From there, it just got worse. I couldn't get into any book I picked up, even books I knew in the back of my mind were going to be good books. I just could not get into them at all. Nothing was grabbing my interest or full attention. But reading is my life! Especially in the summer! AHHH! What was happening to me?! Anxiety started to take over:
Yeah, so, it's not fun. But I do take a smidge of comfort in the fact that all readers are known to experience this wonderful thing called a reading slump from time to time.
I decided that the only way I was going to break the slump was by starting a new series...which is an extremely rare thing for me to decide. I have extreme commitment issues when it comes to reading a series that is longer than a trilogy. I just get bored and my mind starts to crave something else after living in the same universe for too long...one could also argue I was just reading the wrong series, but I don't think that's it. I think I just function better with standalone books. That being said, I'm all for diving into a new trilogy every now and then. My favorite trilogy by far is The Infernal Devices by Cassandra Clare, the prequel to The Mortal Instruments. I actually read TID before TMI, which I think helped me understand the Shadowhunter world much better. But, because TMI is longer than a trilogy, I got bored after the fourth one. I started the fifth, but just couldn't get into it. Also, might I just say that I would have been completely happy if TMI was a trilogy. I know I'm in the minority here and I'm not saying there wasn't room to continue, but I for one would have been satisfied if the series had ended with City of Glass. That could also just be my need for a series to not be longer than a trilogy talking.
Anyway, Clare's new spin-off series The Dark Artifices had been catching my eye since the first installment, Lady Midnight, came out last year, but I was hesitant to dive in because I *technically* never finished TMI (even though I knew what happens...that shit was spoiled for me a long time ago and I didn't care enough to be mad about it). So I committed a mortal bookworm sin and read a summary of what happens in both City of Lost Souls and City of Heavenly Fire so I could definitely say I knew what happened in the end (I know, I know, I should've just read the books. But I'm honestly done with that series. I don't have the diligence to fully read the last two). So I decided I was going to order Lady Midnight on Amazon, but I couldn't just get one book! What kind of blasphemy is that? Need to get that free shipping (I have a theory that capitalism is based solely on the weaknesses of book nerds, BTW). So I also got the sequel that just came out, Lord of Shadows, AND the first of another fantasy series that I've been meaning to check out: This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab, which every YA bookish person I follow has loved so we'll see how that goes!
While waiting for the new books I bought with money I don't have, I decided that I was going to reread one of the books that I marked as "to-reread" on Goodreads. I went with The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, which I first read in January 2016 and was actually one of the first books I ever reviewed on this blog. I only gave it 3 stars on Goodreads because I remember finding it very hard to follow and being confused most of the time...but reading it a second time made me appreciate the story and the prose much more. It could also be because, since then, I've grown to love Sylvia Plath even more than I did before and also because I've read a few scholarly analyses of the novel that made me think of it in a different way, so I made a note of wanting to reread it at some point. I still found a lot of it hard to follow but I think that's sort of the point...mental illness, especially mental illness in the 1950s and 1960s, is not easy to follow or understand. So I ended up bumping my review on Goodreads up to 4 stars.
The package also arrived several days early and right on my doorstep, so that was exciting! I mean, when is bookmail not exciting? Never. Above is the picture I took trying to be fancy and artsy for Bookstagram. If you're not already following me on Instagram, my username is @jeffreyreads! I will most probably review Lady Midnight on here when I'm finished, but it's almost 700 pages so who knows when I'll be done (also something totally out of the ordinary for me; I've been known to decide against reading a book if its over 450 pages. Or even 400. Sometimes 350. I like shorter books, okay?!) But be sure to check back here in the coming weeks for that! Thanks for reading! XOXO Gossip Jeffrey
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