Life After A.R. Goals

Photo Credit: Kaylan Dula

How my not-so-typical love affair with books began...

I haven’t always loved reading. Sure, I enjoyed a good Book Fair like most people, but reading was never something that I genuinely looked forward to. I remember reading The Black Stallion series in elementary school solely because my best friend loved horses. I remember reading Nancy Drew novels only because I became part of a friendly competition to see who could read the most books told from the perspective of a strawberry blond, female sleuth. I remember James and the Giant Peach being my first “big girl book” and how happy I was that I could make it through a chapter book by myself. But did I enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed finishing the book? I don’t think so.

If you were to ask the members of my generation, most people (at least in North Carolina) would tell you that they only read for A.R. points, especially in middle school. Although I’m not bashing this system that encourages reading, I do think that many people approach reading with a “have to” mentality. I have to read this for class or I have to read to sound intelligent.

I was one of these people. My love for reading did not start until college, when I was no longer being forced to read. Sheepish at first (because I associated reading with school) I began to love the atmosphere of bookshops and the escape that reading provided. I have never been one for movies (which is a whole other blog post), so reading was a great way for me to leave my story and become a part of someone else’s story for a little while.

Humans have a need for acceptance, which extends even to literature. Growing up I read what was popular, what I was expected to read. When I graduated high school and started college I was confused about what genre I should be reading. I assumed that I would have to read works by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. How wrong was I.

I became familiar with different genres and book recommendations after discovering BookTube (the online community of YouTubers who are self-proclaimed bibliophiles). Here I learned that young adult/contemporary books are my favorite. This is where I also discovered book reviews, which ended up saving me a lot of time in the store and saving me even more money on books!

I was very hesitant to ever call myself “a reader” when I first became interested in books. In my mind, readers were people who grew up constantly exceeding their A.R. goals. Readers were people who always had books with them (Rory Gilmore coming to mind here). Readers were people who could have intellectual conversations about the classics. But readers are also people who can appreciate a good piece of literature. Readers are people who can get lost in a book, even if they can’t exactly put in to words what moved them. Readers can be people who buy a paper every Sunday, just as they can be people who haven’t had time to pick up a book in months.

I never thought I was worthy of enjoying the book world, because I wasn’t completely immersed in it. But here I am, creating a book blog. Who would have thought. This blog will focus on anything book-related, whether I post a book review, discuss the newest trends in the book community, or offer ways to stay in touch with other book lovers.

Until next time, Happy Reading!