From Trying to Get Over a Reading Slump to Trying to Complete Reading Challenges

I have been in an awful reading slump all year, and I have been doing all sorts of things to get out of it. The last thing I tried ended up turning into me actively trying to complete reading challenges as opposed to doing so passively. Lol.

The first thing I did to try and get out of my reading slump is re-read a couple of my favorite Summer-y Fear Street books.

I didn't finish everything I set out to read, but those I did read I enjoyed. They are just SO fun! Unfortunately, that didn't pull me out of the slump.

Next, I did a bunch of readathons. During these readathons, I prioritized reading the following review books.

I'm very much a mood reader, but this year has been so off that I didn't even know what I wanted to read, so I just picked books I needed to read. Things actually went relatively well. I read all the books I needed to, but I was still in a reading slump.

So, because not going with my usual mood reads worked, the last thing I tried was picking out random books and prompts from these Mortal Cups, and that is what I read.

The cup on the left held titles of books on my immediate tbr, and the cup on the right held reading prompts from my reading challenges I still needed to complete. I started by pulling one out of each cup, but then I increased the number, and right now I have three prompts. I did allow myself to return some, because it's hard to gauge when a book has the deus ex machina trope without having read it first 😂

 

This was an easy start. I feel like manga has been keeping me afloat all year. (Ignore the letters in the parentheses 😅 those are just to help me remember what challenge the prompts come from lol.)

 

But by the time I got to this one, I was pretty much out of the slump! I was doing a readathon where I read a Lorestalker book, and I freaking loved it! (It was also around that time that I started feeling better mental health-wise. I know a lot of people read when they're stressed, but I can't. My mind doesn't focus, and I think that's what the problem was this whole time.) When I pulled this prompt out of the cup, I was a little nervous because epic fantasies are notoriously long. But then I decided to read the second book in the Mistborn trilogy even though I was a bit apprehensive, and it ended up being the best decision of my life! I loved it!

 

The next book was not as good, but I did have it on my immediate tbr, and I went in initially excited to read it. Can't win them all, sadly 🤷‍♀️

 

The last book I read (at the time of writing this post) from one of my random picks was Spy x Family! And I obviously enjoyed it. Lol.

Like I said, I have three prompts picked out right now because it's been a waiting game with the library to see which hold arrives first. I also have some book titles picked out from the other cup, but honestly, I'm not enjoying that as much. The prompts give me more freedom. Huh. Guess my mood reading hasn't gone away completely. Lol.

Conclusion:

This has been a fun experiment! And while it didn't exactly help with the reading slump, it definitely is helping with the reading challenges. And now I'm wondering if I should continue this into next year. I started doing this really late in the year, just last month, but maybe if I get started early, I might be able to finish all of my reading challenges... for once! 😆

When it comes to reading challenges, I typically just read what I want, and if it fits a prompt, great, and if not, well, we just move on to the next one. I know there are a lot of people out there who actively try to complete their challenges, and I have always admired them! Let me know if you have a system or tips for this. I clearly need the help 😂