The year I’ll read more books than I’ve read my entire life!

All throughout high school and
college, I didn’t read ONE book from start to finish- NOT ONE! I hated reading.
I found it boring. I couldn’t bring myself to pick a book up and read it, even
though assignment after assignment required I do so… I didn’t. I got by and
managed to get a high school diploma and a Bachelors degree with a fairly high
GPA, without reading a single book, by simply skimming through pages finding
important points that I predicted would be on tests. I am not sure what that says about the education system
where I grow up.

But a couple of years ago, I
would pick up a book here and there that I thought looked interested and read.
I learned how to enjoy reading, I found myself interested in and craving these
books. I imagined the characters and thought about them throughout the day,
wanting more of their story. I got lost in the worlds created by these authors.
I felt, cried and laughed, and even felt sad when the stories came to an end…
all feelings I had never experienced before when reading.

Before this year my series
consisted of these:

Harry Potter (of course),
Confessions of a Shopaholic, and Twilight. I read a little here and there, but
honestly these three series sum it up pretty well.

At the end of last year I started
reading The Wolves of Mercy Falls series, and although I can’t say I loved it,
I liked it and it reminded me that I really did like reading!

Around Christmas time hubby
and I went out for out anniversary and I was talking about reading and what
series I might like to read, and then I said that I DIDN’T want to read The
Hunger Games.

I mentioned that the idea of it
kind of freaked me out and I just wasn’t going to jump on that bandwagon- HA!
He gave me this weird smile to which I asked what he was thinking and he said
“Well, I guess I will
have a new series to read after Christmas then!”
Open mouth, insert foot.

Oops- he had already bought the
series for me for Christmas! So I thought about it a little and decided to give
it a go, how could I not when everyone else raved about it, and it was sitting
in my living room already!

So after the first of the year,
on January 18th to be specific, I picked up The Hunger Games. On January 19th I
finished it. YES- It was that good! The second book Catching Fire I finished in
three days, and I finished the last of the series, Mockingjay only 24 hours
after that. The whole series- less than one week. It drew me in and made me
fall in love with reading. I don’t want to give you a review of the books,
especially if you haven’t read them, but they were totally worth reading!

After The Hunger Games I craved
another book so I dove into Divergent by Veronice Roth. This book is 5 stars!
It has the same YA dystopian feel, however there are Christian undertones and
hope- which the Hunger Games seemed to lack a little.

And Veronica Roth is ONLY 23
years old- amazing!

In the middle of all of that I
joined Good Reads and started researching other books and series that I wanted
to read. I found that I loved it and I really want to make it a priority. So I
set a goal, my goal is to read 25 books this year, which will be huge for me!

You can track my progress in my
sidebar and I would love to hear any book recommendations you have, or find me
on Good Reads! I am currently reading Tina Fey’s Bossy Pants 🙂