I hit my reading goals for this year!

This may not seem like a big deal, but it's a very big achievement for me so I wanted to share a little bit about my reading journey.

My family immigrated to the States when I was 8 years old. Growing up, my English was good enough to land me in regular English classes even though English is my second language and I struggled with it during that period of my life. I deeply despised reading our assigned books; it would take me 3 times longer than my peers because the books we read were very difficult for me and most importantly, extremely boring. So after high school and the first year of college, I rejoiced in the fact that I'll never be forced into reading again.

Fast forward to me around 29 years old. I picked up the Red Rising trilogy after a friend enthusiastically recommended it and was immediately hooked. Part of me just never realized you can read something "fun," as I always associated reading with high brow literature and lowkey torture. I soon shed that notion after a few more books and began diving deep into scifi, fantasy, romance, mystery/thrillers, and horror.

Slowly, I started setting reading goals for myself. It started with just reading 5 books a year, then 10, then 20, and so on. Last year, my goal was 35 and I barely made it by the end of the year.

BUT!

This year, I was more ambitious so I set a goal of 55, thinking it might not be possible. But guess what? It's almost the end of July, and I freaking hit my goal for the year already!! ✨🎉 I'm incredibly proud of myself and needed to share my excitement with someone.

My goal is to work my way back into the classical literature realm so I can face my fears but I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty daunting still. That being said, I'm having a blast exploring different genres right now so any recommendations outside of the comfort genres I mentioned earlier would be greatly appreciated!