Read Harder
Read Harder is Book Riot’s annual reading challenge, where we design 24 tasks to help you read outside your comfort zone and find your next favorite read!
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Read Harder is Book Riot’s annual reading challenge, where we design 24 tasks to help you read outside your comfort zone and find your next favorite read!
This time of year is made for cozying up and taking it easy on yourself. The holidays can be a time to relax before the impending new year, it can be a stressful time, and it can be all of the above. So I have a proposition: let go of any remaining ambitious reading goals you’re still clinging to and wallow in a comfort read. Find a book that warms the soul and calls for a leisurely pace, and if you can’t find that book I’ve got an old friend you should meet. Today’s recommendation is a love letter to books that will speak to anyone who understands the value of a good story. And it’s a comic book, which demands to be perused and lingered over. It’s also highly giftable, so let this be a holiday present to yourself or any bibliophile in your circle.
I first encountered Debbie Tung’s work through her book, Quiet Girl in a Noisy World. As an introvert myself, I gravitate towards writing, especially humorous and self-aware writing, that explores the introvert lifestyle and inclinations, which this comic did. It took me by surprise not at all to find out that Tung is also a book lover. Books used to save me at social gatherings, literally hiding my face and making me look too preoccupied to talk. They were my pathway to living vicariously through bolder, louder characters and wild, risky situations I’d never find myself in. In Book Love, Tung sets highly-relatable, chuckle-worthy and touching scenes about loving all things bookish through a simple, effective art style and spare text. I won’t pretend there’s anything revelatory about the moments in these books, but I found them gratifying, like eating a slice of a favorite pie.
There are provocative books and there are books that are balms to the soul. Book Love and its quiet, slice of life snippets solidly sit in the balmy realm. It’s an indulgence fit for the holiday season and for lazing on the couch with a warm drink and something to nibble. Follow our book lover as she faces indecisiveness about what to read, pillages the library, gets blissfully lost in a story. We’ve all been there and we delight in others who get it. Tung’s books are gentle and sweet, and if you’re in need of a low-effort, low-stress hang, I recommend this and Quiet Girl in a Noisy World if you can’t help but stack it.
What have you been reading lately? Let’s chat in the comments!