How I Get Out of a Reading Slump

Posted October 8, 2016 by Adalyn in Books / 3 Comments

Last year, I fell into the worst reading slump after reading Queen of Shadows and the Assassin’s Blade. As soon as I finally got out of it (it lasted like two months), I read Winter, then fell into another one. After reading Empire of Storms I could feel myself slipping into another one. We all have really bad reading slumps at different points, which is fine. Reading Slumps are the worst though, and hard to get out of too (especially if it’s a bad one), so I thought I would share some of my favorite tips for getting out of one.

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Re-Read Your Favorite (Contemporary) Book(s)

The reason I put “contemporary” in parenthesis is because that genre helps me out most in a really bad reading slump. I don’t recommend reading something super dark and heavy like a high fantasy book, but you never know. When I was in a pretty bad one late last year, I reread the Stephanie Perkins books, and they totally go me out of my slump. I have a post on some of my favorite light contemporaries for getting out of slumps here.

Continue With a Favorite Series

This time around, reading The Dream Thieves really helped me. I LOVED the first book, so when I bought the second one I read it in hardly any time. It really helped me to get out of my slump. Same with Winter last year. It helped me out of it, but also put me back in a slump. If you’re in a slump, I recommend continuing on with a series as long as it isn’t the last book, because then you might fall into another slump (at least for me).

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Take a Break from Reading

Take a break, run away with us for the summer let’s go upstate (Hamilton, anybody???)! This is going to contradict with what I’m saying, but sometimes taking a break can be good. For example, this past week I took a break from blogging to catch up with my reading because I was in a slump. It’s not the same, but being away for only a week really made me miss blogging. It’s the same with reading. If you don’t read a book for a few days, you might start to crave and miss it.

Just Read!

See, this totally contradicts with what I just said. Taking a break can be nice, but also just willing yourself to finish your current reads can be good. When I’m in a slump it usually means starting a bunch of books and either A: not finishing them or B: taking two months to actually read them. I recommend filling your free time with reading, because the more you read, the more you’re going to want to read (at least for me). Just reading and willing myself to finish books helps me with slumps.

So those were my tips that I use for reading slumps. I don’t always do these exact same things or all of them, but trying one of these may be super beneficial if you’re in a bad slump. What are your solutions for being in a reading slump?

3 responses to “How I Get Out of a Reading Slump

  1. Whenever I’m in a reading slump, I usually just end up taking a break from reading. I hate forcing myself to read, and I know that if I do, I’ll like whatever book I’m reading less than I might otherwise. I also like reading other people’s blog posts and watching BookTube videos – especially book hauls. There’s just something contagious about seeing other people be so excited about books!