyes of someone with such a difficult mental-disability. It has let me see into a world where things aren’t so clear and simple and shown the mentally disabled in a much more relatable light.

It’s the kind of book I want everyone to read, and one I take great pleasure in lending out. When I first picked the book off the shelf I ate it up within a few days and begged my Sister to let me borrow her copy as well.

For all these reasons, ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time’ will always have a warm spot in both my library and my heart.

You can find out more about Mark Haddon and his other books by going to this website.