Reading is not fun anymore?!

Hi guys! So I was in my room yesterday, desperately trying to finish the book I was reading, when I suddenly realized something which caught me completely off-guard: I was not enjoying it at all! And sometimes, yeah, some books don't work for you, but what I realized I wasn't enjoying was not the book but the reading itself. And then it hit me. I had been trying so hard to finish as many books as I could lately that reading had stop being fun.

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Okay, so you're probably wondering why I've been trying so hard to finish my books. Well, those of you who've been here for a while already know this but in short, very soon, I'm moving abroad to do my Master degree. That means that I'll be leaving a bunch of my stuff back at home... including my bookshelf and all of its unread books! 

I know, I know. I can take some books with me. The thing is, I already have so many stuff I must bring with me, which limits the number of books I can take with me. So some books will have to be left behind and there's not much I can do about that. Apart from reading them that is... which brings me back to the whole 'reading is not fun anymore' situation. 

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While I will have a full post for you with more info about my move abroad soon, right now what I can already tell you is that I'll be leaving in roughly 5 weeks. And 5 weeks is a very short span of time to finish a TBR. Usually, I read 1 or 2 books per week. With the move looming closer, I've found myself struggling to complete 4 or 5 books per week and while I've read some good books lately, not gonna lie, after a little while it all began to become a tad exhausting. 

So today, I was thinking I wished I had someone I could discuss about all that stuff with when I suddenly realized that I actually do. I mean you guys, of course ^^ So I decided to write a blog post about it. And make myself a warm cup of tea which I'm drinking while I'm typing this... Tea ♥ 

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Phew! I do feel a little better about it now that I've shared all that stuff with you! And had some tea ^^ 

Okay, so here's what I've decided...

1. I'm going to take a break from reading for a couple of days or more. I had a bit of a burn out here so the best thing is simply to take some time off reading.

2. I'm going to stop stressing about my unread books. I'll pack as many of them as I can and so what if I leave some unread books behind? I can just read them when I'm back, right?

3. Starting from now, I'm going to read only for pleasure. Not to finish my TBR, not to meet any kind of reading goal, nope. I like books and that's the only reason I'll be reading them.

4. I'll read books I want to read rather than books I feel I should be reading. This seems like a simple thing but honestly, sometimes I feel like there are particular books or kinds of books I should be reading and this is just ridiculous. Unless you have required reading for school or maybe for review, there's no reason to push yourself to read things you don't feel like picking up. 

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I guess today's post was more me sharing my thoughts with you rather than an actual book blog post. It's just that I really wanted to share this issue with you guys. So if you have words of advice for me or simply some thoughts you want to share, definitely leave a comment down below! 

Books seem like such a silly thing to get stressed over right?! But I guess that's part of being a hopelessly passionate book lover after all ^^

My Favorite Book Covers

Hi guys! In today's post, I'm going to show you some of my favorite book covers! Like so many book lovers, I have to confess that I am, in fact, sensitive to beautiful book cover designs and have more than once given in to a book purchase because of a beautiful cover. But hey, we all do cover buys every now and then and it's actually absolutely fine! I will say though that all the books mentioned here are books that I've either read and really enjoyed or ones that I'll be reading very soon.

If you want to know more about the actual plot, you can click on the book titles, which will take you to each book's Goodreads page. Let's begin ^^

After Alice by Gregory Maguire

This is probably the most beautiful book I own. This is an Alice in Wonderland retelling and it's written by one of my favorite authors who also wrote other favorites of mine like Wicked and Confessions of an ugly step-sister. To me, this cover is the best tribute to all the things that make up the unique universe of Alice. Each detail on the cover is a nod to an element from the original tale, like the Mad Hatter's hat, the playing cards, the cups, the time piece, etc. To the Alice in Wonderland fan that I am, this cover works like the ultimate fan art. 

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

This is the Puffin Chalk edition of this classic story and it's absolutely stunning. It has French flaps, deckle edges and the most stunning of cover designs. Of all the books in this edition, I think this one is my favorite.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling and illustrated by Jim Kay

This is the illustrated version of the first Harry Potter book and the illustration they picked for the cover is, in my opinion, the one that best represents the story and the magnitude of the series it eventually evolves in. Harry is about to board the Hogwarts Express and for him and us alike, this marks the beginning of an epic journey that stretches through 7 books, 8 movies and one of the biggest fandoms of all time. This image is for me the best representation of Harry Potter and I'm very glad they picked it for the cover of this edition. 

Prince Lestat by Anne Rice

This is the 11th and latest book in the classic Vampire Chronicles series featuring my favorite character of all time, the vampire Lestat. I love Lestat and I'm very glad Anne Rice is finally writing more of his roguish adventures. I also absolutely love this cover design. It's at the same time very mysterious and yet highly reminiscent of the Gothic atmosphere of the earlier books in the series.

So those were some of my favorite book covers. I'll probably be acquiring enough more books during the year to be able to write another favorite book cover post at some point. Meanwhile, if there's a book cover design you really like, feel free to share a link to the picture in the comments ^^

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Cover art by Of Stacks and Cups via Pagemodo