A New challenge

Over the last week or so I have rediscovered a hobby which I haven't really had the time to do for a couple of years now, reading. As a child I loved leafing through books, going to new lands, meeting new characters but as I got aged 9-12 it petered out. But then for my 13th birthday (I think?) I was gifted two books which brought me back to reading. What were those books you ask? Well, I am proud to say it was Twilight and New Moon. The day I got them I started reading them straight away in a Costa Cafe where we had met up with my Mum's friend who had given them to me. I was completely enthralled by Bella Swan and her infatuation with this mysterious Vampire, Edward Cullen and his family. As soon as I finished New Moon I was straight off to buy the next two, Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. I finished all four of these Stephanie Meyer classics in a week. After that I was itching for more.

As a part of my English class at school we had one library lesson a fortnight which was held in the library (wow Caitlin, 'cos that's not obvious is it?) and we had to try and read a book every two weeks at the least. When I first started this process I found it hard to get into but after my Twilight awakening I got much more involved. I moved up the levels quicker and after being encouraged to read books which I wouldn't normally go for my reading experience was broadened forever. I will admit in older age I do seem to go for the same kind of book but maybe I will become as adventurous as my 13-14 year old self soon. Throughout my teenage years I read all the great collections of books, I've read all the Percy Jackson books, the Divergent Trilogy, The Princess Diaries. I wanted to read so badly that when I went to bed I would try and read by moonlight (which is probably why my eyesight is so bad now) as Mum had called lights out and when I heard her coming up the stairs I would hide the book under my little heart scatter cushion on my bed! Sorry mum!

My reading prowess always reaches its peak in two specific weeks of the year, when I am on holiday in Ireland. Now, don't get me wrong we always do lots of things in Ireland but as you all probably know Ireland is one of the wettest countries in the world, no doubt. So unfortunately there would be some days where we were stuck in the house for at least half of the day if not the whole day and all I would want to do is read. I think the most books I have read in this two week period is 6 books, something which to this day I am very proud of.

While I still keep to this tradition to this day, when I went to university in 2015 I found it hard to keep up with the reading. Not because I didn't want to but more because I was trying to create a social life for myself and I had work to keep up with and I just stopped reading. However, since moving in with Grace who is an avid reader I have started to want to read again but still never really found the time. But after having a hard couple of weeks coping with various events and being advised by a professional to try and find something to get me out of my head a little I have rediscovered reading and I have found Goodreads. For those of you who don't know what Goodreads is it's basically a website/app which you sign up to and you can review the books you read, discover new books and see what your friends are reading. It's great. But one of the things I love most about it is you can set yourself a reading challenge for the year of how many books you want to try and read. I've been quite reserved and only challenged myself to 10 books, but since I've already read two books in the last week or so and I've started the third I'm kind of hoping that I may surpass that.

I'm really glad I've got back into reading. It's really helped me with my sleeping as it relaxes me and gets me away from my phone for half an hour or so before I go to sleep. It's also helped to calm me in a way. I can take myself into someone else's life and live that for a while, it stops my head spinning, thinking about everything at once.

Are you a reader? Let me know in the comments what you're reading at the minute, I might even make myself a reading list from it...