BOOKS READ:

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
• Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler (Art by Maira Kalman)
• The Girl On the Train by Paula Hawkins

BOOKS BOUGHT:

• The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin
• Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler (Art by Maira Kalman)
• Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff

I haven’t read as much books as last month for reasons that I can only fathom as anxiety, stress, and overthinking. I’ve been having a hard time sleeping at night, perhaps, you could say that it’s the perfect reason to read more books and I thought so, too, but it’s not. I hate it when reading feels like a chore or a task, so instead of pushing myself to read a lot of books this month (and cause more anxiety and pressure), I just took my time in reading each book. Sometimes I would read slowly and if I feel like I am not picking anything up, I stop reading for a while and continue at a later time. It helps.

Back in 2012 to 2013, when I still have a separate blog for my book-related posts, I used to stress over the fact that I am not reading as much books as other book bloggers. I used to have a specific number of books set to read for each month and I can still remember how at some point in the latter part of 2013, I felt really pressured about doing reviews, reading more books, attending more events, etc. and that is why I stopped. I deleted my book blog and focused more on my personal blog where I started posting book reviews whenever I feel like writing one. I stopped pressuring myself about writing reviews and reading new releases. At the time, I was still a student, so I didn’t have a lot of budget for books, let alone new releases. I kept reminding myself that reading is my hobby and that it should help me cope up with stress from school and deadlines, so stressing over finishing a book or accomplishing my target number of books for the month should be thrown out of the window.

Thinking about it now, I realized that given my current situation, I should probably apply what I did in my personal life. Like, I should constantly remind myself not to put too much pressure on everything. I really find it hard to do that because most of the time I just can’t put myself to stop overthinking things and I am trying so bad, but I guess I have to try harder.

Anyway, so much for all that. Let’s head down to the books that I was able to finish reading this month:

So the first book that I read for the month of April was the first book in the Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins. I didn’t quite like it as much as I thought I would, but I liked it enough to continue on with the series + I already have the last two books in the series, so might as well try and finish them. Well, for me, it was kind of dragging at first. It kind of picked up when they were finally on the arena, and honestly, Katniss’ character did not strike me enough to love her. Maybe I’ll develop something with her character in the next book, but as of writing, my favorite character from the book was Rue. I was really sad when she died. Anyway, I rated it 3 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

Another book that I read was Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler and Art by Maira Kalman. What can I say? This book is heart-breaking in a way that you’d recall all those heartbreaks you went through as teenager (or if you’re a teenager, you’d relate to it so much, maybe). It was kind of predictable, but I gave an extra .5 star because even though I saw it coming, it still didn’t prepare me for the pain that I would feel for Min when she found out about what was really going on. I think that if I have read this back when it was first released, I would have loved it more. I wrote a review about it here.

The last book I’ve read in May was The Girl On the Train by Paula Hawkins. Since most of overthinking and sleeping issues happened during the latter part of the month, I’ve read this book for a longer time — 12 days to be exact. I really enjoyed it though. Whenever I am in the mood for reading, it really kept me turning the pages and wanting to find out more about Rachel, Anna, and Megan. I’m thinking of writing a review about it soon. It did not make it to my all-time favorites shelf, but I really liked. I liked it enough to give it a 4 out of 5 stars on Goodreads.

I haven’t gotten the chance to squeeze in some graphic novel and/or manga in my list this month as I planned to, but that’s okay. I’ll probably do so in June. I’m currently reading This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz. I’m just a few pages in, so I don’t really have a lot of insights about it yet, but I remember how much I wanted to read this when it was released, so I hope it turns out good for me.

What about you? What have you been reading lately? 😊