Reading Slumps

If you read a lot, then you've most likely experienced a reading slump at least once in your reading journey. I've experienced many over the years, some lasting only a few days, with others lasting months. What seems to trigger mine is usually stress, if my real life gets really hectic and there's a lot going on, then reading seems to fade into nonexistence for me. I'll not pick up a book for days, or the book I'm reading doesn't excite me anymore, and so the slump begins. There have been a few memorable slumps for me, usually happening alongside some sort of upheaval in my life.

Back in 2013, I finished up high school and went onto sixth form. This was a massive change for me on many levels. There was a lot more work to do, the day became longer and many more people to meet and adjust to. I remember struggling a lot with reading back then, which wasn't great considering one of my courses was an English Literature one. Whenever I'd pick up a book I would put it back down, I was too wound up over academic stress to let myself wind down with a book. It took until the following year when I began to manage my workload a lot better, that I was finally able to get back into reading.

My other major reading slump occurred in late 2015 when another big change came in the form of university. An even bigger change than sixth form was, there was so much more to contend with. I had to become very independent very quickly and it took me a while to get the hang of it. As we saw with the last big change in my life, my reading habits can take a hit and boy did they. According to Goodreads, I didn't finish a single book in either October or November of 2015. I can remember trying to start the fifth Outlander book during that time but not getting very far. By the end of that December I had only read four books, then in January of 2016, I'd only read one book in the entire month. To give some perspective, I've read roughly 20 books alone this month (February 2019), I can read a lot in one month when I want to.

There are a few factors I think that contributed to my lack of reading over that six or so month period. With university, my previous night routine where I used to read a lot before bed rarely took place. Nights out, lots of university reading and a boyfriend affected when I went to bed and I just got out of reading before bed as a result. I never took time out of my day to dedicate to reading until much later on which might've helped. Finally, there was a change in what I wanted to read. I was steadily growing out of YA and starting to move towards History, Historical Fiction and other genres. Less and less did I reach for YA unless it was part of a series that I'd been reading for years, even then I gave up on The Mortal Instruments series after reading Lady Midnight. A lot was happening to me and reading was taking the hit for it.

To try and combat reading slumps now, I try a few techniques. Sometimes I need to give myself a break, particularly if I've been over-reading and can feel myself burning out. At the moment I'm trying to give myself five books I want to read each month, so if I at least read those I'll be happy with myself, it's up to me if I want to read more than that. I try to pick books I've been wanting to read for a while, sometimes throwing in rereads in there as well. Sometimes I have to give in and read books that I want to read (like my Dissertation-induced stress reread of The Twilight Saga in my last year of university), even if I feel guilty at the mounting piles of other books that I bought glare at me.

Reading slumps aren't fun, they can make you feel like a failure and make you question your love of reading. Sometimes you can just power through it, most of the time you just have to give yourself a break. Reading should be fun, it can also be informative, challenging, shock you to the core but in an ideal world, it should never be forced (sometimes we just have to read that set reading for a Philosophy module even if we don't want to, looking at you Kant).