Top Ten Tuesday | Changes in my reading life

Posted on by Jess @ Jessticulates Posted in Top Ten TuesdayTagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,

TTT-NEW

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature hosted at That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week you compile a list of ten books which coincide with that week’s theme. You can find everything you need to know about joining in here!

This week’s theme is ‘Changes In My Reading Life’, which is such an interesting topic! When I look back at the person I was a decade ago, or even the person I was five years ago, my reading tastes have definitely changed.

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Whether it’s the types of books I’m reading, the format I read, or when and where I read, these are ten eight things that have changed throughout my reading life so far!

Reading on my Kindle

This has probably been the biggest change in my reading life, because I’m ashamed to say I used to be a huge e-reader snob. Looking back now, I don’t even know what my problem with them was? It definitely taught me not to be dramatic about change, that’s for sure!

I started my first job in publishing right at the end of 2014, and I’m pretty sure it was 2015 I finally bought my own Kindle and I read so much on it now. It’s so handy to carry around in my bag, I love how easy it is to highlight favourite passages, and it’s great for travelling. I still love paperbacks and hardbacks too, of course, but having my Kindle has helped me use less shelf space, and also means the books on my shelves are books I love.

Finishing series

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I fell out of love with series a few years ago when I read Lauren Oliver’s Requiem. I really struggled to get into them for a while afterwards, which meant I often felt left out when fellow bloggers and the booktube community were raving about new books I had no desire to pick up. On the plus side, this meant I had several years of reading some excellent standalones, and I still love a brilliant standalone, but in 2018 I finished several series and it felt so good to once again be the kind of reader who loves to spend more than one book with a group of characters.

This year, with The Folk of the Air trilogy, I found myself actively awaiting a series finale before it’s published, something I haven’t done for years, and it’s been so fun! I still love standalones, but it’s been so nice to fall back in love with series.

Reading High Fantasy

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Speaking of falling back in love, 2018 was also the year I fell back in love with high fantasy after several years of not being able to get into and feeling intimidated by it for whatever reason. Almost half of what I’ve read so far this year has been high fantasy, and I hope it continues to be a genre that I reach for.

Re-reading

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I was a voracious re-reader when I was a little girl. There were several authors I loved – Jacqueline Wilson, Dick King Smith, Roald Dahl – and I re-read their work so many times until I got to my early teens and started to read more and more authors, so had less and less time to re-read.

I didn’t re-read a book for years until I first read my favourite book, The Goblin Emperor, and loved it so much that I’ve re-read it, either by reading the paperback or listening to the audiobook, every year since. It’s made me want to re-read more of my favourite books – I only read it last year, but I’m already itching to re-read Six of Crows!

Listening to audiobooks

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For the longest time I couldn’t get into audiobooks. If I put them on in the background while doing something else, I inevitably got distracted and realised nothing I’d heard in the past 20 minutes had gone into my brain. Then in 2016 I bought my car and discovered the place I most enjoy listening to audiobooks: from my driver’s seat.

There’s something about driving that helps me focus on audiobooks – it’s how I listened to the The Memoirs of Lady Trent – and because driving helped me learn what kind of audiobooks I like, I’m also much better now at paying attention to them if I put one on at home while I do chores. I tend to do this when I’m already in the middle of an audiobook, though, or if I’m near the end and I can’t wait to hear what’s going to happen!

Unhauling

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I have a tendency to be a bit of a hoarder. I hate waste and ever since I watched Toy Story I’ve had this horrid feeling that I’m going to hurt a book’s feelings if I give it to a charity shop. (Yes, I hear how ridiculous that sounds, too.) Not only that, but my mum, bless her heart, has no hoarding tendencies whatsoever and she’s not sentimental when it comes to getting rid of things, so I’ve ended up clinging to things in response.

Over the years, though, I’ve become much better at doing big book unhauls. Every four or five months, I’ll sit down with my shelves and donate any books to charity that I read and didn’t love, or books that I have no interest in reading anymore, because there’s someone out there who’s going to love it a lot more than me. It’s the one thing I’ve never understood on some booktube channels – to each their own, I’d never tell someone what to do with their own books, but sometimes when a booktuber holds up a book to explain how much they didn’t like it months, or even years, after they read it, I don’t understand why it’s still taking up room on their shelves?

Reading Romance

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2018 was clearly a great year of change for me, because it also became the year I gave the romance genre a chance after judging it unfairly from the outskirts for far too long. Almost a year since I made this post about it, romance is the genre I reach for when I need something light and fun to cheer me up and I’m looking forward to reading more and more of it! I need to get a copy of Jen DeLuca’s Well Met asap…

Commuting to work

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As I mentioned above, I often listen to audiobooks in my car and this was an especially useful way for me to read when I drove to work. Earlier this year, though, the company I work at moved to a new office with no car park, so right now I’m getting the bus to work. In terms of my reading life, though, this has been a nice change; my journey takes around 35-40 minutes, sometimes shorter or longer depending on the traffic, but it means that there’s at least one hour of my day that I can devote to reading!

