Friday, September 19, 2008

I'm in a reading funk

And have no idea why? I mean there are more than 300 books calling my name and my mom continues to send me new ones (to remind me how much she loves me that and to prove to me she has figured out how my amazon whislist works LOL!) and yet I find I don't care?

Have you ever been there where nothing sounds good? Or worse you start numerous books and nothing reads well or sounds good so you put it down only to discover that you can't pick it back up no matter how interesting it was? Well that's me right now. Nothing is holding my attention, no books, not my writing, not even working out. All I want to do is sit in front of the TV and veg out.

NOT cool at all. Seriously I have some really good books dying to be read not to mention some really good stories in my head that are dying everyday that I just sit here doing nothing. So dear readers what would you do in this situation? Would you just ride it out or would you push through it? And if you pushed through it what would you read?

5 Comments:

  1. Anonymous said...
    I get like this sometimes. It is usually when I have too many choices, rather than too few. I tend to accumulate all sorts of books (ebooks, audiobooks, library books, books on my shelf) and I just get overwhelmed.

    What helped me last time I felt like this is I stepped away from the ones that had been at the top of my imaginary book queue. I returned most of my library books unread and stopped looking at my ebook folder that was full of unread ebooks. Then, I looked again at the books on my shelf. Especially the ones that had been there a while. They sit on my shelf long enough, I sort of stop seeing them. I reread the back covers to help me remember why I had gotten them in the first place.

    Doing this sort of made me excited again about books I had forgotten about. I reordered my book queue. It sort of felt like a fresh start.

    Good luck in finding something exciting to read!
    Renee
    Anonymous said...
    I get reading slumps sometimes, and even though I know it'll get better, that's hard to remember when it goes on.

    It's a good advice to step back and take a fresh look, like Renee said. Or try to read something completely different. Non-fiction works great there for me. Or, if it's really serious (usually more than a month), I stop reading completely. It's strange, because reading usually makes me feel good, but it works for me and that's what counts.

    So, break the pattern in whatever way. Don't push too hard. Reading shouldn't be something that you have to do. And since I started to vary my reading material a lot, my slumps are shorter and not as often.

    Maybe it's just the new work schedule that's bothering you and you need some more time to adjust. As a writer, you probably already tried this, but when I have trouble concentrating over a longer period of time, I do free writing (and a lot looks like "this sucks what to do meh meh meh") but eventually, I come around.

    I really don't know what to recommend, but I wish you all the best and good luck in finding excitement again - in reading and writing!
    Anonymous said...
    Oh yes...it's happened. Go have a fun day. Make yourself get out and do something fun! :)
    Bev(QB) said...
    "So dear readers what would you do in this situation?"

    Honestly, I think you've answered your own question: "All I want to do is sit in front of the TV and veg out." So, who says you HAVE to read when you don't feel like it? You'll probably get bored with TV soon enough and will EAGERLY dive into a book.

    My only other suggestion is to look through the books you've already read. Find one you loved but haven't read in a while, open it up, and see if you are instantly absorbed into the story again. If THAT doesn't happen, then I'd say go with my first suggestion and take a break from reading ANYTHING until something catches your interest again.
    Sarai said...
    Hey thanks guys, I think I will try all these suggestions. When things slow down and I stop the overtime things might get back to normal. The funky work schedule has wrecked any social life I might have tried to have LOL so maybe when I start craving that I will get back to reading!

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