The Dreaded Reading Slump... We've all been there (and if not, how awesome of you! I'm seriously jealous). Some of us have had them more often than others, some of us longer than others, but all us booknerds are familiar with that awful feeling. The inability to read. You want to read, but the mood just isn't there. It's the worst feeling a booknerd can experience (besides our books being harmed... Now that's just unacceptable!)!
Let me tell you a little something, I just recently overcame one of the worst reading slumps I have ever experienced! It started back in... I think October when I was super stressed (I still am a bit stressed but I've learned to deal with it... I'm really good at stowing away my feelings and not thinking about them which is probably really bad but...)
Anyway, between October and December, I read a total of 8 books! Now that is not a lot, like, at all! In the last two weeks alone I've pretty much read the same amount of books! So you can see how severe this, ahem, syndrome was for me this time around. I swear I wad going insane! I mean, of those 8 books I did read a couple of great ones, but for some reason, none them seemed to get me out of my slump. So I just let it go. Forcing myself to read didn't seem to work, and I wasn't really in the mood for re-reading, which I hear sometimes does the trick. So I just stopped and watched some mindless TV, which is what I really felt like doing at the time. And that seemed to work!
My reading slump lasted up until January 20, when J.L. Bryan contacted me with an ARC of the third book in his Ellie Jordan series, The Crawling Darkness. I let the book sit in my Kindle for just a couple of days when all of a sudden I had the desperate urge to read this book. So I did. And BAM! I was cured! (Thank you Jeff for the amazing book and your impeccable timing!)
So, if you find yourself diagnosed with the Reading Slump Syndrome, here are a couple things you can do to overcome it:
- Pick a book that sounds good and read it, see if that does the trick.
- If that doesn't work, try re-reading one of your favorite books! That does wonders!
- If you've done the two above things and you still find yourself unable to pick up a book and enjoy it, then just stop. Don't force yourself to read and give it time. Wait for the right book to come along and pull you out of this horrible state.
Have you ever been in a really bad reading slump? What did you do to overcome it? Let me know in the comments below! I'd love to add more tips to this list!
I usually get in a reading slump when I find a new hobby or rediscover an old one. Then reading takes the backburner for a while. Sometimes it takes months and it's awful! I had a few bad ones last year but I picked it up towards the end and managed to meet my goals. I was lucky that my most recent one only lasted a few days- I'm just now coming out of it. I usually just wait for the mood to strike me again- I'll just suddenly have the insatiable desire to read books. Other times I'll see a tag or something that I want to do or come up with an idea for a new discussion or post. And then bam! Cured! :D
ReplyDeleteI usually have this waves of binge reading and then not reading for a while and then returning when I get a preorder or a new ARC that I'm super excited about but my slumps usually don't last longer than a week or two at the most...
ReplyDeleteI have never had a reading slump. I can always read and enjoy the book if it's good. I hope I never experience one though! I am planning to take regular breaks throughout the year, so hopefully I can keep slumps away permanently. :)
ReplyDeleteI usually read a book a day or so, so whenever I'm having days without reading, that feels like a major slump to me. I get all worried that I'm not going to get to read ALL the books! Yikes! Glad you found your way out of your slump - happy reading!
ReplyDeleteNicole @ Feed Your Fiction Addiction
I had an 8 month slump at the start of last year and I didn't read A SINGLE BOOK the whole time. It was awful. Now when I don't feel like reading I just listen to a podcast or watch some TV on Netflix and eventually the desire to read comes back. I don't force it. I do think that sometimes reading a Middle Grade or a Graphic Novel helps too :)
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