We’ve all been there. The moment when picking up a book feels like the hardest thing in the world. You can’t remember the last time you turned the final page of a novel, and the tall stack of TBR books in the corner of your room stares you down as it slowly collects dust. The phrase every reader fears begins echoing in your mind until there’s no denying it anymore: you’re in a book slump.
Book slumps come in all shapes and sizes. Sometimes they last a week, sometimes a month, and sometimes they go on for so long that you start to wonder if you can even call yourself a reader anymore. That’s where I’m at right now. Sure, I’ve listened to audiobooks, and technically I’m still on track to hit my reading goal this year. But I can’t remember the last time I sat down and truly got lost in a book for hours. I’ve tried everything I could think of, locking away my phone, picking up shorter books, starting a new series, but nothing seems to work. No matter what I try, the slump lingers on.
So I turned to the internet and started collecting every book slump cure I could find. From re-reading old favorites to clearing my calendar, I decided to put every suggestion to the test. I know a reading slump can cause a panic, but hold your horses, because here’s everything I tried, and whether any of it actually worked.
Re-reading favorite books
The first thing I do anytime I find myself suffering from reader’s fatigue is turn to the old classics. And by this I don’t mean the actual classics. No, unfortunately my burnt out book palate is not that refined. So I went back to the tried and true, one of a kind, world-renowned staple: Divergent. The massive font size, short chapters and oh-so-delicious plot and romance should have gone down like honey, but unfortunately not. While my 13 year-old self remembers this book to be one of the greatest pieces of literature of all time, it just didn’t hit as good now and it actually ended up taking me over a month to finish. I did finish the book which is still an achievement. Needless to say, I will not be continuing my re-read of the series anytime soon, and we are onto the next strategy.
Switching Genres
One thing that is recommended over and over again when searching for ways to relieve a reading rut is to switch it up. I wanted a book that would entertain my attention span that has apparently developed a reading allergy, while still being something completely different and new. And that landed me on Dungeon Crawler Carl. Now, I may be quoted at some point in history saying I would never read these books but I was wrong because here I am, on the fourth book, and I hate to say that I think it’s working. I decided to listen to them because I’ve heard good things about the audiobooks and the series is actually incredibly fun and fast-paced.
I have been thoroughly enjoying the ridiculous entertainment these books provide and have actually been excited about a story and wanting to see what will happen for the first time in a while. This is honestly huge progress in terms of bringing this bookish dry spell to an end, but I’m craving the feeling of falling into the pages of a book and reading it physically, so I decided to carry this newfound reading enthusiasm into the next strategy.
Timer Method – Designating Time to Just Read
I have been saying that I need to plan a few hours into my day to just read for months. And I’m not going to lie, it still hasn’t happened. But I recently went on a 2-hour flight, which limited my options to staring at the back of a seat or succumbing to picking up a book. Before we took off I downloaded The Wedding People onto my kindle and within the first 20 minutes of the flight I was finally enthralled in a story.
I was reading without checking the time, or being too aware of the way my eyes move on the page (is that just a me thing?) By the time we landed I was hooked, I read whenever I got the chance on the trip and actually finished the book in under a week, getting that satisfying feeling of having read every word of a book and coming to the end. I loved the book itself and finally, for a short period of time, I wanted to read. On the two hour flight back home, I picked up another book and read the entire time. Since then I have finished that book and picked up another.
Conclusion
With three audiobooks and two and a half physical books finished, I think it is safe to say that I am officially back on the horse and out of my reading slump, able to call myself a reader once more. While I’m hoping this lasts for a while and I will continue to pick up and enjoy books, I plan to come back to these methods of slump-busting whenever I need to. If you try any of these things to help get you out of your slump, let us know how they work for you!
Check out the books I talked about here or find them at your local bookstore!
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