Resuscitating My Love for Reading
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Bear with Me, I’m a Newbie
I promise I’m working on other bookish blog posts. While they are in the works, please bear with me as I work on the aesthetics and overall functional layout of this blog. With time everything will fall into place, so for now please appreciate the blank canvas and foresee its potential.
I didn’t want to hold off on blogging due to my writing process and initially was going to compose a lengthy ‘About Me’ post. Then I thought about my dislike of being pitched people’s life story upon first meeting them and decided against it. To each their own, but that is not my vibe. In this space of the inter-webs I prefer that we get acquainted bit by bit. Think of it as breadcrumbs. A little here and there is the best way to understand me. A ‘Book Blogger Newbie’ post will come shortly, but for now, here’s a morsel.
Recently I texted my sister about how I surpassed my reading goal this year without even realizing it. I’ve never really been the type of reader that regularly monitors their yearly goals. Knowing how my behavior can be, if I check too often it somehow causes me to read less. Luckily, regardless of the number of books I’ve set as my yearly goal, I make a point to read. That’s my definitive benchmark every year. Read at least one book.
NEPA Took the Light
A holiday break in Nigeria strangely sparked the goal to read at least one book a year. I traveled to Lagos, Nigeria in December 2015 to spend time with my fiance, now husband, and to meet his family. I’m not sure what time of the day it was, but I do remember experiencing a longer than usual electricity blackout. NEPA ‘took the light’ and this time we were not to expect it back anytime soon. Consequently, no electricity means no fan. No fan means no air circulation. No air circulation means it may be hot, and if I’m hot I cannot sleep. See the dilemma?
I needed to find something to do and make time pass until either the electricity returned or until I somehow drifted back to sleep. Hence, I chose to read a book because I expected one of two things to occur. Either I’d fall asleep after reading for about 10 minutes or I’d keep reading until the electricity was operating. I was expecting ‘wins’ across the board in this otherwise very boring and very dark situation.
Library Resources Save the Day
Luckily my local library provided access to more than one library media streaming platform at that time and utilizing them allowed me to borrow and download books for offline reading. Shout out to Libby and Hoopla. Never would I have thought that these free services would be the catalyst for reactivating my love of reading. I am thankful for the unexpected electricity blackout because it somehow led me down a pathless journey that could have only been forged by this particular happenstance.
Along with ebooks for offline reading, I had enough sense to maintain a fully charged phone and iPod. The perfect combination of items needed to get me to either of my destinations. Sleep or nose deep inside a book. I’m unsure of which platform I used, but the book I reached for was something I had started in June 2015 and had put down to revisit at another time. Knowing me, 9 times out of 10, I put the book down because I’m a mood reader and my mood did not align with the book then. The operative word is ‘then.’
Maniacally Laughing Out Loud with Issa Rae
The book I chose was The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae. I restarted the book from the beginning on the night of January 1, 2016, and finished it in the early morning hours of January 2, 2016. The speed and spirit of enjoyment in which I read were life-changing for me. The only comparable experience was when I would stay up unreasonably late to finish a book that I had already read many times before. That was during my early adolescent years. This feeling of enjoying something that was moving and not on a computer or mobile device had been dormant for so long. Now that it had been reactivated, I had to keep the same energy.
A Bibliophile is Reborn
After returning home from my vacation, I immediately made more use of my Goodreads account and sought out bookish communities on the internet for reading recommendations. I had been so far removed from anything book related that my knowledge of what was “trending” did not stretch further than the occasional standalone novels suggested by friends and novel series like Twilight, The Hunger Games, and Fifty Shades. In little to no time, I went down an internet rabbit hole with a zeal to read as much as I can. Fast forward six-plus years and I’ve built an obnoxiously long list of books I want to read and internet deals have me purchasing books faster than I can finish reading them. Now I have amassed a book collection that I’m proud to say is mine, despite not having read all of them. Details on that will be in a separate ‘Bookish Memories’ post. Just know that each book I’ve acquired has a memory attached to it, library loans included.
Chat Back!
It’s nostalgic looking back at how my reading habits and taste in books have evolved since that electrical blackout. It was a pivotal moment that I will always be thankful for. Do you have a book-related memory that got you back into reading or have you always been an avid reader? If books aren’t your jam, what is? How have you reignited your passion for participating in an activity you’ve taken a periodical break from? Let’s talk about it in the comments. I look forward to hearing from you all.
