Fully Booked | I’m In a Reading Slump

I’m in a reading slump, and it’s nothing new for me. I typically like to read every morning and night, but recently, that hasn’t been the case. Instead of picking up a book when I have a couple of hours free, I turn on Netflix. And it’s not that I never watched TV between classes and before going to sleep before, but it wasn’t as constant as it is now. So, what’s the big deal? 

Well, I can’t help but notice that my attention span seems to be getting a little shorter each day, and personally, it’s not a feeling I love.

For me, reading slumps usually result from trying to push through a book I’m not enjoying all that much, and that’s what happened this time. Stephen King’s novel “11/22/63” has been on my to-be-read list for over a year, so when I finally bought it this summer, I was hoping to finish the heavy, 849 page-book in less than a month. It’s probably easy to guess that I didn’t accomplish that goal. The book is currently sitting on my bedside table with a bookmark between pages 345 and 346 more than a month after I started it. Two weeks ago, I decided to take a break from that book, and try to take on — for the third time — F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Beautiful and Damned.” Once again, I found myself wanting to do anything but read. 

Honestly, I should have known better than to try to use a 1920s novel to pull me out of my reading slump. I should have initially done the one thing that always gets me back into reading daily, which is to read a book that seems fun. Sometimes I put pressure on myself to just read the books that “everyone,” or more specifically, every English major, says they’ve read, but when I’m not having fun with reading, I’ve found that it’s usually better to try a book that’s easier to read. For this particular reading slump, that book is “She Memes Well,” an essay collection by Quinta Brunson, and I’m happy to report that I started it today by reading an essay from it. I figured a book by the creator and star of “Abbott Elementary” would keep me engaged and laughing while I catch up on the show.

Reading slumps are frustrating for any self-proclaimed “reader” or “book-lover,” and getting bored with reading often makes me wonder if I actually ever enjoyed reading as much as I used to. Thankfully, the first book that pulls me out of a reading slump shows me why I love reading and proves to me that I do, in fact, enjoy reading in my free time. Plus, reading provides a plethora of benefits, including working as a stress reliever, improving concentration and increasing inspiration for my own writing. I don’t think you need to read the most “impressive” books to be a reader, and doing so might just convince you that reading is meant to be boring and painful. After many periods of trial and error, I’ve learned how to bring myself out of a reading slump, and I strongly recommend reading whatever you want to keep reading as a hobby, not as a chore.