Welcome back to Ask Avery! I'm Avery, and I'm here to hear your thoughts and opinions, including whether or not you use a bookmark or dog-ear your pages! Please feel free to write to me at AskAvery@pietrap.com and perhaps you'll be featured in my next article. Also, are you a book lover? If so, you should join our Discord!
We just wrapped up our first Group Read with Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree.
We had so much fun!
Now, on to the question!
Q: Dear Avery.. I'm an avid reader. Or at least I used to be. But I didn't hit a single book reading goal this year.... what do I do..? Looking at my storygraph page is making me bummed out.. nobody else I'm friends with really cares about this. Sincerely, Bookworm |
Hello Bookworm!
You're in good company. I also love reading. My favorite things to read are the poetry chapbooks my local used bookstore puts out. It's right up front, along with other self-published zines.
Zines are an important form of self-expression that I feel has been lost in modern culture. I'm sure you're familiar with glossy artbooks people online put out, but zine historically had a much less polished exterior.
The reason I'm bringing up self-published zines and poetry is for one simple reason: they're short. And they're not only fun to read, they're fun to make!
Try seeing if there is a zine scene near you, or try going to itch.io and just looking up "zines". Look, I'll even do it for you, just copy/paste this link:
You might be surprised what interesting things you might find, as well as resources to make your own! Revel in the act of creation. Never let the hunt for perfection stop you!
Reading is reading.
Engaging your brain with the written word is historically proven to help shape you into a more well-rounded person. Fiction or nonfiction, romance or memoir, books are an invaluable treasure that our modern world is built upon. While we all have a computer in our pocket nowadays, the written word is the original external memory cloud of humanity.
This is how we pass down our feelings, our scientific discoveries, our theology, our history.
It's not a challenge you need to overcome. It's a gift, from humanity to itself.
And you're putting too much pressure on yourself.
If being a reader is an important part of your identity, that's amazing! But if it's a struggle, you don't have to force it.
Try something with me. Imagine your best friend has come to you for advice. She is struggling to read anything longer than a page. Or even a paragraph. Do you shame her? Or do you give her your favorite kid's book, or poetry book, or manga?
Start small. Relearn the joy of reading you felt when you were younger.
This isn't about reading, Bookworm. It's about being kind. And I think we could all use some more of that.
Don't you?
Always,
Avery
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