Book Hangover Recommendations Part 2

Welcome book nerdy friends! This week, as promised, I have the continuation of last week's post- guidelines for picking books to read during a book hangover. For the purposes of now, I'm going to call these books "cure books". I often use these rules and they are very helpful to me, so I hope they will assist you guys the same!

Rule #1- Steer away from high fantasy and fantasy epics
I use the terms "high fantasy" and "fantasy epics" quite often here, and I use them when talking about
extremely complex, very built up fantasy series. You know the type, nine-book series and about 500 pages per book. The ones that are hard to get into, hard to explain, but ultimately, just plain brilliant. The world building and the characters are complex, and everything about it just completely engulfs you. And when looking for a cure book, you should definitely, absolutely avoid these at all costs. When you're finding hard to get into stories (a typical symptom of the book hangover) the last thing you want is to try, fail and get frustrated at really good books because you just don't have the patience for them at the time. Battling these series is not what you want to be doing when you're suffering from a book hangover. Fantasy Epics include- The Mortal Instruments, The Raven Boys, Daughter of Smoke and Bone and etc.

Rule #2- Steer away from sad, dismal books
This is less important than Rule #1, but still relatively important. If you're in the middle of a book hangover, chances are you've just finished a series. And everyone knows that the end to a series is super bittersweet, and you're probably in emotional pain from the book. This is why you should not, NOT pick up super-sad books when you're getting over the book you just read. Sad, dismal books include- If I Stay, The Fault In Our Stars (although TFIOS isn't that great anyways) and etc.

Rule #3- Find a book that is short and sweet
The best type of book for book hangovers is the contemporary. These are often short and sweet, set in our real world with easy, relatable characters and an entertaining and fluffy storyline. They're really easy to get into and really easy to keep reading, more often than not, there's no trouble getting through them. The story just picks you up and hugs you, and doesn't let you go until the very end of the book. Contemporaries are just the right thing for a book hangover. Examples of good contemporaries- Anna And The French Kiss, Lola And The Boy Next Door, My Life Next Door, Life In Outer Space, Stargirl etc.

Rule #4- Steer away non-fiction and historical fiction
When experiencing a book hangover, chunky, info-filled books are not going to hook you back into reading. They're fairly dense and tough to get through, with lots of information to get your head around and concentrate. They're not as engaging and engrossing as fiction novels, and so you're more likely to start reading one, read a bit here and there, and then procrastinate reading it because you're getting bored, or you're not able to concentrate. Don't think I'm saying these types of books are bad, however, they most certainly are not, but they're probably not the most helpful during a book hangover. Non-fiction and historical fiction include- informative books, books about historical figures (it's very broad, I know).

Rule #5- Set the atmosphere!
When trying to get back into reading, it's best not to select the right book and be all ready to try again but then read in snippets and unfocused minutes on the bus, or at a function. It's best to start the book with the perfect atmosphere. I'm not going to tell you the "right" type of reading

atmosphere, because they differ from person to person. My ideal environment to read would be in bed, late at night, cuddled up under my blankets with a cup of tea, or on my lounge under a blanket with hot chocolate. But yours might be at a warm coffee shop, in your own little booth, or at the beach. It's really up to you to decide what your ideal environment is, but atmosphere is really important when breaking a book hangover.

So I hope these tips will help you in the future when you're trying to get over a book hangover! If you have any questions, comments, post ideas or more book hangover tips, leave a comment, send a tweet to @lilypherondale or a message/ask to sherlockcrumpets.tumblr.com :)

Have a lovely week and I'll see you next Sunday!


Lily xoxo