What did you talk about this week?

52 thoughts on “Top Ten Tuesday | Changes in my reading life”

  1. Reply
    Rissi says:

    I unhaul frequently and it usually makes me feel relived because a: I have room on my shelves and b: when a book is on my shelf for YEARS (without being read), I feel like my bookworm self is telling me said book is not for me. 😉

    Thanks for visiting Finding Wonderland, Jess.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Reply
      Jess @ Jessticulates says:

      Yep, I feel you! Sometimes a book stays on my shelves for years because I’m waiting for the right time to read it, and sometimes I just have to admit to myself that certain books and I aren’t meant to be and another reader will love them more.

      Like

  3. Reply
    Louise ☆ says:

    I’m really trying to get into the habit of using my Kindle more because it really does save space on my shelves, but the prices of some ebooks can put me off it sometimes if they’re more expensive than a paperback. And I very rarely re-read books these days, but I feel like it’s something I should do more often 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Reply
      Jess @ Jessticulates says:

      Yes, the prices of some ebooks are ridiculous! I’ve been wanting to read The Kingdom of Copper ever since I finished The City of Brass, but I want to read it on my Kindle, as I also read the ebook of The City of Brass, and it’s like £9.99. I can’t even borrow it from my library either because my library doesn’t have it and wants to charge me £4 for an inter-library loan, which is only £2 cheaper than buying the paperback anyway but I don’t want to add another book to my physical bookshelf. It’s such a first world problem, but trying to find affordable books can be so frustrating!

      Like

  5. Reply
    Jaime says:

    Oh, I’m so much better at purging my shelves of books than I’ve been before as well. I used to cling to books because they were pretty or I didn’t read them yet or I wanted to own ALL THE BOOKS. And then I moved and realized it’s ridiculous to keep books I don’t care about or I’m not longer interested in reading. So now I’m much better at getting rid of books, even if I still have a lot.

    Liked by 1 person

  12. Reply
    Marie says:

    Ah this is a lovely post! I also used to… well, not read e-books at all, but ever since I got my e-reader, I wonder why I was so reluctant to it, at first, it’s just so practical haha 🙂 I need to get better at unhauling books though, it’s so great that you do that every few months 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  14. Reply
    Brooke Lorren says:

    Audiobooks are great in the car. I like some books on audiobook better than others. One of the great things about Audiobooks is it allows you to read more books! I just pre-ordered The Vanishing Deep on Audiobook because I already have 2 other March 3rd releases pre-ordered, and… how am I going to find the time to read them all? Audiobook.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Reply
      Jess @ Jessticulates says:

      I agree, I’ve definitely been able to read more books this year because I’ve had audiobooks on the go! There are books like The Memoirs of Lady Trent series that I wouldn’t have been able to read at all if it weren’t for the audiobooks, because I enjoyed listening to them so much more than reading them.

      Like

  16. Reply
    dinipandareads says:

    Great list, Jess! I have definitely grown a fondness for audiobooks too since I joined the book community and I’ve also started re-reading some books, when before I’d always say that’s one I’d like re-read but never get around to it 😂 I still definitely need to work on unhauling though lol

    My TTT post

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Reply
    Nikki @The Night is Dark and Full of Books says:

    It’s funny how some of our changes are very similar while others are the complete opposite. I also discovered audiobooks and re-reading, but in contrast, I’ve realized I don’t typically like series or romance books. I wish I enjoyed series more though! I’m not giving up yet. I just plan on being a little bit more selective picking up series I might actually enjoy, instead of picking up a bunch of random first books from different series and never getting around to them. Also, unhauling is a reading change I need to implement in the coming years. It’s just so difficult to let go of books! :p

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Reply
      Jess @ Jessticulates says:

      I think one of the big reasons I went off series was because I was trying to read the ones that were popular rather than the ones I was actually interested in, so you’re not alone there! I definitely say embrace the series slump, though – I read some amazing standalones when I wasn’t into series. 😀

      Liked by 1 person

    1. Reply
      Jess @ Jessticulates says:

      You’re not alone, I was in a series slump for a long time, too, until I realised I was just reading the series that were popular rather than the series I was interested! Now that there are series I’m excited about I love revisiting the same characters. 🙂

      Like

      1. RS says:

        Unhauling is so cathartic. And I say this as someone who basically a book-hoarding dragon and haaates giving up anything I enjoyed reading or even vaguely think I might enjoy — but when I finally admit to a stack of books I would be okay not having within immediate reach and give them away, it feels really good. As does, like you said, looking at the more appealing shelves afterward.

        Liked by 1 person

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