How To Get Out of a Reading Slump!

Posted On March 18, 2022

Hi Readers! As you know I have been in a reading slump for the majority of March. I read 8 books in January and then 10 books in February, both of which was an improvement over last year. And then, I have only read one book this month. I finished The Rose Code in the first week of March and ever since then nothing.

Here is what I did to get out of a reading slump.

Continue Reading What You Were Reading Before the Slump:

I continued reading Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead, which was the book I was reading before the slump. I had no problems with it either. The writing was gripping, the story was really interesting & I even enjoyed the characters. It was a tad bit slow though. But, I just did not want to read it!

Read A New Book by an Author You Love:

Next thing I did was to read a book by an author whose earlier books I had loved. This was Upgrade by Blake Crouch. I was thrilled when I received the ARC from the publisher. I read it quite a lot when I started. It was fast-paced science fiction novel. You would think that like Dark Matter & Recursion, I would have finished it in 2 days, but nope. I just did not want to read it!

Try a Mystery/Thriller Book:

Next thing I tried was reading Seishi Yokomizo’s The Honjin Murders. Now, all these Korean mystery novels by Pushkin Press have been on my TBR for the longest time. So, you would think when I finally started a mere 198-page mystery thriller, I would finish it straight away. But, of course not. I just did not want to read it!

Read a Book in Another Language:

This was a lost cause even before it began. I am a Maharashtrian and my mother tongue is Marathi. I talk in Marathi all day every day at home. And yet I had never ventured into reading Marathi books. I started P.L. Deshpande’s ‘Vyakti Ani Valli’. Now, this is a Marathi classic. The language in this book was of a much higher level than what I speak daily. So, after just 2 pages, I kept it aside. I just did not want to read it!

Do you know what finally worked?

NOT READING!

Just take a break. It is fine if you don’t read obsessively in all of your non-work & non-sleep hours. It may have started out as a hobby and slowly become your whole personality. But, that doesn’t mean you cannot take a break from it. Especially if you are a hard-core reader, you know that nothing works when you are in a reading slump.

The more you force yourself to read, the more you will want to throw the book away. So just go with the flow. This is your brain’s way of telling you to take a break from books. Eventually, out of the blue, you will start to miss books. You will actually want to read. And that’s when you would have jumped out of your miserable reading slump!

So, if you are in a reading slump, stop resisting it. Stop being in denial. Just accept it and do what feels good to you. Happy Reading or Happy Not Reading! Just be happy! 😊

Until next time,