Our January Favorites

Lai's favorites: 

Book: If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

Movie: Call Me By Your Name

Song: Ghosting by Mother Mother

Kate's favorites: 

Book: A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard

Movie: Call Me By Your Name

Song: We're Going Home by Vance Joy

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Kate's guide for reading slumps

We all know the worst nightmare for a bookworm, a reading slump. The thing about a reading slump is you can’t read a paragraph and concentrate while reading it; You don’t even understand what you’re reading AND THAT FREAKS YOU OUT. Sometimes a reading slump might last more than 3 months, or maybe weeks, but having a long term reading slump feels like the end of the world and you haven’t finished all your readings yet so you want to make it stop. My last reading slump lasted 7 seven months, at first I didn’t try anything to overcome it because I was busy between work and college and I thought it was just stress, but it wasn’t stress. It was just me. But how did I get over my long term reading slump? Here’s a little list I made that worked for me and hopefully it’ll work for you too;

1. Re-organize your TBR. Organizing your TBR can help you, it makes you realize what books you’re truly willing to read or to add a few books you really want to read. You also can delete all those books you added before and make a new list.
2. Booktubers, bookstagrams and bookblrs. Feeling bad while watching happy booktubers doing reviews for the 200 books they’ve read in a month can help. You can do it too. Smash them. Read 500 books in a month, or 2, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you enjoy reading again. But Personally when I have a reading slump I like to go through my instagram or tumblr and see all those appealing bookshelves, books with candles, books with ferrets, books and thighs, and think “Oh, I can do that too, I can love books again as much as these crazy people. I am crazy about books.”
3. Re-organize your bookshelves. I don’t know about you but I like organizing stuff and while I do it I always find things that I used to like and start liking them again. It happens with books too.
4. Write. If you’re not a writer, you can write how much you now hate books and how you get bored while reading and can’t even concentrate on a single word. It helps. Maybe write a poem about how much you miss reading and enjoying it.
5. Try a different format. Ebooks, kindle, Audible, graphic novels, etc. Reading a book on a new format can help you go through your reading slump and maybe find a favorite format.
6. Buy a new book. Wasting money on a book you know you won’t read instantly makes you fantasize about reading it soon. Buy a book you’ve always wanted to read and haven’t yet, this can make you feel like you have to read it sooner or later because you know that slump will end sometime. Also, when buying a new book don’t be afraid the amount of pages, a book of 100 pages can be heavier than a 500 one, so don’t let anything hold you back, just enjoy your time at the bookshop.
7. Re-read. Sometimes re-reading your favorite book helps to get over slumps, feeling that excitement again or knowing how exactly the story goes can make your reading easier.
8. Read a children's book. Who says children’s books are exclusively for kids? They’re written by grown ups so I think that means something. The good thing about reading children’s book or middle age ones is that they’re easy to read and most of the time they’re short.
9. Binge watch on netflix. You can see a reading slump as a time for you to rest, to give your eyes a rest.     So, netflix and chill may not help your eyes but it will help giving your body and mind a rest.
10. Try a new genre you’re not used to. At first trying a new genre might scare you, because you probably will end up hating it but it might be the best thing you’ve done since you started reading books. So, try it! Look at it as a challenge to explore new worlds.
11. Stalk your goodreads friends. Stalking always works, so why not? Seeing how much your friends have been reading might make you jealous and you’ll want to read again.
12. Ask for professional help. If none of the above works, you’ll need professional help. You can’t despise books forever, like what the heck?? A shrink might help you.

Remember it doesn’t matter how many books you read, the important thing here is to read. So if you read only one book in month that’s OK, don’t get overwhelmed about it or don’t feel bad because your friends read more than you, we all have our own timing about the things we do. So, read at your own pace. Don’t waste your time reading a book you don’t like, if a book makes you feel like you’re wasting your time and you want to read it just because everyone is reading it, don’t. Use that time on another book, don’t settle for bad ones. Like I read somewhere: “Life is too short to read bad books or drink bad wine.”  

