Announcement and Readers Instinct

Alright I have an announcement. 

This blog is not dead. It’s NOT OVER. It’s not forgotten. Well, not by me.  I have read and/or listened to thirteen books so far this year.

I’ve done lots of thinking. I think so much that I read really slowly. I think so much that I judge what I read and can’t decide what to read next. I even judge my thoughts and come up with thoughts for other people to think about them. It’s exhausting sometimes.  I just haven’t done the whole writing my thoughts down for you to read thing.

To be completely honest, I judge my own thoughts, words and choices so harshly that to have them voluntarily judged by others for fun is utterly terrifying. It seems insane.  The results can cause me a lot of pain and humiliate me for days, weeks, even years. Trust me, I’ve been through it enough to know myself.   

However, I also know something else about this thought sharing, soul baring, and/or writing process. It’s usually worth the effort.

If I don’t do this one simple thing I wanted to do for myself, who knows what else I’ll miss out on.

Here are the books I’ve already read and experienced:

1.      The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

2.      Naked Heat by almost  Richard Castle

3.      The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

4.      Heat Rises  by almost Richard Castle

5.      Divergent  by Veronica Roth

6.      Looking for Alaska by John Green

7.      The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham

8.      Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

9.      City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare

10.  If I  Stay by Gayle Forman

11.  Where She Went  by Gayle Forman

12.  Lamb by Christopher Moore

13.  Frozen Heat by almost  Richard Castle

I’ve made some quick observations, not judgments, about my choices:

1.      I like John green…a lot

2.      I enjoy love stories and young adult books

3.      I love Richard Castle

4.      All known authors thus far are white. The person in charge of writing as Castle could be a blue woman for all I know, but because he exists in the hearts and minds of fans everywhere, he counts as a white man.

Now obviously I have nothing against books written by white people.  I simply don’t want to limit my reading to them, because everybody in the world is not white. I love reading stories I can relate to, but I also want to read about people who have different experiences than mine.  I don’t want to miss out on something great because it’s not the first thing I picked up.

That being said I have no rules about what to read for a reason. It’s more than just making this perilous task easier. I have this crazy theory that the best books come at the best times for me.  I’ll call it…reader’s instinct.

 There’s a version of this theory that applies to TV shows and movies as well. The same ideas might apply to blogs that take longer than expected:

If I don’t finish a book, it’s because I’m not ready yet. When I do finish, I often learn something, think something new to me, or share the story with a friend. Sometimes I just get that feeling that all is right with the world for a minute.

 I would  promise to have 24 decent posts by December 31^st,  but then this blog would become another unfinished new year’s resolution, and I want it to be more that. I want it to be an adventure.

 Therefore I, Angela Swanson, do solemnly swear to read and publicly comment on at least 24 books EVENTUALLY, baring tragic death.  Series may be included and may be covered in one post.  Oh, and Nikki Heat does count. We’ll discuss why later.