Reprogramming my mind to pick up a book instead of my phone...

in a time where we're inundated by social apps and the pressure to have a presence on every platform.

Picking a book over your phone seems like a radical act these days.

My blog post on going back to long-form blogging (macro-blogging?) got me diving back into the Princess Diaries series and I spent the last four days reading them feverishly.

Seriously, what is it about Meg Cabot’s writing that makes her books so compelling and unputdownable? I love her narrative voice, I love that she makes me laugh every other minute (much like Dolly Alderton’s Ghosts did), and I love that these characters she’s created feel like my friends.

I left off at Book 5 of this series and have had the tenth book, as well as Royal Wedding and Quarantine Princess, for a while now. I’ve just completed Book 10 and Quarantine Princess and am jumping back to Royal Wedding next. It’s kind of poignant how I’ve grown up with the main character, Mia Thermopolis. I was 11 when I read the first book, and now I’m 33, about the same age as Mia (who’s now a mother of two and married to Michael Moscovitz, of course).

Anyway, I like to listen to specific artistes when reading each book. With this series, it’s Rooney, because that’s the band of Robert Schwartzman, who played Michael Moscovitz (my first ever book crush—11-year-old Joyce was smitten) in the movies.

(Speaking of the movies, I’m still not over how the writers basically cut out Michael in the sequel??? That’s not what happens in the books, and Chris Pine or not, Nicholas is not who I want Mia to end up with.)

The books—and Rooney’s music—bring the perfect summertime vibe, and I feel like I’ve gone back to the 2000s when we were all listening to surfer rock and watching movies like Bring It On and shows like The OC.

Which then naturally led me to abandon—ahem, put on hold—my current work-in-progress (a young adult urban fantasy) for the other manuscript I was working on (a contemporary rom-hopefully-com, because I don’t think I’m humorous enough to write rom-coms but I still want to try). So much for hitting 70k on the YA urban fantasy by the end of this month.

But I’ve learned over the years to not strong-arm my writerly inclinations in the direction they should be going, but just let them take me where I’m meant to go. Some days, I work on the contemporary rom-com faster; other days, the urban fantasy whisks me off—which is why I tend to work on two vastly different manuscripts (usually in different genres) concurrently, so I don’t get burnt out on working on just one.

This was actually a conversation topic I had during my recent monthly virtual catch-up with my residency group. That’s right, I forgot to mention that I’m currently doing a virtual residency with the National Centre for Writing!!!

(That’s me with that giant grin on my face.)

Frankly, I’m floored that they picked me as one of the four residents because the rest of them are accomplished poets who even sound poetic in casual conversation, while I’m this goofy genre fiction nerd who writes Asian fantasy and contemporary rom-coms. Still, I’m so grateful for this opportunity—my very first residency, which I almost didn’t apply for until the final hour because I was so sure I wouldn’t get picked!

My thoughts are all over the place, as usual. I’m still trying to get back into the practice of structuring my thoughts when blogging, because social media has jumbled up everything in my brain and every random thought just comes out in a photo and caption that I post in a series of unrelated Instagram stories that disappear in 24 hours.

But I just wanted to pop in and rave about how the Princess Diaries series is singlehandedly pulling me out of a reading rut. I haven’t been this engrossed in a book in a long time. I even find myself reaching for the book instead of my phone these few days—a major win, if you ask me!

All this to say, it doesn’t matter what genre or type of book you’re reading, as long as it gets you into the habit of reading. I know a guy who became a proud avid reader after he read Jenny Han’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. So be proud of whatever you’re reading, regardless of whether they make you seem “smart” or “cool” (who defines those things anyway?).

QOTD: What are you reading now? Share your book recs in the comments!