Hey everybody, I hope your week is going well! If not, at least you’re half way through! You got this!
Today I want to talk about how my reading patterns from when I was younger are different from now and reading slumps overall.
When I was younger, I read constantly, even reading multiple books at once. I read EVERYTHING; children’s books, YA, adult, graphic novels, fantasy, contemporary, dystopian, romance it didn’t matter to me. As long as the story was good, I would read it.
Then in college, I stopped reading as much. The only time I read was during breaks, because my brain was too exhausted from school to even think about picking up a book to read for fun. After graduating college, I started reading constantly again, and for a while it was just as it was before. Until about a year after graduation (I would say in 2017), where I would have month long “reading slumps” of not reading anything. This lasted until around midway through last year (I think, my timeline is a little fuzzy in my head š).
Which leads to where I am in present day. Right now, I’m in the process of starting two different books, and reading through a third book.
The first book is a collection of stories, called “Great Horror Stories” compiled by Stefan Dziemianowicz. I read a few of the stories so far, and they’re pretty interesting, but none of them have really caught my attention so far. I keep it in my work bag for me to read during lunch, but I haven’t been doing that lately.
The other book I’m reading isĀ The Bellwether RevivalsĀ by Benjamin Wood. I thought the story was interesting at first, and I enjoyed reading from the perspective of the main character. However, once we met some of the other characters, they all came off as pretentious and obnoxious (which I guess is the point). It makes it harder to motivate myself to read though, because I just want to roll my eyes at the other characters sometimes because they annoy me so much. š At this point, I’m considering just not finishing it, but we’ll see.
The third book I’ve been reading is DearĀ Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy, which is her newest release. Since I work at Barnes and Noble, ARC’s are left in the breakroom for employees to read. We’re allowed to take the ARC’s home if we want for the most part, but I’ve been enjoying readingĀ Sweet Pea during my lunch, since the chapters are short and easy to get through in a short period of time. I’ve read other books by Julie Murphy such asĀ Dumplin (which was made into a Netflix Original Movie) andĀ Ramona Blue. I enjoyed reading both books, but I definitely likedĀ DumplinĀ more so thanĀ Ramona Blue.
Before I started reading Dear Sweet Pea, both books I was trying to read weren’t holding my interest, and I was having a hard time finding something I wanted to read. After taking a break for about a week, I finally started readingĀ Dear Sweet Pea, and I may only be reading about twenty minutes a day (usually I read more than that), but I’m glad to finally have found a book I find entertaining.
I think it’s important to talk about reading slumps, because if a reading slump stretches into a long period of time, people do start to feel guilty about not reading. As someone who follows the book community (mostly Booktube), I constantly find discussions about people feeling guilty about not reading a lot, or not reading at all.
It’s just that… reading is a hobby, a past time.
I understand if someone is a creator in the book community, and they are having issues creating content because they aren’t reading as much, which is obviously a problem. At the same time though, by forcing yourself to read when you don’t want to, and making yourself feel guilty when you don’t want to read can negatively impact your reading habits overall. You might even begin to… despise reading.Ā There is nothing wrong with not wanting to read. Maybe you just haven’t found the right book to pull you in, or maybe your brain just needs a break. Don’t feel guilty or force yourself to read because it’s an item on your to-do list.
If you’re someone who reads constantly, good for you.
If you only read once a month, or maybe once a year, good for you.
If you’re like me and you randomly have spurts where you read a lot, followed by periods of time where you don’t really read anything, good for you.
If you want to read graphic novels or comics, read graphic novels or comics.
If you want to read fantasy or sci-fi, read fantasy or sci-fi.
If you want to read romance or poetry, read romance or poetry.
If you want to read horror or thrillers, read horror or thrillers (especially now with Halloween coming up! š)
Read as much or as little as you want, read whatever genre you want and don’t stress yourself out or worry about what other people will think. Reading for your own personal pleasure, not for other people.
After all, books are meant as an escape from the stress of everyday life (for the most part). They’re a form of entertainment and enjoyment. They’re meant to make you think about concepts and discuss with others. They’re meant for you to laugh and cry.
It’s like any other form of entertainment like watching movies, TV, or music; you read because you love the story or need to escape. Don’t turn it into something that’s a chore, because then that’s all it ever will be.
Anyways, this random ramble/rant is over, as I don’t have anything else to say about the subject. š I only wanted to talk about this because after reading and hearing many discussions about reading slumps in the book community, I had some of my own thoughts I wanted to put out there.
On that note, thank you for reading, and I will see you tomorrow in the next post!
–Erin š
Twitter: @ENordhof
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Eclectic Erin 
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