Reading troubles

I love to read. I love to read so much so that I willingly admit to the nickname "bookworm." There is just something about curling up with a good book. You can enter into a world all on your own, using your own imagination to guide you. Growing up my favorite books were R.L. Stein thrillers and anything to do with the paranormal. I loved the thrill and the spookiness that only a mystery can provide. I then moved to mystery novels, my mother's book of choice. She would read a mystery and then hand it off to me. It got to the point where I never expected any other type of genre from her.

She once handed me a book called "The India Fan" by Victoria Holts. A few days later she asked how I was enjoying it. I explained that it was good however, the murder was taking a while, as I was 100 pages into it and no one had died yet. Come to find out, it wasn't a murder mystery which is why no murder had taken place. We couldn't stop laughing about that for days.

I graduated from murder mysteries in high school, when my book of choice centered around classics like "Gone with the Wind," "Jane Eyre" and "Pride and Prejudice." I found these types of books more rewarding than the easily predictable, choreographed murder mysteries I had grown up on.

Since arriving in South Korea, I have read around 13 books, however recently I have found I've lost my reading zone. The desire to pick up a book as escaped me. This might be a great title for a book "The Mystery of the Fallen Avid Reader," except that the mystery isn't that difficult to solve making the book a bit too short for my liking. Directly after I had plowed through some really wonderful books, I decided to pick up a classic I had been wanting to read for a while, "Catch 22." I didn't know much about the book except that it was a MUST read as it was a classic. However I hated it, ok that might be too strong of a word, strongly disliked it. And I can't say that about many books. There are few books that I refuse to finish, but "Catch 22" is one of them. The book is about the absurdity of war, but every character is insane in the book and no one makes any sense intentionally. I couldn't follow what was going on and 70 pages in I threw the book down in disgust. The next book I picked up was "Beloved" by Toni Morrison becuase it was in our community bookshelf and had raving reviews. However, I found the writing style bizarre. Let me clarify, I like interesting writing and I love metaphorical writing, but this book reminded me of reading Faulkner. WHAT IS GOING ON? Something about a baby haunting a house and a possessed wedding dress, and a tree growing out of scars from the ladies back. WHAT?? And that was it, two books in a row that I couldn't finish and I didn't pick up another book for a month. Has this ever happened to you? I know I can't be the only one. What books have you not been able to finish?

Recently however, I made a decision to climb out of my reading slump by picking up an easy, fun, pink, chick book that a friend lent me called "Can you keep a secret?" by Sophi Kinsella. It's kind of like reading a bad chick flick. Seriously, I don't think I have ever read a chick flick book quite as bad and as corny as this one, but it's entertaining and most importantly it got me back into the zone so I plan to finish it just because I need to finish something I start even if it is turning my mind to mush.

So that's the end of my tradgic reading troubles, two books I couldn't finish and the unlikely book hero that saved the day!

(If you ever want to keep up with what I am reading, you can click down below on my Shelfari book shelf. It is this great website that allows you to share which books you are reading or have read with friends and family. The thing I love about it is that I can keep track of what books I have read and what books I want to read in the future. If you love reading as much as I do, or even just a little, you can check it out and select me as your friend. )