The Bookish Mindset

Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to have some time off between jobs and I took in upon myself to take on a little challenge: can I read seven books in seven days?

Before I talk you through how it went, let me premise this by saying reading for me is my relaxer, it’s the activity that slows my brain and let’s me switch off (rewatching the LOTR trilogy comes a close second). You might question me ‘forcing’ myself or ‘pushing’ myself to read, but this isn’t a negative action – for me it means I’m carving out the time to read and that’s wonderful. And that’s exactly what I needed in my time off – time to read rather than doom scroll – we’ve all been there.

The second premise I’d like to note is that I often have a rough plan and for my TBR for the month, so rather than make this challenge super easy and choose short books and graphic novels, I wanted to challenge myself to the next seven books on my TBR. Which felt great, until I realised one was 600+ pages.. but we move! I’ll also mention I am naturally a fast reader so one standard size book feels possible within a day.

So, seven books lined up and ready, a week with very few plans, it sounded like an idyllic situation, right? Right! Let’s get into the books:

• Marriage and Masti – Nisha Sharma
• Dark Restraint – Katee Robert
• We Free the Stars – Hafsa Faizal
• Person Unlimited – Dean Atta
• Medusa of the Roses – Navid Sinaki
• The Volcano Daughters – Gina Maria Balibrera
• Til’ Death Do Us Part – Rose Black

Over the course of the seven days, I managed to read 6/7 books and I’m really happy with that. Some books took me less than a day, and some much long (We Free the Stars I’m looking at you!) but that’s exactly what I suspected. I didn’t finish TIl’ Death Do Us part in the time and I’m glad I didn’t rush or force myself because I actually ended up DNF’ing it!

I thought not finishing the challenge would bother me more: I’m an unnecessarily competitive person and I had to lower my reading goal this year because last year I aimed too high and stressed myself out! After what felt like seven days of constant reading, I was pretty happy to relax on day eight!

It definitely helped me not panic during my time off and I’ve crossed some good books off my TBR, but it’s not something I’d attempt in a hurry again. It was fun, but it was a lot!

You can find all these recs and more great reads in my Bookshop.org store here.

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