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Perfect Timing

Junior year. I thought at that time that it was going to be the worst year of my life but and I've had already declared sophomore year as the worst one. I started junior year in a new High School. I was scared and excited at the same time, I hated my previous high school, I was so tired of my "friends," and I tried everything to feel like I was an important part of the group. I was not. On the other hand, I was scared about the new school, I heard so many stories about bullying in that institution and of course I did not want to be a target.  So, yes. I was scared and excited. 

My first day of school went well, nobody bullied me, and that was an accomplishment. That same day I got a fever, my parents thought It was an emotional one. And for a moment I thought that too. I had a first day on a new school surrounded by new, cool and pretty girls, I felt like I was never going to fit in, to find a person I would really like, or to find someone to like me and be my friend for the 2 years left. I knew that was not gonna happen. I was the new girl on junior year. It was like becoming friends with someone the day before they die. Useless. But the fever got worse by the night, and next day, and the next, and the next. The doctors said I had the Dengue fever and I had to keep rest for like a month if I didn’t want to be hospitalized, so that was how I missed a whole month of classes on my new school.

When I went back to school it felt like my first day again, I had so much homework, that same week I was having 2 tests and didn’t know from which class. I was screwed. Luckily my neighbor was on the same class as me, so she let me borrow her notes and do my homework with her, of course I was using her for my own benefit, I needed her to be my friend until I find another one who I actually liked. She introduced me to her group of friends, I didn’t like them either but I needed to survive this, so I kept talking to them. 

Then I met Lai, Rose and Sophie. The first time I had to talk to Lai, she didn’t even paid attention to me. She ignored me, it was so rude, I knew I was the new girl and I understood that maybe she didn’t want to work with me in that Physics workshop, I just wanted to know what I was supposed to do in the workshop but she didn’t respond. After that day I never tried to talk to her again. 

I don't even remember at what exact point or how I met Rose. But she was nice, she also liked books and that was good enough for me, she started talking to me more and more in classes, but she never asked me to eat breakfast with her friends, I thought maybe she felt embarrassed because she was becoming friends with the new girl or that her friends didn't like me, and I was ok with that because I didn't want Lai to ignore me again. But eventually I had to talk to Lai, she was Rose's best friend so I couldn't avoid her forever. Rose told Lai about the book I recommended her -Hush, Hush. Rose loved the series and she shared the same bookish love with Lai, so she made me tell Lai about the plot of the book.  I felt completely at ease with them, relieved that I could become friends with these two so I didn't have to keep hanging out with the other group of girls. Weeks later Lai told me that she loved the books, and we started talking about books and recommending books to each other, it was nice. I've never had something like that. I've never met someone who loved reading so much. Our friendship started to grow so fast that I was just being friends with her for 3 weeks and I was already having a sleepover at her house. I don't know if she knows this, but that was my first sleepover, ever. And my parents didn't know her let alone her parents. It definitely escalated pretty quickly. 

Months went by and our bond grew stronger. Not only with Lai, but with Rose and Sophie, they were fun too but I didn't feel one hundred percent comfortable with them, I still don't. That year (2013) so many things occurred, I wasn't getting any better at my personal problems and Lai noticing changed all, I thought that she would stop talking to me or that she'd spread the word and I would be the bullying target again. But none of that happened, she gave me a draw instead, she stood by my side without saying a word or giving me a hug, and that was all I've ever needed, her understanding. 

In our senior year we were almost inseparable, they were times that she or Sophie and Rose started to tell stories about kindergarten and asking me things like "Kate, do you remember when we were in kindergarten and had to dance for the annual project?". It was sweet because I felt that too, like I was friends with them since always, somehow that made me feel welcomed, like I truly was a part of the group and not an outsider. 

But of course not everything was perfect, at the middle of senior year Lai started drifting apart, I did not know why, I was so scared, sad and anxious searching for previous moments where I could have upset her with something I've said or done, I didn't know what was wrong with her, she didn't want to talk to me or text me back. So what did I do? I stopped talking to her too because I was and I am a crappy friend. 

What I have forgotten was a tiny detail; she had told us like 3 months earlier that she was leaving the country that summer, after the graduation. By leaving the country I mean moving abroad. When she mentioned that again was when all clicked on my head. She wasn't upset with me, she was trying to cut bonds with everyone, because she knew it'll hurt when the time of leaving had to come. She was right, I understood her, but I wasn't letting  her to push me away just because of that, our friendship was more important that 100 miles away, so I literally stood by her side until the last day in the country, I even packed her bags, I tried everything to be supportive and to be happy for her. I was happy for her, but I felt like a lonely bird in a cage after their friends got away flying to new lands. Had spent that amount of time with her before her departure was not a good idea, at all. 

