Reading slumps suck. They really do. Especially when you start to feel guilty about not reading because you see all your booksta buddies flying through books or your massive tbr pile, which has some amazing reads, is staring at you or whatever it may be. But it is so important to realise that reading slumps are totally okay! It is only natural that our desire to read ebbs and flows depending on where we are in our life. For instance, I would say that I am currently in a reading slump. I haven’t read a single page for about 4 days. Not because I don’t want to read, because believe me I do, but because I really don’t have the time to. Tomorrow, I am taking the 11 hr journey back to my university flat and so, I have a very long to-do list of things I have to do and organise before I leave. So, I am okay with the fact that I haven’t read anything recently because I know that reading isn’t my number one priority.
Often times, we end up in reading slumps due to the pressure we put on ourselves. That’s right, no one is actually telling us that not reading is bad or we are not a good reader unless we are reading 5 books at once, that all comes from internal thoughts. And these negative internal thoughts are what catapult us into reading slumps on the first place – it is a horrible catch 22 situation. Additionally, reading slumps come because we compare ourselves to other readers. But this is so unfair! Do not compare yourself to the student during the holiday with no summer job or responsibilities who reads 20 books a month to yourself who is moving house, has a full time job, has kids to take care of, etc. In these moments, we need to remind ourselves why we read. We do not read to show off, we do not read to seem intelligent, we do not read to brag. We read because we want to relax, we read because we want to be transported to a new universe, we read to escape reality, we read because we want to grow and learn, we read because we enjoy it. So, next time you compare yourself to someone who read 15 books a month when you only read 2 – don’t. Remind yourself truely why you read and remember that everyone has different circumstances. And it really doesn’t many what you are reading or how many books read, all that matter is that you can read.
To lighten this blog post up just a little bit, let’s talk about what kind of books you can pick up to pull you out of that horrible reading slump.
- Return to an old favourite! For a lot of people this might be the Harry Potter series, for me it is soft ya contemporary books like The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. I loved this books, despite how heartbreaking it is, and I have read it at least 5 or 6 times. I don’t think I will every get tired of cheesy teenaged unlikely romances.
- Read a really thrilling and gripping book! Now you could you down the obvious route of picking up an actual thriller mystery novel that you know will keep you gripped like TH1RT3EN. Or you could go for a book where the world and characters feel so real you forget you are reading all together, like The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
- Read a book in verse! If you have never read a book in verse… what are you doing??? These types of books really lift my reading spirits as they are much faster to read than normal prose so you will feel very accomplished once you have finished it! Also, if you find a good one like Long Way Down (am I ever going to shut up about this book lol) or Moonrise, you will get a super important story and amazing story too!
- Read a short book! Similarly to books written in verse you will feel so accomplished once you have finished it and hopefully you can take that feeling onto your next read!
Do you have any tips for those nasty reading slumps? Let me know!
Ro xoxo
Read With Ro 