You Don't Have To Read All Of The Books

Since joining Goodreads two years ago I have been striving to read more books. I have always been a vigorous reader, but Goodreads encouraged me to read even more, to aim higher. Then I started to watch videos on the booktube community over on Youtube. Suddenly there were just so many books that I wanted to read that I just jumped in head first. I wanted to read them all. I discovered a lot of authors that I would now consider as new favorites, I discovered a lot of really great books that I would now consider as new favorites, but I also waded through a lot of books that I just could have lived without ever having read, most of them being from the young adult genre. I went a few years without reading young adult so it feels like now that I have gone back to it, the amount of it is slightly ... overwhelming to say the least. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do.

But young adult is a tricky genre for me, the majority of it feeling a little too juvenile for my tastes, poorly executed. Its kind of a hit or a miss in that category. And I can tell you that as of this point I am starting to feel burned out on some points. Dystopian, oh boy am I burned out on dystopian right now. I first got into the world of dystopian after reading "The Hunger Games", that book first introduced me to that subject. But after reading multiple books on this genre it almost just feels like a repeat of itself. I am also feeling burned out on vampire books. Ever since the "Twilight" epidemic the young adult genre has been flooded with books based on vampires. Currently I have quite a few fantasy and paranormal books on my library book TBR pile, none of the previously mentioned subjects make a appearance. I think that I am going to take a break from those for a while.

I will always give a book a chance when it catches my attention, but I will not give it my time unless earned. I have always been able to put down a book and declare it too awful to continue to read it, but now I am going to be even more critical when it comes to books. Too often do I finish a book and feel ... nothing as far as my reaction to it goes. That's not good, that's not the sign of a well written book and it's not the type of book that I want to waste my time on. I'm pretty good at judging what kind of a book it will be just by its first few opening chapters, but sometimes I have found myself pushing through despite my feelings on it just because of the large hype surrounding the book. These are always the books that end up disappointing me. No more! I have already pulled out three of the books from my stack of library books that will be going back unread. "Fablehaven", and "Gregor the Overlander" simply for the mere fact that they are middle grade books and I just don't feel as if I am the right audience. Middle grade just feels a little too immature (children's classics are entirely different however). I will also be returning "Talon" to the library unread. It was a impulse grab while browsing the shelves at the library, but honestly the reviews don't sound too promising and I even cracked it open and read the first page ... no. I'm not going to read it.

Don't give into the peer pressure. I did and it nearly destroyed me. You don't have to read all of the books.