The Conundrum

Once upon a time, there was a girl who loved to read. She mostly read whatever she could get her hands on — picture books, novels, biographies — as long as it came from a library or a school book fair, or as a gift.

Then one day, the girl realized she was technically all grown up, and capable of purchasing her own books. And she wanted to, because this sounded tremendously exciting and mature.

Except she didn’t know what to get. So she wandered the bookstore, and ended up buying newer editions of books she had read as a child, and copies of novels she had recently returned to the library.

This went on for a while. But eventually the young woman became a moth, and ran out of things to read.

(You tell me which one was more scary.)

So, the moth started scouring the new invention of the internet to find recommendations for new authors, genres, sub-genres, and even graphic novels (a frightening never-before-attempted venture) to try reading.

Some of what she found really filled her soul with joy.

But, unfortunately, a lot of it was an epic fail.

As time passed in this pattern, the moth began to realize that she was no longer a fan of traditional historical fiction, mysteries, or contemporary romances (a.k.a. “chick lit”).

This meant the moth began to panic, just a little.

Reading was so important to the moth, the idea of not having anything new and life-fulfilling in the form of books to add to her already vast array of fiction (and non-fiction) experiences created a slight problem.

The moth grew tired of fluttering endlessly around her local library, her wings weary of trying to carry 14 novels marked “new release” (11 of which would almost immediately be returned, after frustratedly skimming a few pages).

As she ruminated on this tragic turn of events, she began to hyperventalate, just a touch.

Fast forward to the current time. Today, the moth hopes to calm her frazzled nerves by indulging in modern sitcoms on DVD, for a nice change.

She will soon be gaining another year of existence on this Earth, and she doesn’t like that, either.

To celebrate this twistedly momentous occasion, she’s planning to find new authors and titles that will bring a substantial influx of plot-excitement and character-love back to her heart.

Except she has very little idea of where to start.