So I decided that I am not keep telling the whole story with the details just like Lai did in her post, instead I’ll tell you how important a friendship is when you most need it. You know when your parents tell you that you meet the love of your life at an exact and perfect time? And when it happens you just know that’s the person who is meant to be with you, your soulmate. The same thing happens with friends, we always think that our soulmates are supposed to be our boyfriends, girlfriends or husbands, but it doesn’t work that way. We can find our soulmate in anyone, cousin, uncle, mom, brothers, etc. Sometimes we have the gift to find our soulmates in our best friends, and what’s more perfect than that? I’m sure that Lai is my soulmate, but she is also my sister and my family. I know because sometimes I  hate her so much that my inner sociopath wants to strangulate her because she doesn’t believes me that she is great, I know that she is my soulmate because if she is happy I am happy too, I know it because I don’t care if she have problems or if she is selfish sometimes, that doesn’t define her. There are so many things I could say that I could turn this in a book series and Cassandra Clare would be jealous. The thing is that Lai appeared in my life when I needed the most, when I was so selfish that I didn’t care for others people problems, I just acted like I was the only human being on this world, so when Lai shared a personal problem with me I stopped my own world and let her live with me in there, and just like that I knew that my purpose was to being her friend and be with her anytime she needed me. It’s funny how that made me open my eyes and even funnier that we basically become closer after talking our problems out, but somehow it worked.

It’s been almost 3 years since I haven’t seen Lai and it’s sad because I miss her everyday, I wish I could see her on weekends and talk face to face, but I don’t care, I still talk to her everyday, not because I have to, it’s because I want to, and that keeps me holding on the idea that sooner or later we’ll be reunited again. 

I hope you enjoy our blog as much as we'll enjoying sharing our common interests and being weird all the time around here. 

P.S: Unfortunately we’re not dating. 

P.S. 2: We are not lesbians. 

P.S. 3: LAI, I'M GOOD AT PHYSICS. 

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This is how we met

The first day of school on my junior year was an odd one. School began on a Wednesday, I don’t remember why exactly I know it involved politics and our shitty president, nothing unusual. I remember being angry but excited to finally wear my new uniform. That year I had to buy my school supplies in Venezuela because my annual summer trip to the US was not until the following week. I had nothing new or exciting to presume around. I know, I was a little brat. 

At school nothing too interesting happened. I sat with the same group of friends even when I was tired of them. I tried hard to be who everyone wanted me to be but as the years past by I cared less about pretending. My school was the same old thing, plain walls with cheap paint, wood doors, a gigantic room with no A/C, rows with old wood desks and a blackboard in the front. The only difference that year was the new color of the uniforms that represented our status as juniors and the 3 new girls. That’s when I probable met Kate, I mean that day, but I can’t remember. I didn’t care for the new people, I didn’t want to deal with new friends because I had enough with my old ones. Stupid me. 

Naturally classes were cancelled after that 1 random first day. When we came back to school for real Kate was sick, she had something I don’t even remember and I don’t even know how long it took her to be back to school. She was part of my physic workshop, I hated the idea because she looked bad in physics. Yes, I was judging her and funny enough I don’t know if she is good in physics, I never figured it out! One thing for sure, she told me that she tried to talk to me about the project but I ignored her, I don’t even remember her trying to talk to me but then again I can be self-centered sometimes. We eventually stopped being in the same physics group. I never used her part of the homework, I always did everything myself and submitted that because I didn’t trust anyone in the group. 

At the time I was bestfriend with two girls, Rose and Sophie (no the real names). Before that year, I was mostly the outsider in the friendship when it came to hang out, I was always busy with my music education or I didn’t care about their interest on boys and drama. I wanted to be as far as possible from teenage drama even when drama usually followed me around. By the end of the previous school year, I was getting closer to both Rose and Sophie, they expended more time hanging out at my house, less time with teenage drama and even more time eating brownies at 2am. 

