T5W: Books to Battle Reading Slump

Sometimes, reading is hard. You want to read, but the motivation is lacking and you end up not reading anything.

This is a reading slump. Slumps are hard to overcome because you want to read, but just aren't and it feels like a vicious cycle. 

But this week on Top 5 Wednesday, we are looking at books that can help overcome a reading slump!

In no particular order:

Number 1!

An old favorite:

One way to get out of a slump is to go for a book that you already know you love. 

Grabbing a book that gives you all the happy feels and nostalgia can reignite the passion for reading and create new interest in reading more!

For me, an old favorite that helps me un-slump myself is:

The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling

Number 2!

A new suspenseful mystery:

Reading a suspense story is a great way to read more as well. 

If it's well done, just reading a few pages can introduce mysteries and secrets you want to know the end of. 

So you read more trying to find the answers! 

Much win.

My choice of suspense:

The Rhetoric of Death by Judith Rock

Number 3!

A sequel:

If you want to read, but can't find the passion, pick up that sequel you never got to! 

You already know the characters and the world, but new adventures can make you remember why you kept that book around. 

And remember the other interesting world to explore on your TBR.

My choice:

Magic Steps by Tamora Pierce

(not a sequel in itself, but the first book in a second quartet after Circle of Magic)

Number 4!

A super simple read:

Get back into the reading game easy by picking up a book that is quick, and doesn't require much brain power.

This can be a book for a younger audience, or something that you know isn't going to be hard to understand.

For me, I would read:

Girl Online by Zoe Sugg

Number 5!

A book to movie adaptation, 

when you've seen the movie but never read the book:

If you're like me, a lot of reading slumps are aided by Netflix.

I watch a lot of movies and TV when otherwise I would be reading.

So take advantage! Find a movie based on a book you haven't read yet and enjoy!

Then pick up the book and compare. You can get a lot of the story from the film, but the book is so much richer.

For me, one of my favorite movies is Rise of the Guardians which is based on the series, Guardians of Childhood by William Joyce.

Check out the first book in the series:

Nicholas St. North and the Battle of the Nightmare King by William Joyce

That's my suggestions for getting out of a reading slump. Now to take some of my own advice...

Thoughts? Comments?

Check out the T5W group on GoodReads as well!

Audiobooks! AKA Bookish Fitness

I live a rather sedentary life.

I read, I write, I do a lot of stuff on the computer.

Most of that involves me sitting butt-in-chair and getting stuff done.

But this year, I combined my love of reading with my desire to be more active, all thanks to the wonder that is AUDIOBOOKS!

I am not a naturally active person, like some people are. I can be perfectly comfortable doing nothing and lazing around in bed all day. But I know my endurance and my ability to go out and explore my city and surroundings has sharply declines after moving home.

I'm facing returning to the classroom as a teacher. I'm going to have a class full of tiny people after me for attention all day at work in just a few weeks.

I need to keep up.

So I took up running to increase my general fitness and endurance.

But running is BORING!

I don't care how pretty the areas in which I'm running can be - after about 2 days of it, I'm bored.

So I decided that every run, which I would go on for about 30-45 minutes, 

I would listen to an audiobook.

Now, I may look crazy, jogging down the street and giggling madly at what a character has just said, or wrinkling my eyebrows and wondering how she's going to get herself out of this mess, but I'm NOT bored.

(And I'm not boring so if someone passes me on the street, 

maybe they can be as entertained as I am.)

So far, I've been listening to The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson on audiobook on nearly every run I've gone on this year (otherwise I'm listening to The Hamilton Mixtape.)

I've listened to just over 13 hours of this book so far, more than I've listened to any audiobook in all of 2016.

And because I only listen to this book while I run, I want to go for runs to find out what happens next.

I set it up to be more excited to run, which is amazing because I'm still not the boggiest fan of running.

I suggest you try it out.

1. Choose an audiobook that you will only listen to while exercising (walking, jogging, aerobics, whatever).
2. Make a schedule of when you will exercise, and follow through!
3. Once you get into it, it is so easy to just keep going because you like the book. Fitness is a bonus!
4. When you finish one book, pick the next and repeat! It gets you moving, and reading. Two birds, one stone and all that!

So what do you think? Can listening to a book, make a reader a runner?

I sure hope so! It's going good so far.

30-Day Challenges 2017

This year I've decided that I want to do a 30-day challenge (ish) every month, just for fun. This is not so much a resolution as it is an experiment to challenge and change some of the habits I have that can really bug me.

These challenges are not so much 30-day challenges as monthly challenges. If the day has 31 days like January, it's a 31 day challenge, and February is a 28 day challenge, and so on.

Nerdy Fitness Motivation

For the new year, I decided to take up running and started a beginner's training program. Every other day I get out and run. 

A few days ago, I was challenged to run for a full 20 minutes without walking and I was struggling.

"Just don't stop," I told myself. "You can slow down, speed up, whatever. Just. Don't. Stop."

But while I was running, I had some time to think. Why should I not stop? What was keeping me going? Health? Fitness? Endurance?

Some of that. 

But a strange thought occured to me as I ran - 

"You would have never made it as a Power Ranger if you let your self stop."

What?

See, when I was young (and still now, really) I loved Power Rangers. While other girls in my class wanted to grow up and be the first female president, I wanted to be the first female red ranger.

But child-me never actually did anything towards that goal. So now that I'm getting up and active, I find that childhood, nerdy dream, to be a great motivator to get out, even when I am not feeling it.

After all, if I ever get chosen by Zordon, abducted by aliens, or called to defend this world from threats internal and external - I should be able to run for at least 20 minutes.

So for the sake of the Earth, I get out and run.

What about you? What gets you out there, running/writing/dreaming?

What's your nerdy motivation?