The Contemporary Curse

For a while now, mostly this past year, I have fallen into the Contemporary Curse.  It's a term I coined on my own (unless someone else made it before me and I have no prior knowledge) and basically it means, "I can't get into any other books right now except for contemporary YA novels."  

Now, this is a huge struggle for me, because while I just adore contemporary and it's one of my favorite genres, I feel like I've been neglecting the books that got me into reading, or the books that I remember staying up all night to finish.  For example:  The Hunger Games series or Legend.  These books have meant to much to me, and they're not even close to contemporary.  Sure, they do have romance, but they're more action and plot and conspiracy and dystopian...and I LOVE THEM.  

 

Last year, all the books I did read were mostly action/ adventure or urban fantasy or dystopian.  I read 81 books my junior year.  Only 21 of them were contemporary.  And most of the books I read were series like Maximum Ride, The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, Delirium, Matched, Legend, Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Heroes of Olympus, The Maze Runner, or Across the Universe.  And for series like these, I read them one after the other.  I didn't read books in between.  I just kept going and going until there was nothing left to read, and I was forced to find another series or stand alone to read.

This past year and now I'm looking at my stats:  26 out of 89 book (senior and summer).  And I just so happen to be reading another contemporary right now.  Now, it doesn't seem like it's that bad, but looking back at the books I read, and the books I'm reading now, I haven't been quite into fantasy or historical fiction (which are actually some of my favorite genres) and a majority of the books have been more girly than actiony.  I'm not saying the books weren't good and all, but it just doesn't feel like me.  I don't feel like myself.  

I don't know if other people have gone through this, or if I'm just going through a stage, but I want to be able to read one book in a series after the other again like old times, or not feel the need to read a contemporary between high fantasy or dystopian books.  Maybe I'm just not choosing the right books, but honestly it bothers me, and I want to feel the way I did last year.  Hopefully things get back to normal, but until then, I'm most likely reading a contemporary.

Yet, in other more optimistic news, I should be able to put up a review tomorrow!  I'm almost done with Open Road Summer by Emery Lord and I must say it is very cute and I love it and I'm hoping there's a playlist and actual songs connected with this book.  And after I am reading Throne of Glass which all of my book friends have given 5 stars.  It makes me nervous because I'm afraid I won't like it since I'm living the Contemporary Curse right now, but maybe it will feel like it did when I first read The Hunger Games...and that's a feeling I want to have again.  See ya!