The Highs and Lows of a Reading Slump

You may know, that over the past year, maybe even the two years, I have been on one of those lovely things us readers like to call a reading slump. Lovely.

For those of you who don’t know, that’s where you don’t read, you can’t get into any books, and reading becomes a chore – often for a significant period of time. So to put it simply, for a bookworm, THEY SUCK.

There. I said it. (Glambert anyone??)
But, arguably reading slumps can have some positives, although you may have to do some digging to find them – and so here we go.

Let’s start with the most obvious side to the argument:

First and foremost, reading becomes something you don’t enjoy, and as a bookworm that’s not something we want to endure.
It’s an emotional time.
The TBR pile grows ever taller until it threatens to swallow us whole, as you miss out on all the new releases and your backlist increases in size and depth. Because guess who still has reads from 2017 to get to. Twenty. Seven. Teen. *looks away and awkwardly avoids eye contact*.

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If you’re a book blogger. Then comes the issue of WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU POST.
Book blogger = post about books. Not reading = no books to write about.
Some of you may remember (highly unlikely) but I actually had a book blog under a similar name for about 3 months – I was excited and really enjoying posting, but then the book slump hit. And I had no clue what to write about??
So the blog fizzled out. I didn’t have anything to blog about because books and reading was a no go. So I just didn’t post.
Thankfully the slump is over and I was super eager to restart this, so here I am. But if it happens again, where will that put A Literary Latte??

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If reading is part of your regular routine, as I imagine it is for most bookworms then it can really throw that completely out of sync.
What do you do on your morning train ride commute?? How do you hide from your relatives?? *I’m kidding… obviously*. What do you do before you sleep?? What do you do on your lunch break?? Talk??
Not being able to read can really throw off your routine which can be confusing and is so weird to go through??

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At this point, you may be thinking that’s the end of the post. Surely there can be no positives?? Surely.
You wouldn’t think so. But this is a discussion post. So I have to try and balance the argument so it is unbiased (GCSE English doing me proud wow) – and that means really digging deep to the deepest depths of the deep to find some positives of a reading slump.

You become productive. I see you shuddering, yes, productive. Not that dangerously similar word, procrastinating.
Without reading, I found that I was being more productive?? Studying became more of a common occurrence (wow, who is she) and I found I had one less excuse for not starting work (99 instead of 100 – look at me go ;).

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Sometimes, other hobbies may exist, and I know it’s crazy, but sometimes, they may be enjoyable.
Without reading, it’s only naturally that I have to get that 99 back up to 100 and that includes finding other hobbies.
Something I’m considering is learning to play the piano/keyboard. Fun fact.

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And that concludes the positives, which we can really ignore because a reading slump will always be NEGATIVE.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.

But seriously,

How do you handle a reading slump? What’s your biggest frustration surrounding them? And what do you do when you aren’t reading??

I’d love to know in the comments below! 🙂

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