About a month ago, I had to come home from college because of the COVID-19 pandemic. In between finishing the quarter and starting the next one, I had a full week off. I didn't read anything for that week.
It feels like I haven't read anything for at least a month, maybe even a month and a half. The world's been too much, everything coming at me so fast it kind of feels like I haven't processed what's even going on. I just can't bring myself to do anything, and I've given up on everything I've picked up. My goodreads in progress shelf lists an audiobook for a reread I've been ignoring in favor of music, and a book I bought I keep forgetting I even have on my kindle.
Which is to say, in the simplest possible terms, I'm trying to get over a reading slump right now.
With the world being the way it is, I don't think this is all that surprising. We're all a lot more anxious and uncertain. But I want to keep reading. Reading's always been my escape, ever since I was little, and I need the power to make my anxieties disappear. So I'm going to be trying these three steps that I've used to pull myself out of reading slumps before. Hopefully you find them helpful too!
1. Set aside time to read
When you're a bookish person, sometimes you expect to just kind of fall back into reading, choosing it like you'd choose to watch netflix or play a video game. But whenever I'm in a reading slump, I still need that extra push to actually pick up something to read.
Pick a day you know you'll be more free, and block off like an hour at least to read something. I like using a bullet journal, so if you have a planner or even a list of daily tasks, write it in there, and make it official.
I find that once I get into a book enough that I'm absorbed, I don't need to block off time, it'll just happen again. But to remind myself why I actually enjoy reading, I need to block off time to actually do it.
2. Reread a book you know you love
I used to reread books a lot, before I had a goodreads. There were a set of books that acted as a kind of comfort books, for me. I could pick them up and open to any random chapter and start reading, and it was a way to relax my mind when I was anxious.
Nowadays, because of counting books and goodreads reviews and the book community, rereading feels a lot like cheating. I've been trying to get over that, and to read naturally like I did before.
When I'm in a slump, it sometimes helps just to feel the satisfaction of finishing a book and getting sucked into the story. I tend to go for books I love and am familiar with, and reread them cover to cover.
Some of my go-to rereads are:
Queen's Thief series
Artemis Fowl series
A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet
Northanger Abbey
Pride and Prejudice
The Goose Girl
Especially as someone who mood reads a lot, having a set of books I can reread that I know I'll love is usually a great jump start to get me out of a bad reading slump.
3. Let yourself mood read
Because of the way the book community works, a lot of my reading slumps have been caused by forcing myself to read something I'm clearly not in the mood for. Even if it's a good book, and I'm generally enjoying reading it, if I'm not in the mood to read it I start losing the motivation to read at all.
You're allowed to put the book away and come back to it later! If you need to DNF it, that's fine and doesn't need to be justified!
I've started to let myself become much more liberal about DNFing books quietly and moving on. If a writer's work doesn't appeal to me, I feel it's not a reflection on the writer, so I just return to book to my to-read self and pick up something else.
Pick up what you're actually in the mood for! If that's soft romance, then read soft romance! If you want to read that middle grade book you never picked up when you were in middle school? Read it!
We read because we like books, let yourself read whatever the hell you want.
4. Don't stress
This isn't a tip to get out of a slump, but it's still important: don't worry about it.
If you read 8 books a month or 3 a year, you're still a reader. You don't have to read any new releases if you're not feeling up to it. You read because you love it, and if you don't love it right now, then that's perfectly fine! There's a lot of podcasts, youtube videos, and netflix shows to watch.
Stay healthy, and take care of your mental during this historical tragedy. That's all you need to do.
But if you do find yourself in a reading slump you really want to get out of, I hope these steps were helpful to you!
Let me know what your best methods to get out of a reading slump are, and if these three methods work for you! Thanks for reading, have a great day!