The Nightmare For All Readers: The Reading Slump and How to Get Rid of It

Building on my blogging slumps post from a few weeks ago, this year I’m going to discuss how I try to get out of reading slumps. In my opinion, reading slumps are the worst evil that can ever befall a person. For me, reading is a way to destress, so being in a reading slump both increases my stress at not being able to read and takes away my method of taking away that stress. 🙂 No bueno. Therefore, may I present my attempt of helping you avoid this situation.

Read a different genre of books.

One of the most common ways I get into a reading slump is when I read too much fantasy, or too much contemporary, especially since those tend to be the genres I read the most of. Even as a fantasy fan, I get that it can be tiring to immerse yourself in five different worlds in one week. So change it up! Read non-fiction. Read historical fiction. Read graphic novels. I sometimes even read fanfic! This usually works for me, and you can also discover new authors/themes/series that you never knew you liked before!

Reread your favorite books.

There’s a reason why I took it upon myself to reread all of Rick Riordan’s books in the month of February. Having read around 40 books in one month, my brain was starting to get a bit overwhelmed from all the new favorites I was reading. Sometimes it helps to just go back to the beginning and read something you’re really comfortable with, something you can talk about in your sleep, something you even dream about sometimes (shhh). It’s both comforting and exciting reading about those characters from the beginning, reflecting on their journey, knowing what you know. (I’m looking at you, Percabeth in Mark of Athena).

Go to the bookstore (or library if you’re poor like me.) 

Even just looking at new covers or reading book blurbs or reading the first chapter of a book can motivate you into picking up more books. When I feel myself teetering on the edge of a slump, I like to go to the library and pick up a huge pile of about 30 new books. Just seeing that huge pile of potential favorites can be just the inspiration I need to keep going.

Become obsessed with something else for a bit.

When all of the above still didn’t work for me in the months of March and February, I found a new obsession: The Big Bang Theory. I binge watched all ten season of this show in two weeks. All 200+ episodes in two weeks. Needless to say, I was a bit obsessed. The show became my new outlet for stress relief, and it helped to take my mind of all of my problems, including my book slump. However, if all else fails, move to step 5.

Cry in despair!!!

I’m not kidding. Sometimes it can help to just cry everything out, to just let it all go. It can be really freeing, and I actually started to get out of my book slump. Screaming angrily into the void can work too…just saying.

 

Anyway, I hope this list helped a little bit. I’m still kind of finessing my technique for this as well, so I welcome all suggestions for getting out of book slumps!