How to get out of a reading slump!

Reading is my favourite hobby. I have others but reading takes priority every time. However for some reason or other, I hit a wall and can’t seem to read anything which leads me to having multiple books on the go and not finishing any of them which then adds to the stress of trying to read and finish a book, especially if it’s a book I need to read for book club. This annoying block is a reading slump, I’m sure at one point or another every reader has come across a reading slump and there’s nothing worse! Especially if reading is your main hobby. Most of the time this has only lasted a couple of days, however I have had times where it’s lasted as long as three months!

I’m currently in the middle of a slump that started back in February. It’s now almost the end of March and I have only finished three books in total where as my usual tally is ten to fifteen a month! Though there are absolutely no reasons for feeling bad when you’re in a reading slump, nothing feels worse than not being able to do something you love, so here are a few ways that have helped me through reading slumps in the past:

Try a different genre: This is my go to fix for a reading slump. Sometimes reading so much of one genre can be the reason a slump rears it’s head. For me, I read a lot of fantasy and sometimes an easier, lighter read such as romance or historical fiction is the perfect fix and I find it a lot easier to bounce back into fantasy after a book or two that’s completely different from my go to reads.

Mix up the formats: Reading a physical book isn’t the only way to read a book and if you read mostly in physical form then it might be that trying an ebook or an audiobook might be the way to go. Audiobooks are perfect for this, as you can listen to a book while you do other things such as daily chores, errands or even another hobby.

Get someone else to pick a book: This is one of my favourite ways to get out of a slump, I relieve a lot of stress by asking a friend to pick my next read. It can be daunting as I usually give my friends full reign to choose whatever they want from my owned books to make me read and the fact that I’m not having to choose makes it much more fun when they reveal what book they’ve chosen for me.

Binge a show or movie series: There is absolutely nothing wrong with abandoning trying to read completely and bingeing a tv show or a few movies. You’ll soon forget what put you in a slump in the first place and be ready to jump back into a book, you might even decide that reading the book version of an adaptation is what you’re really in the mood for, ready to compare all the things the adaptation did or didn’t do and answer that age old question of whether the book is better than the film or tv show, which for the most part, it usually is. In my humble opinion.