Sunday, February 1, 2015

Reading Funks, Novellas and Short Story Collections

I have been in a reading funk of some kind since mid-November. Nothing really appeals to me and books are hard to pick up. Everything I do pick up is quickly abandoned for something I think looks more interesting or I'm sure will break this reading funk. I read that book for a few days and the process starts all over again.



There are some books though I've been able to slowly claw my way through. I've been reading a lot of story collections, short books and novellas recently. I've picked up Four: A Divergent Collection by Veronica Roth, The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas and I am slowly working through The Curiosities by Maggie Stiefvater, Brenna Yavanoff & Tessa Gratton.

Those are just a few of many I've pick up though. Recently I finished The Resurrectionist which was only 70pgs of text (with wide margins and lots of pictures and offset passages as well), while the rest was anatomical drawings of mythical creatures. Yes that is what I just said and yes it was SO cool.

I also have been working on my Sherlock Collection, which I've been attempting to finish for two years, and the Percy Jackson's Greek Gods by Rick Riordan. Then I discovered The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood is actually short stories that are interconnected so I'm also picking these up at regular intervals.

All of these have short stories or short chapters so I can take long breaks in between reading and I won't forget where I am in the story. I don't know if these are really helping my reading slump, but I feel like I'm getting a lot of reading done.



I have also been purchasing a lot of these types of books as well. It seems like everything I've been looking at is a novella or collection of stories. Recently I purchased Across the Wall by Garth Nix which includes several stories about the Old Kingdom but also includes other short stories.

Fairest just showed up at my house as well which is rather long for a novella, but still a short book compared to Cress. Speaking of novellas, my last read of January was Night of Cake and Puppets by Lani Taylor. It is the novella between books two and three of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series.

Plus I borrowed The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman from the library. It is also quite short and easy to fly through and I've been picking up a lot of graphic novels like the Avatar the Last Airbender Series, Saga and several others.

As you can see I've been busy reading, but not novels! So while the pile of books I have tried to start grows even larger, the feeling of finishing a story or even a chapter is keeping my reading going and I'm really enjoying these stories. I'm excited to be reading just a little bit and I'm finally feeling like I want to read again. Maybe this is another step for me when I get in a reading funk. Alongside taking reading breaks and diversifying my reading, maybe I need to read varied lengths and formats.

Happy Reading!

No comments:

Post a Comment