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Books and I go way back. 

I love everything about them – the smell of the pages when you first purchase them from the bookstore, the beautifully written dedications, the stories they tell. I love writing in them, I love buying them but above all else, I love reading them.

That hasn’t quite been the case in these past few years, and that breaks my heart into a million pieces. No, scratch that, my heart actually aches like a million paper cuts slashing into them. 

I used to be that kid who would bring a book with her everywhere she went. I read while I waited for breakfast to be served, I read during P.E., I read before bed, I read like my life depended on it and to an extent, my life did revolve around reading.

Now, though, I find my hands wandering over to grab my phone instead of the books on my shelf. My fingers scroll endlessly through social media instead of flipping the pages of a book. I hate to put the blame entirely on technology for the fear of proving my parents right, but you know what, they were sort of onto something now that I have unlimited screen time. 

I’m not villainising our phones or social media. It obviously has its goods, but I’ll also admit that it’s easy to get too attached and too addicted to it. Sometimes scrolling through videos of baby highland cows basking in the sun or army men surprising their families are much more inviting than a book. Can you blame me though? 

Especially if the book in question is not resonating with you at all. Speaking of books that are not resonating with me, my law school textbooks are definitely snagging the top spot for said category – except for my comparative law textbook, I actually enjoyed that one (only because it’s easy to read and discusses a lot about the different legal traditions practiced around the world).

Unsurprisingly, law school has somewhat sucked the fun out of recreational reading for me because I just couldn’t bring myself to spend another hour reading after already spending so much time on my textbooks, cases, and legislation. I end up wanting to just mindlessly scroll through IG at the end of the day.

But I am trying to revive my old bookworm phase though, especially after seeing my weekly average screen time. 

It also seems like a good chunk of the internet is trying to get back into reading too with public figures/celebrities holding book clubs over Instagram live and YouTube channels created for the sole purpose of talking about books.

I like that, reconciling literature and social media after they’ve been put head-to-head with each other for so long. 

I’m still taking baby steps with recreational reading, of course. My goal this year is to read at least 5 books (other than that listed under the required reading in MyUni). I’m at the end of my second book so far – Daisy Jones and The Six - and I'm already looking forward to my trip to Dymocks to get my hands on a copy of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous!