Book Talk is a new feature where I talk about bookish, non-book review things.

So, two Book Talk posts in a row!

All because of this stupid reading slump that I’m currently in.  It’s weird, because it’s the first reading slump I’ve experienced since starting the blog…and the first one I actually remember paying attention to overall.  I’m sure I’ve had them before, but it was also something I didn’t think about before the blog.

As much as I love reading, I just don’t want to read.  I have zero interest in reading, and it’s something that I’ve slowly slid into.  It started out innocently enough with not being super-excited about anything I was reading, and I just figured I’d come out of it with a really awesome book.

But that hasn’t happened, and I’ve really felt it over the last 3 or 4 weeks, to the point that I just want to watch something on Netflix or crochet.  With as much I’ve read the last few years, it was bound to happen- I’ve read hundreds of books since I start posting book reviews, and I think the constant reading and having anywhere from 4-6 books going on was bound to burn me out eventually.

I just really hate that reading, which is such an important part of my life, is something I have no interest in doing.  

And I just don’t know what to do.

I mean, I feel guilty that I’m not reading like I used to, and I feel like it makes me a horrible reader because I have no interest in this thing I love so much.  I’m a reader, and I’m always to be supposed to be reading, even when it’s the last thing I want to do.  I’m so torn, because I feel like making myself read will make it better, and not reading means I’m somehow inferior to people who aren’t in a reading slump…but I don’t want to force myself to read because what if that makes it worse?  And if I don’t make myself read something, will I ever come back to reading?

Now that I see the words on the screen, it seems so stupid.  I’m a reader, and I always find my way back to it.  I know it sounds cheesy, but I really have to trust that I’ll come back to it in my own time.  I tend to put a lot of pressure on myself in terms of my reading life, and while I know that it’s okay to not always be reading and to do other things, there’s still that part of me that feels weird about not doing something I feel like I’m supposed to be doing.

Maybe, for now, I just need to read at a slower pace, read fewer books at one time, and not be reading constantly.  What’s a little weird is that when I do read, it’s enjoyable and fun.  It’s just that getting myself to read is the hard part.

It’s just frustrating because I don’t know how to deal with it.  It’s all new to me, so I’m just trying to figure this thing out, and how I can get out of it.

I don’t know that talking about this slump I’m in has given me a better idea of what to do, but I am feeling a lot better about this reading slump, and I’m really feeling like I will come out of.  And that it’s okay to have one sometimes.

Has anyone else experienced a reading slump?  And how did you get out of it? Or suggestions or advice on how to change things up?

  Have a happy weekend!