I have always been an avid book reader my entire life, especially from 16-25 years old. I am 31 today and for the past 6 years i have struggled immensely with reading in general. In my younger days, i would gravitate towards romance, teen, young adult, high-school drama... Nora Roberts, Nicholas Sparks, and Danielle Steel, to think of a few. Life got busy and i kind of stopped reading books, but kept all my books, I actually collected books. It was a really weird "phase" i went through. I would purchase books that were POPULAR "girl with the dragon tattoo series" , "harry potter series" etc.. and never open the books. I literally carted these books from home to home ( i moved a lot when i was younger) just to put them on a shelf and look at them and say to myself "i will read them one day, obviously" but i NEVER DID!
i did this for YEARS! when i finally told myself i actually wanted to start reading again, i would pick up the same genre i was used to, the only genre i ever really read. Quickly, i realized i was SO bored of the book after a few chapters, i found myself not remember what i read after reading it, almost immediately and i would often fall asleep reading the books and blame it on the fact i was just tired, ill try again tomorrow. There was a while where i thought i didn't like books anymore, where i thought maybe books weren't for me anymore and i just had to deal with it and find a new hobby. It made me really sad to think this way, i just couldn't get into the books anymore. I went to thrift stores and bought COUNTLESS books that sounded good ... same genre, took them home and repeated the same sadness i had when i opened a book and started reading it. There was a time where i wrote down all my books i had (which believe be was a lot) each title had its own little piece of paper and i would pick a random title out of the jar and i would read that book. I did this because i thought, maybe I'm spending too much time thinking about which book to read because i have so many, and i was being overwhelmed reading too many book descriptions that this would be a simpler solution to picking and reading a new book. It didn't work.
I gave up, i got rid off 90% of my books and told myself i was done with books, time to move on and find a new hobby even though this killed me inside. I truly LOVE to read it was so disheartening, disappointing, saddening to do this, but i just didn't want the clutter anymore.
In my area, a lot of people have little free library's in their yards.
Little Free Library's are literally what they are called, a little library where anyone can visit, take a book, leave a book ect. I stumbled upon a few and found some Murder Mystery books. I thought to myself "i like true crime podcasts, maybe ill like a book like this!" I took it home and started reading it, within a week i was done the book. I thought to myself ... holy shit. it was the fucking genre of books this whole time ... I STILL LIKE BOOKS!!!!!! so now i was on the hunt for the PERFECT BOOK and author!
this is where James Patterson comes in.
James Patterson specializes in Murder Mystery mostly for adults, teens, young adults and even makes books and stories for grade school children. I read one book of his and i was HOOKED! the way he writes is exactly what i enjoy in a book to keep me interested, which is SHORT chapters and tons of dialogue. If there is no dialogue in the books I'm reading, i cannot put myself in the story and understand it, but when you have those conversations between characters OFTEN, its very helpful.
I researched James Patterson and realized he has written OVER 300 books in 40 years, with the help of MANY other talented authors, i found that fascinating in itself.
I went and wrote down every single book i was interested in reading (which is over 200) and i have now put out the challenge for myself to read
every.
single.
one of them.
i source them from thrift stores, Facebook marketplace, local buy and sell sites and try to get them for 1 dollar or less. I have collected 78 of his books for amazing prices (or even free) in the past 2 weeks.
I am on the second book and i will try my best to read as many as humanly possible. I am so very happy i could this community so i can share my love for James Patterson with you all and hope if you enjoy murder mystery books you will likes James Patterson as much as i do! i also look forward to documenting my reading journey with you all and making new friends along the way! i plan to make a post after each book i read and give it a full review, the best way i can, which I'm not sure what that is yet because i have never written a book review post before, but i have faith & google!
until next time
Xoxo,
Mm