If you are a regular reader, you’ll know that I’ve been struggling with a bit of a reading slump this year. Recently, I’ve been getting back into reading, so I thought I’d share what I did to break out of it.
1. Ditch the TBR lists, mood read instead
If you’re big into the online book world like I am, you’ll have probably gotten swept up in making fun TBR lists outside of just things you’ve got on the book shelf. People do genre challenges, readalongs, etc etc
I joined a bunch of challenges on Storygraph because I found them really fun last year, but this year, where I have been busier and had other priorities, sometimes I got stuck on books that were on the challenges.
These things are fun, but they do add a bit of pressure or ‘to do’ list element to reading, which is fine when you’re brain is in the right space for that. If you find yourself getting stalled on books that are in these lists and challenges, take a break and mood read for a while. As these things are just for fun or to help broaden your reading horizons, there is no harm and no reason to doggedly stick to them even when they aren’t working for you.
Same goes for if you are in the middle of a long series, because I’ve definitely gotten slumped by some of the 6/7 book long ones out there, it’s okay to take a break.
2. Take a break from reading altogether
Seems a bit paradoxical right? A blog telling you how to read more telling you stop, but I found that, when reading started to feel like a chore, I needed to treat it like I do my other hobbies instead.
I swim regularly and go to the gym, it’s a love-hate enjoyment feeling but sometimes there’s a difference between ‘ergh this is a lot of effort’ – because sports activities are inherently a lot effort – and ‘this is an exhausting, insurmountable amount of effort for me right now’. On weeks I feel like that, I don’t go. I’ve found that this allows me to show up consistently, as not forcing myself to go when I get that dragged down feeling, allows me to show up the next day, or even the next week with more energy, excitement and enjoyment.
This is something I actively do, to make sure I don’t hate exercise, so why treat this hobby any different, just because it’s more passive?
So try the same principal, give yourself a break, do other hobbies, doom scroll, pick up a book because you want to, not out of obligation.
3. Take care of you
Now, I will say a prolonged lack of interest in hobbies can be sign of many mental healthy conditions, but I’m a book blog, so I’ll stay in my lane and just leave it at this: If you are struggling to do a lot of your favourite hobbies, activities, or interests, if they all feel to heavy and it goes on for a long time, it might be a good moment to check in with yourself, look into signs and symptoms of things, or speak to a doctor.
However, on a smaller, less serious scale, a little bit of a reading slump when you are usually a consistent reader, is a good moment to pause and see if there’s something you need to be doing to take better care of you. I have a long commute, lots of out of work commitments, and I had a feeling that I was getting a little burnt out. Well, right now my office is temporarily wfh during an office relocation, suddenly, with a little bit more sleep and free time, I’ve found reading easier and more enjoyable. I’ve found it easier to focus on. I’ve found I didn’t need to do something more mindless as a safety net for my over-tired brain in my free time.
So, it’s made me see that I need more sleep, and more rest time when my routine returns back to normal. That’s why I think it might help to do a bit of self-reflection on whether the reading slump is being caused by an unmet need elsewhere.
4. Ditch, or reduce, the reading goals
Making a read count goal for the year, and page or minutes listened like you can do in Storygraph, should exist just for fun. A way to challenge yourself. But it is not that deep, and you are not a failure if you fall behind the goal you set, or even need to readjust it. I have set the 100 books goal for years now, and only achieved it once! I originally set quite a lofty pages goal for this year because I wanted to challenge myself to read longer books, but that has had to take a back seat while my brain needed space for other things and I kept getting stalled on long books.
5. Reengage with the things you love about reading
Go back to an old favourite, or a comfort read. Spend a bit of time with the dragon book hoard, perhaps rearranging a shelf or two might get you excited for reads you forgot about it. Make wish lists for books you want to read. Dive back into a fandom for a little bit. Buy pretty book marks and other bookish accessories. Hell, go make your favourite characters on Sims if you want to.
Make it fun, rediscover the spark.
That’s my 5, do you have any?
I’m not saying you guys are about to get a tonne of ‘What I’ve been reading’ blogs – it’s more like how I feel about reading as a hobby has gone back to the way it was before. I want to read and for the longest time this year I just didn’t feel like it.
Antonia Bernardin 