When it comes to my nighttime routine, I’m trying my best to incorporate reading back into my schedule.

Everyone has a goal list; mine covers an array of physical bucket list items, to smaller goals that focus on personal growth. For me, when I set aside time to read, I feel much more relaxed throughout the days. I’m not sure why exactly, but I’ve always found reading to be relaxing, enriching, and something that connects me to new thoughts I hadn’t had beforehand.

I like to put myself in the story as the character, ditch my everyday life for a little while, and focus on a life of another; either fictional or real.

Reading, unfortunately, is one of those enjoyable activities of mine that seem to be the first to be forgotten about. I’ll try to set goals to read a book a month, but that turned out to be unrealistic. It felt more like a chore and if I wasn’t that interested in the book, I’d feel unmotivated to continue to read it, all while then feeling let down at the end of the month when I still had more to get through.

What works best for me, is to set aside times to read. A realistic goal for myself is to read 15 minutes before bed every night. I can go beyond that, if I want to, but 15 minutes is very do-able in my case.

So, without further ado, here is what is currently on my nightstand! What I am in the middle of, as well as have queued up in the (hopefully) near future.

What I’m currently reading: Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

Gifted by my brother’s girlfriend for Christmas, I was excited to dive into this one. I’m only on chapter two but already very invested. The way Lauren Groff writes is almost poetic. You can tell she really thinks and cares for each work transcribed in the book.

About the novel: At age twenty-two, Lotto and Mathilde are tall, glamorous, madly in love, and destined for greatness. A decade later, their marriage is still the envy of their friends, but with an electric thrill we understand that things are even more complicated and remarkable than they have seemed. With stunning revelations and multiple threads, and in prose that is vibrantly alive and original, Groff delivers a deeply satisfying novel about love, art, creativity, and power that is unlike anything that has come before it. Profound, surprising, propulsive, and emotionally riveting, it stirs both the mind and the heart.

What’s queued up as a follow up novel: The Scorch Trials by James Dashner

Unless I am extremely obsessed with a book series, (hi, I’m talking about you Hunger Games, Divergent, and Harry Potter) I generally am strange and split them up. The Scorch Trials is the 2nd book in the Maze Runner series, a book that I read about 3 months ago. I really liked The Maze Runner, but had a bunch of other novels I wanted to start on, so I took a break before book 2.

About the series: When Thomas wakes up in the lift, the only thing he can remember is his name. He’s surrounded by strangers—boys whose memories are also gone.
“Nice to meet ya, shank. Welcome to the Glade.”
Outside the towering stone walls that surround the Glade is a limitless, ever-changing maze. It’s the only way out—and no one’s ever made it through alive.
Everything is going to change.
Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying.
Remember. Survive. Run.

What follows after: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

I have a mini obsession with John Green. Ever since I had to read The Fault in Our Starts as a How to Teach a Young Adult Literature course in college, I became heart broken by, yet at the same time in love, with his work. His books are meaningful, yet light. They make the ideal quick read.

If you’ve followed along with my previous book posts, you’d know I recently finished two novels by him [both this one! and this one!], and now it’s time to conquer the next.

About the novel: When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton’s type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home, this anagram-happy, washed-up child prodigy has ten thousand dollars in his pocket, a bloodthirsty feral hog on his trail, and an overweight, Judge Judy–loving best friend riding shotgun—but no Katherines. Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl. Love, friendship, and a dead Austro-Hungarian archduke add up to surprising and heart-changing conclusions in this ingeniously layered comic novel about reinventing oneself.

Miss my past What’s on My Nightstand series? Check out post one & post two!

3 questions for you:

1. What have you been reading lately?
2. Do you have a bucket list?
3. Has a book ever changed your view on something?