Going back to “how I met my best friend” story, Rose was actually the one who introduced us properly. I remember Rose started to be a reader a couple of months earlier and after that we shared books frequently. The point is, one day Rose told me about this series she started reading because of the new girl, and then she made Kate talk to me about it. They basically told me the whole plot but I was sold, after I read the first book, Hush-Hush, I started to trust the new girl. I guess sharing love for the same type of books united us somehow. At the beginning she was closer to Rose, she barely interacted with Sophie (which she later confessed to feel replaced by Kate at the start of our friendship) and we were close enough to talk about books. 

Again, the whole story is kinda blurry. We started texting and talking about books, we had a weird friendship. We didn’t started being proper friends until she went to my house for a sleepover, I guess sleeping in a twin size bed together dragged us closer, literally and figuratively. Kate was easy to talk with, we shared interests and we even shared more personal struggles.I am pretty sure that Kate judged me as well, I was never sure of the friendship until we started to talked about our problems in common. She visited often my house, and by the end of the school year I felt closer to her than any other friend. Also, Sophie started to be closer to her as well. It was a weird 4 friends because at any point it felt like one of us was out. 

That summer we kept in touch, still hang out even when I barely expend time in the country, I was between countries. First, I was in the US for our usual summer vacations spot, then Colombia where my sister started college for a while, and finally back in the US where my sister finally found her final college place. I missed the first week of classes of my senior year, Kate missed her as well because she was waiting for me to be back from the US.

By my senior year of high school I knew that I was leaving the country to study in the US with my sister. I wanted to stop being friend with anyone relative knew in my life. I barely understood Kate or knew her, so by my second semester I started drifting apart. There was too much going on with myself, my future, and even when school projects. I was overwhelmed. When it came to books I talked more with Rose, she also started to expended even more time at my house but I stopped feeling like we were friends at some point although I didn’t want to accept it. Sophie started to be the one who was with me during the whole time, she basically lived with me. Kate was still there but we were in between ups and downs. We enjoyed a lot together even when I was a bad human being trying to stop attachments. 

I lost a lot of classes that year as well. There was protests around the country, classes were not mandatory at some point, I took advantage of that by missing way too many days of school. I actually didn’t care much about school that year, even less when I got accepted in my college of choice in the US. By the third semester we started to be back to our old selves, being together frequently and everything. Kate expended so much time at my house that my parents treat her like a daughter. That year in general, our group friend started to hang out so much more. That’s something I will always remember, the fun we had that year with everyone. By the end of my senior year, most of my books recommendation came from Kate and she became one of my top friends. By the end of that year, I didn’t feel like I was trapped in the wrong group friend faking to be happy because I actually felt welcome for who I was as a person. 

I left the country on August that year, Kate and Sophie were with me the whole time. Rose stopped being my friend after graduation but Kate and Sophie studded by my side, they kept supporting me. Also, Kate and I talked about our issues out, we were better friends after that. Kate packed my bags, she helped me moved my life to a different country. We said goodbye until October when I came back for some paperwork, she stayed with me that whole week that I was back, my parents even had to drop her before taking me to the airport. That was the last time we saw each other but it wasn’t the last time we talked because we still talk almost everyday, my life wouldn’t be the same without her. 

Here is the true: It is hard to keep a friendship when you don’t see each other at all because sometimes it can feel like it’s a friendship with your memories. It is hard for me, personally, to realize how different everything can be in 3 and a half years, how I had changed completely and how she probably changed as well. Sometimes it can feel like you being judge for the person you used to be, your old beliefs, and you can see yourself doing the same. Yet, I wouldn’t change it. I never thought that I will have a friend for this long or this way. Yes, it’s weird but I guess we make it work. Even when we don’t feel like talking we still communicate to say “I’m alive” which is great to hear. I am glad that we make it work, we still share books, she still visits my mom back in my native country and we send each other gifts. Overall, the most important part is that we still get each other even when it’s challenging. That’s pretty much why we decided to start a blog because we wanted to put down our shared interest, to have something from us to give the world. I know, cheesy. 

Now, I don’t have much more to say. That’s how we met, how we became friends and a little more of background information. Hopefully Kate will be okay with this little story time and hope you are not confused about it. 

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