The Joy of Visiting The Library
I've had a crazy busy last few weeks which led me into a pretty horrible reading slump that I just couldn't break out of. On top of not having enough time, I couldn't find a book that would make me want to take stolen moments to power through it. I needed to figure out how to get out of my reading rut, so I turned to the one place where I could be completely surrounded with hundreds of book possibilities: the library.
I've been twice now in the last two weeks enjoying all the new books that have been brought up and the complete freedom to walk out with as many books as I want. Even though I work at a bookstore, there's a certain magic about the books in the library. It feels so much more limitless.
Going in, I decided I'd walk over to the YA section and grab any book that sounded remotely interesting. I filled my giant canvas bag with books I'd been meaning to read, ones that had been mentioned on podcasts, ones that had gotten a lot of buzz on Twitter, and even ones with pretty covers. If it sounded remotely interesting, it went in the bag.
The beauty of my small town library is that even though our population isn't huge, our library is very well maintained. It's the heart and soul of our town. Despite YA not being the most popular category, we always get a good mix of the new releases, and they're wonderful about ordering anything I remember to request. We also have no limit on the number of books you can check out at once.
The freedom to grab any book that looks interesting, no strings attached, definitely increased my excitement about getting back into reading. I grabbed my favorites, contemporary and rom coms, but the idea that there was no consequence if I didn't like it led me to add tons of fantasy books to my bag too. I'm always hesitant to pick up fantasy because the genre is so hit or miss for me, but knowing that if I didn't click with the book for any reason, I could take it back let me step out of my comfort zone.
While I've started with the genres I'm more familiar with from my library TBR, I'm super excited to get to try something new. It's fun to get to act like a little kid in a candy store every once in a while.
So, I guess to give another piece of advice to add to my post on reading slumps, head to your local library and grab anything and everything that looks good. Use thee library and circulate some books to show that you appriiciatee what an amazing resource it is. By not carefully considering each and every book, I felt far less pressure to make the "right" choice, and I stumbled into a lot of great reads I wouldn't have found if I'd been too serious about my choices. Sometimes stepping away from your mountainous TBR and catching up on some books that slipped through the cracks is the perfect way to remember why you love reading in the first place.
My giant stack of library books gave me the feeling of reading for me again- not for the blog or for work- and that was the cure I needed to get back to it in full force.
Links of Interest:
Tell Me How You Really Feel: Review Here
Fear of Missing Out: Review Here
Mid Year Freakout: Here
Into YA with Chris Tebbetts: Here
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