4 Books That Ended My Reading Slump

Until last year, I hadn't picked up a book and read it for fun in over four years. As an angsty teenager turned college student, I simply didn't have the time or energy to devote to reading like I did when I was younger. Instead, I limited myself to the wild world of fanfiction on the internet.

As an English major, this presented several challenges, and it certainly wasn't the face I wanted to present to a professional world. When I started taking creative writing workshop classes, I couldn't write anything other than fanfiction. It was humiliating. Because fanfiction was the only medium I consumed, I had trouble producing stories that didn't sound like a 10k slow burn Cap x Bucky fic from Archive of Our Own.

Last summer was when I knew I had to get myself out of my reading slump and fast. If I wanted to take my craft seriously, I had to learn how to read again. Through trial and error, I began to find books that I enjoyed reading. Slowly, I began to read more and more as I started to care more about the books I was able to get my hands on.

Now a year later, I can confidently say that I'm out of my slump. My To-Be-Read list is getting shorter and shorter with each passing month. There are four specific books that really defined the beginning of my reading journey. They will always be in my heart as books that shaped me as a person and as an aspiring professional writer.

1. Turtles All The Way Down by John Green

Turtles All The Way Down is about Aza, a teenage girl who struggles with crippling anxiety. Her story follows the ups and downs of navigating high school, friendships, and romance along with mental illness. John Green has been praised by review after review about his accurate portrayal of mental illness through the eyes of Aza and her family and friends.

This book was one of the first I picked up when I started reading again. It is classified as Young Adult literature, so it was an easy transition from cheesy fanfiction to critically-acclaimed books. While YA isn't necessarily my genre of choice, this books stands out in so many ways, not just because of its discussion of mental illness in high school, but also how it shows the everyday struggles of high school and romantic sub-plots.

2. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Great Gatsby is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway, who meets Jay Gatsby at one of his lavish Jazz Age parties. Nick unexpectedly becomes a helpless spectator in the worst parts of Gatsby's life, including his ruinous lifestyle and his obsession with his childhood lover Daisy Buchanan. It is a dark must-read classic from the early twentieth century.

Most of the reading I had done during the four years of no leisure books had been for my classic literature classes in college, so when I began reading again, I decided I needed to give classics a try. I found this copy of Gatsby at my local used bookstore, and I picked it up to read as soon as I got home. In the course of a couple days, I was swept off my feet by the drama of Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby, and Daisy Buchanan and their twisted lives.

3. Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Fragile Things is actually not a novel; it is a collection of short stories. Neil Gaiman showcases his unique writing style through several short stories and a few poems in a way that is very fun and very gripping to read. The collection includes everything from a Sherlock Holmes retelling and a list of instructions about what to do when you find yourself stuck in a fairy tale. The subtitle "Short Fictions and Wonders" is an understatement. The collection is unbelievable wonderful.

I picked this one up because short stories are my specialty as a writer, and I wanted to have some more samples in my mental arsenal of good short story writers. Neil Gaiman's voice is so unique, and I fell in love with it so fast. In fact, in the past year I have read a lot of his full novels. I am happy to report that his novels live up to the wonder that he presents in his short stories.

4. Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusack

Bridge of Clay is about five brothers who learn how to thrive on their own after their mother dies of cancer and their alcoholic father leaves shortly after. Many years later, their father comes back looking for help building a bridge on his new property. Because of the hurt he caused to the five brothers, they are all reluctant to set aside their grudges: all of them except one. It is a story all about redemption and family ties that will tug on the heartstrings. It definitely left me in tears when I finished.

Many people have trouble picking a favorite book, but I will immediately spout out that my favorite book is Bridge of Clay. It is definitely the most important book that I own (not to mention that it's one of the only signed books I owned), and I am already planning on re-reading it very soon.

These four books are so important to me, because without them I wouldn't have picked up reading again. They rebuilt my faith in literature, as well as myself, and they helped me to try out a lot of different genres to see what I most enjoy reading. Hopefully these books can help you get out of your own reading slump as well!