How I Learned to Love Reading Again as an Author
Hi, I’m Vin!
Thank you, new friend, for coming to my blog. I hope you enjoy today’s content and find inspiration and joy as you read.
Time for a mind-blowing fact about me! Growing up, I hated reading.
Dun dun duuuuun.
And I call myself an author. I must be arrogant for having written an entire novel—no, two—in the era where I barely scraped by reading four books a year!
And this is a detail I cringe at.
Rest assured, less than a year ago I started a brand new reading journey. I went from reading four books a year to four books a month. I blend in a different variety of fiction and non-fiction, and overall: I benefitted more than I imagined and I wish I started this journey sooner.
Could you be a writer in the closet who isn’t as fond of reading? This blog may be for you!
What Made Me Loathe Reading in the Beginning
Ah, the dreaded book reports.
Did you ever detest those book reports of novels that your teachers shoved in front of you? Yeah, that was me. I have a large backlog of things I want to read, but I have to sideline that for a book about a kid who travels into another world through a ghost tollbooth.
I wasn’t exactly big into the novels shoved into my face that I had to read with a stake added. Like, come on, why should I force myself to enjoy a book that determines whether or not I pass sixth grade?
Now multiply that by roughly twenty times. Grade and high school both killed my drive for reading and it plagued me throughout both childhood and early adulthood.
All I want is to finish my Harry Potter series, is that too much to ask? But don’t worry, the story doesn’t end here.
2. Crawling Out of the Reading Slump
Children of Blood and Bone, one of my favorite novels.
For a time, I only read books that benefitted me. Whenever I got a recommendation for something that matched what I was looking for (mostly in the sci-fi department), I’d bounce on the opportunity, take notes, and consider what I’d weave into my current project.
But in a way, I felt selfish. There are tens of thousands of stories out there begging me to give it a chance. And little did I know that it’d shape my process in crafting The Brave Haven.
All it took was opening one book Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.
Where do I even begin? With years of feeling like a slave to reading under my belt, I needed just one novel to crack me free of the shackles of laziness. Miss Adeyemi’s book was that book.
The prose, the characters, the magic system, and the themes are all things I resonated with. It blew my mind to find out that there’s a novelist out there passionate to her cause of Black Lives Matter. It’s a cause I’m also strongly behind.
But why am I telling you all of this? It wasn’t exactly the story itself that broke me free of the burden of bored reading. It was the fact that many authors out there share the same passions as me for different causes.
For me, my calling is against the systemic oppression within our country and the normalized racism against Asian-Americans.
Books I’m enjoying — will only update with time!
3. Moving Along the Reading Journey
So I’ve taken a couple weeks break from writing. This is to play catchup, more or less. The books I’ve been honing on are stories that resonate more with the themes I try to capture in my series.
Through ten books I’ve gone through since beginning my reading journey, I’d say it’s a well-worth adventure so far. I deep dive into the stories that stand out to me including researching the author’s personal journeys and what led them to write.
This is something I never did in the years I grew up feeling forced to read. Every book I was forced to read was, “just another book” to me. However, now that I have the mentality of an author, I have more drive to explore the motivation of every author I come across.
Because not only is the author telling a story, they are telling a part of their story, as well.
Until next time! :)
V.A.L
