
Hello Fellow Readers,
How is your week going? I hope you are keeping warm and safe.
Today I wanted to discuss with you a problem we readers all share and we all risk facing once in a while – falling in a reading slump. You slowly start noticing you are dragging on that book for weeks, you read a few sentences and your mind starts thinking about something else. You don’t feel like reading anything else and slowly you just stop reading at all. Have you ever been there?

It happened to me a couple of times, but I kind of learnt how to recognise the symptoms early and avoid getting a reading slump. It usually happens when I am forced to read a book I don’t want to, which I may have randomly requested on NetGalley without reading any excerpt or doing a proper research. Or I bought it at the bookstore just because the cover spoke to me with a tiny soft voice saying “Buy me, I’m pretty” and I did (true story).
If I feel like I am not, in any way, invested in the story or the characters and if I see it takes me 20 minutes for just one page – that’s it, that’s my cue. I’m in danger of falling in the deepest darkness of a black hole called reading slump.
So here are a couple of things I would do and I recommend giving it a try, if you feel this way and you don’t want to experience a slump:
Here’s my tips:
#1 – Reread
If you don’t care or give a damn about your current read, whether or not the princess will manage to kiss her mysterious prince from the rival realm and love will triumph over the war against the two historical enemy countries… blah blah blah… leave it. Put it away, leave your current read, and pick up a book you know you love and give yourself the chance to meet an old friend. There is nothing better than reliving the joys or heartbreaks of your favourite book.
#2 – Read something out of your comfort zone
I always have a self-help or nonfiction book next to me. At the moment Total Cat Mojo is sitting in my night stand, to keep me company when I don’t feel the magic of a story. I will revisit and read this manual about how to take care of my indoor cat and make him feel like a lion king whenever I need a change. I found I feel less pressure on picking up my previous read or a new story the day after.

#3 – DNF’ed
And I can’t stress this enough, it’s OK to give up. I have a friend who is reading the same and only book since March 2020, she doesn’t want to give up reading it but at the same time the book is killing her joy to read (and to live?). For me this is not acceptable. There are too many books out there I want to read. I am not going to give time to something I am not enjoying. It’s OK if you don’t like the hyped book, it’s OK if you don’t agree with the writer’s choices, and it’s OK to move on.
#4 – Listen to an audiobook
We are spending more time in front of the screen, work and personal life borders are so blurred right now for many of us. I am a loser when it comes to multitasking, but I’ve never felt too much the need to listen to an audiobook like now. I need to take a break from TV, laptops, smartphones and I need someone to read the story to me before I go to bed. So, if you don’t feel like reading, what about letting someone read it to you with an audiobook.
#5 – Visit Goodreads
One thing I noticed that always cheers me out of a reading slump is visiting Goodreads. I could spend hours reading my friends’ reviews, discovering new titles and adding new books to the TBR. I found it very useful when I don’t feel like reading, it gives me back the excitement of finding new interesting stories.

#6 – Blog hopping
And the same rule can be applied to visiting other book bloggers’ blogs. I really love reading other people’s reviews, mostly if I loved the book but another reader is completely bashing it. Anyway, there are so many great and inspiring bloggers out there. Checking their blog feeds always gives me back my reading spark.
#7 – Change scenery
I know it may be tricky to do this now considering the situation, but taking your book to a different location may actually help you to get into the story. I used to go to the park in the neighbourhood or a coffee shop, but now with the lockdown and everything that’s going on, simply changing from my reading chair to bed, or bed to kitchen table is sufficient to give me a new sprint and perspective.
#8 -Visit a bookshop or a library
Yeah… well.. if you can. I think, last time I went to a bookshop was last summer and my local library is closed for an unforeseeable time. Oh dear, now I feel inexplicably sad… Let’s revisit this tip after this whole pandemic situation is over!! But yeah, if you have this option and the pandemic is not forcing you away from these beloved places, please take advantage on my behalf. Go out there, take home all the books you can from the library or visit a bookshop and chat with fellow readers. That’s the best feeling!

#9 – Pick up a comic book
This tip is a bit on the same line as the number 2, pick something different and out of your comfort zone. I used to read lots of manga, and they are still an amazing way to bring me back to the joy of reading. It doesn’t have to be a manga, there are so many intriguing comic books or graphic novels out there that you can consider a remedy for your reading slump.
These are the things I always try whenever I am not in the mood for reading, tricks that I have now mastered during the last couple of years.
How do you defeat a reading slump? Have you ever experienced one and how long did it last?


These are excellent tips! I have a bunch of books on my kindle and such…. hopping between two books each time …
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Thanks for the comment! I hope you get time to finish your readings!
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Fantastic tips! One thing I do is usually go to my comfort reading which is romance so I just switch up genres and that usually seems to do the trick. Although sometimes I wind up reading several romances before getting back to SFF but that’s okay, as long as I’m reading and happy doing so. 🙂
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Absolutely, as long as you are loving what you read who cares what genre and which order you read. I do sometimes switch genre as well. It’s another great trick. Thanks for reading!!
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These are great tips, love to read these! I recently had a reading slump, at the beginning of December, and I think that DNFing and reading something I don’t usually read really helped me. The chances that I DNF something are so slim but I just couldn’t get into a book because of my slump and just…left it. I’m not sure that I’ve picked up a sci fi book since…
That was also when I started reading realistic fiction more…I rarely read that but then I couldn’t read ANY sci fi and fantasy was sort of meh for me so I picked up some realistic fiction and it was GOOD.
Thank you so much for these tips! Love to read them!
-Phoenix
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Sometimes you really need to read something different. I love fantasy stories but sometimes I need to read another genre, or the fantasy books will all look the same and bland together in one big story. If you get what I mean. Thank you so much for commenting and reading!! Hope they help next time you feel like you need a change.
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Yeah, exactly! No problem, loved the post!
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These are wonderful tips! Re-reading is what usually gets me out of a reading slump, but switching to a book from a different genre also works sometimes. Thanks for sharing!
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I am glad to know you have your own method. Comfort reading is the best! thanks for reading and for the comment!
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OMG! This is great and I find myself in a perpetual state of reading slump. It has gotten better in recent months but these are great tips.
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Thank you Kaya! and thanks for reading!!
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Another thing that helps me is to take a day or two away from reading. It gives me the chance to miss reading and then all I wanna do is pick up a book and read.
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This is actually a great advice, thanks for sharing!! I will try that, let’s see if it works!
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Lovely post! ✌️
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Thank you so much!
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I use a few of these tips and it never fails. 😄 Reading something different usually does it for me, sometimes I switch to audiobooks because it helps too. Rereading is always helpful too. Great tips, Marta! 😄
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Thanks for reading 😄
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