I have made a discovery. A life changing discovery. I started reading fanfiction when I was 12 (I'm now 20 and old. No time to be embarrassed by this anymore.) and it really cut down on how many actual books that I read. And now that I'm trying to read more books and plays, I'm not reading fanfiction!
Now, this would be fine. There's no reason that I should be aspiring to read more fanfiction. Except that months ago I started reading a behemoth of a fanfiction (350K. Lord save me.) Consequently, it's been taking me forever to read.
Fortunately, I have found a solution! A text-reading website. I've been using http://ttsreader.com/. It's free. Of course, the voice is not reading with understanding, so the words are choppy and often mispronounced (since this fanfiction is Pokemon...there's a lot of fake words.) But it doesn't inhibit my understanding. And it's easy to have in the background like a podcast or an audiobook. It essentially is the poor man's audiobook.
So screw what everyone says about millennials not reading enough! This is still reading, it's just reading in a different way. There's nothing wrong with it if you like it and it works for your lifestyle. It works well for mine--great to do while doing my makeup or folding laundry or even exercising--and it's less time that I'm staring at a screen. I see that as a win.
Look, don't bash fanfiction until you try it. Most are garbage, but there's some real gems out there. If you want to read a good novel about fanfiction, read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. It's amazing.
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