Hobby Intro: Books

We all know books, right? :) I used to read a lot when I was younger, mostly books about dragons and horses. I stopped after high school and tried to get back into it for years; every now and then I'd stop by Barnes & Noble and pick something up to read then struggle to get through. I used to do this all the time, even with video games and stuff distracting me, so why was it so hard now? 

(Another thing, as a side note, was that I was trying to stick to printed books. I hadn't reached the point where I accepted audiobooks as "actually reading," since... yeah, you're not reading with your eyes.)

It wasn't until 2019 that I started piecing together why: I technically stopped after high school, but I lost my love of it during high school. The books that high school has you read, the "American Classics" and such, sucked out my love for reading. In fact, I remember struggling to get reading assignments done in high school, despite me loving the classes and even signing up for more English credits than I needed to graduate. And those books I'd bought that I was excited about? Well, when walking around the store, I'd convince myself that the reason I hadn't read in forever was I'd been reading "children's" books. Dragons and ponies? That's for kids! So I need to pick something mature to read, like this contemporary fiction on relationships and... And... wow, I can't focus on this. I wonder why?

I understand the importance of classic literature but realized that reading things that someone else has decided I should like or respect isn't the way to go. I need to be true to myself and my own interests! So I asked myself: what were the last books I enjoyed before I stopped reading? And I thought of a couple: Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly and Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen. 

Dragonsbane by Barbara Hambly, where a black dragon holds a woman in his front claws as two men watch helplessly. This cover is a favorite of mine, and the build of the dragon makes me think of geese.

Dragon's Blood by Jane Yolen. This is also a favorite cover of mine, featuring a child struggling to train the dragon he'd stolen.

I picked up these two on audio because I decided to give it a try. I hadn't really accepted audiobooks as "books" by this point because I felt they were "cheating" the reading experience. But I decided to give them a try because, well, getting through a book by listening is still getting you the contents of it. The ultimate goal of enjoying a story or learning the subject matter is still achieved, right? And, while I don't really watch movies or tv, I enjoy having music or youtube videos playing to listen to while I work on comics and other things (usually artwork of some kind). So I can just slot books into my normal working time and I don't have to cut out time specifically for them.

Of the two books, I fell completely in love with Dragonsbane all over again. I even related to the main character better, as she's a mage in her 40s struggling with her midlife crisis when the story begins - she's been studying magic her whole life, but she's never really been very good at it. I'm closer in age to her now than I was as a teen so her struggles are all the more real to me. I love the rules of magic that Hambly's books employ and her take on dragons, beings of pure magic, who are drawn to gold because it, too, is magic - and it "sings" to the dragons.

Dragon's Blood, while I still appreciate the concepts and atmosphere, had some themes I didn't really appreciate as much as an adult. I love the idea of a kid stealing a dragon egg to raise to pit fight in the desert so he can buy his freedom. But I wasn't crazy about how the love interest was treated by the author. This book has sequels and I had fun with the story, but I decided to pass on continuing. 

So this ended up being a success. I enjoyed the books and got through them both to the end, and came around to audiobooks. I can get the enjoyment from reading a book while working, too, which makes reading more easy. So for 2020, before any of the craziness began (at least in the US), I set a reading goal for 12 books. I felt that was a fair goal, and it evens out to be one book a month, right? 

I read... 35 books that year, haha. Covid "helped", I'm sure, but it was still a huge jump for me. Realizing that my library card let me check out audiobooks from an app from my local libraries was huge. And the thing was that, as I read more audiobooks, it made me want to sit and read more printed books. I learned how to speed read as well, which actually helped my usually-poor reading comprehension, which could leave me rereading a paragraph multiple times before I understood it. (Much less of that now.) I also gave up trying to force myself to finish books I'm not jiving with - if a book is a struggle to get through, why am I trying to force it? There are more books in the world than I can possibly read in my lifetime, I don't need to waste a second reading a book I hate. I don't need to wait and see if it'll get better by the end. Especially if it's all for fun anyway.

In 2021, I read 20 books - not as much, but still a good amount. After that, I fell back off again. 

So this year I'm trying to get back to it (again.) I have plenty of unread books on my shelf that I need to start knocking out. Recently I picked up a book called Black Leviathan, which is basically Moby Dick, but rewritten to be about dragonslayers. 

Black Leviathan by Bernd Perplies. I'm incredibly excited for this one. If this book is boring I'm going to be so devastated, haha.

So maybe I'll share book reviews here from time to time? I'd been putting them on Goodreads but lately it's been running pretty... poorly. Lots of 403 errors while I browse the site. I created an account on BookWyrm.World and I'll likely post reviews there, but I think it would be nice to put something more personalized on my blog here. We'll see how it goes! I have a couple of library books right now that I'd like to finish before I get to this.

The moral of the story is to read what you like, don't waste time reading books that don't grab you. Also libraries are awesome, you get FREE BOOKS.