BLOG: The Reading Slump

The dreaded reading slump is something most of us have experienced.  Especially to those who grew up voraciously reading everything that came their way and then suddenly found ourselves having not read a book in months. And worse, we can find ourselves without the motivation to pick up another one. I see videos and posts  all the time now on social media talking about ‘what book helped them out of a reading slump’ and suggesting apps to use (like goodreads or storygraph) to help motivate.

But in my honest opinion, none of that will help much without looking into what made you slump in the first place. 

The most popular reason I’ve heard from my friends is that having to read in an academic context exhausted them. When you spend so much time reading for class, especially being required to read books that you don’t want to read, you can become exhausted even thinking about reading for fun. I don’t blame anyone for this at all. At my university we had to read a book a week for English and a book a week for Comparative Literature - not all were interesting, and some were straight up bad. On top of being tired of reading in these situations, there comes the pain and the annoyance of not having any choice in the book. When we have no input into what is in front of our eyes we start to lose the excitement and the passion. What happens when you’re tired and unexcited? A slump. 

In this case, my suggestion is to do a reread. Don’t try to pick up the hottest book on the shelf and try to finish it. Don’t pick up something incredibly academic, or something you think people would think you’re “smart” for reading. Pick up that book you loved when you were 12, that awfully written but utterly addictive book you forgot everything about. Take yourself back to a time when you chose the book yourself and no one made you read it. There is no shame in a reread and there is no shame in reading YA when you’re not a tween. And if just that one book doesn’t bring you back, keep reading your old favorites until you remember how it felt. For me, during the 2020 lockdown, it was pulling out from my childhood bookshelf The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith, a book I hadn’t read in 8 years but which I stayed up until 3 am to finish. I’d recommend looking down memory lane and choosing anything that feels right.

The second most popular reason for entering a slump that I’ve heard is lack of time. Now that most of my friends have full time jobs and are balancing those with friendships, relationships, and family, it can be hard for them to justify taking time to sit down and read a book. This can sometimes combine with feeling guilty for taking time for oneself, or feeling the need to be doing something more important. And then suddenly it’s been months since you’ve picked up a book and you’ve no idea when you can make space to read next. You’ve created your calendar and space without room for a book. 

In this case, my suggestion is to start with short stories. When you’re trying to add time to your calendar to read, adding time for a full book can feel daunting. Short stories are the perfect way to solve that. With a short story you know that you don’t have to set aside hours, you know that the story will wrap up and you won’t have another chapter waiting on you for days, and you know that you can just take it one story at a time. Reading in any length or form will remind you of what you miss about it, and might soon take you from short stories to novellas, and eventually you’ll be able to set aside time for a full-size book. It’s just about finding a way to get back on that horse. For me that book was Mythos by Stephen Fry. Each myth in the collection stood on its own but each was a part of a bigger picture. I read a little bit at a time just before bed and got to go to sleep knowing I had finished that part of the story without needing to stay up for more.

The third most popular reason I’ve heard is the DNF (i.e., did not finish). Some people have an inherent need to finish the book that they’re currently reading even when they find it to be seriously awful or depressing. This can lead to someone just not picking up that book again but also not picking up any other because they ‘still haven’t finished.’ In complete honesty, I used to be this person. I used to feel like if I did not finish the book, I had failed in some way, and I would force myself to just get through it no matter how long it took. When I was in high school, it would lead me to putting books ‘on hold’ and not reading at all for weeks on end.

In this case, my suggestion is to PUT DOWN THE BOOK. It is ok! It is not a failure to not finish something! Life is way too short to read bad books, and life is too short to waste on ‘I should finish it’. Just put the book down and move on. Look up spoilers for it if that helps, ask a friend how it finished if you need closure, but just stop reading and pick up something you might actually like. There is nothing worse than being stuck, but good thing in this case there is a way out of it: move on. This happened to me just a few months ago when I picked up The Goldfinch. I just could not get into it. I disliked the characters, the storyline struck me as depressing for no reason but to make the book seem profound. To sum up, at least for me,  it seemed to be an Oscar-bait film in book form. I got halfway through it before deciding it just wasn’t worth it. I didn’t find myself reaching for it in my spare time and I didn’t feel motivated at all to pick it up. So I set it down and didn’t pick it back up. Instead I read the second book in a series I love, Death Comes to Marlow by Robert Thorougood. Instead of being paralyzed by Tartt and taking ages to finish a book I knew I wouldn’t enjoy, I put it down and read 5 more enjoyable books in that month alone that took me into wonderful worlds both new and familiar.

I know there are many other reasons why people may stop reading, but don’t go to booktok expecting to get perfect advice on a particular book to get out of a slump. Getting out of a slump might be different for every person and every experience, and to get back in a reading groove your first step is to understand what caused it in the first place.