How I Got Out of My Reading Slump

To call my reading slump a 'slump' is to grossly understate the situation. After a decade of dutifully reading fifty-two books a year (a constant struggle) I probably read no more than fifteen books total during 2020/2021.

It was like being in a fog - my brain simply could not process the amount of effort required to choose a book and then actually read it. I tried - I tried often. I'd start a book, read maybe ten pages, and a month later I'd still have read ten pages.

Cut to June this year. I'd read precisely six books. Two in the first days of January and a few 'easy' reads I tried to tempt myself with, with little success. I gloomily picked up another short book to try again.

And this time it worked!

As if by magic, my reading mojo was back. I wasn't just content to read, I was consumed by it. I hadn't read so hungrily since my early teens, which was before I had internet access. Over the last six months I have read sixty-one books, achieving more in six months than I've ever managed in a year.

If you are reading this, you might be in a similar situation and looking for a way out. This is not going to be a 'top ten ways to get out of a reading slump!' list, in which I suggest going on long walks or having a relaxing bath. They didn't work for me when I was helplessly reading those lists.

These changes worked because they were fixing problems unique to me. My hope it that by seeing what my problems were and how they were fixed, you might be able to notice the things that stop you enjoying books.

So here is how reading A Monster Calls accidentally got me out of my reading slump...

1) I Switched My Reading App

I bought A Monster Calls on sale, from a random book website. When I started reading it I hadn't gone through the complex process of adding the file to my Kindle app, so I read it on my MoonReader+ app.

Now I love the MoonReader+ app. I organise my fanfiction on there with loving care; everything is tagged, has custom covers (yes I made 500+ custom covers for any possible eventuality) and the whole thing fills me with joy.

Crucially, its dark grey night-mode doesn't hurt my eyes like white-on-black or black-on-white.

But I wasn't reading any books on there. I used the Kindle app, which is a logistical nightmare and whose only eye-friendly option (mint green) was distracting.

When I read an actual book using the app I love, the difference was immediate. I read faster, concentrated better, and realised that by adding my books to it, I could add in a whole new organisation system (and I LOVE organising things!)

So I went and broke the DRM on every book I'd bought via Kindle and swapped them to MoonReader+. Morally I see no issue with this - I've paid money for those books, own them, and deserve to read them via an app that works for me.

2) I Stopped Buying Books From Kindle

Swapping apps had another side effect. I was free from Amazon.

Now, I share a Kindle account with my mother. That means that any books I have on there, she can access. Obviously as a woman in my mid-thirties, I can buy what I want, but it still feels like being watched. She might not say anything, she almost certainly doesn't care, but it still feels like additional judgement.

By swapping to Kobo, all of my books were suddenly my own.

3) I Started Reading What I Wanted to Read, Rather than What I Was Supposed to Read

Boom. The second I could buy what I wanted and have it be mine alone, I was free. I could buy far more queer books, trashy books, even erotica and never have to answer to anyone.

It caused me to look back at what I was reading over the last few years, and it was a depressing list. I was treating reading like a job. If I read x number of good books I will write x amount better. To fail at reading was to fail at writing.

I even made a list of books I owned, titled 'books I bought because I wanted to be the sort of person who read this book' - it was a depressingly long list. Sorry Mary Beard but I'm not going to read your treatise on Ancient Rome. Goodbye Stasiland, Go Set a Watchman, and Jaws. Am I interested? Yes. Am I interested enough? No. And that's fine. Maybe one day I'll come back to you, when the mood strikes.

Because I was forcing those books down, they were taking me longer to read. A three-hundred page book I could read in two or three days took seven or eight. And when you commit that amount of time to something, you have to justify it to a certain extent.

Now, I was excited to read, so I could read four books in a week. It didn't matter if all of them were high-quality, or fell exactly within my interests. I could experiment!

 4) I Started Giving Up on Books

Not loving it? Not reading it.

It became very apparent that books I wasn't enjoying were taking up extra reading time. And I was spending time on them because I refused to quit on a book I'd started.

Once I realised that no one cared if I quit but me, I started quitting on books the second my gut told me to. 'Enjoying' a book, but dragging my feet on actually reading it? Maybe I'm not enjoying it that much after all.

Sure, some books need a bit more time, and some books aren't 'fun' reads, but that's not the same as your heart not being in it.

5) I Switched Up How I Track My Reading

GoodReads is crap and we all know it. Marking books as 'read' gave me no satisfaction on there, and was yet another dutiful part of the reading process.

I discovered Storygraph during lockdown but was in too much of a reading slump to care. I started using it to track my books and it's yet another joyful part of the process. Now I get stats! I get to check off challenges! I get that little extra seratonin, as a treat!

6) I Figured Out What Aspects of Book-Culture Bring Me Joy 

I saw a post recently that said that it doesn't always have to be the reading of books that brings happiness. There's pleasure in buying books, in collecting them, organising them, making your bookshelves insta worthy.

For me, that's structuring my digital collection (I don't have space to store physical books, sadly), tweeting reaction gifs, organising Storygraph, and - now - keeping this blog. It's like a positive feedback loop that keeps me thinking about books even when I'm not reading one.

7) Therapy

To be clear, I did not have therapy to help fix my reading. I started therapy during my reading rut and it was just one of many of the problems I had at the time.

But therapy HELPED. It's made me more aware of the unfair demands I make of myself, my all-or-nothing thinking, and how much I ignore my emotions. It's also made me recognise that I work in phases and can only throw myself into things in bursts. Having a 'reading month' where I blitz through books followed by one where I play Horizon Zero Dawn every night means I don't have to feel guilty about how I spend my time. I can factor that in to my reading, and my life in general.

So, Where Should You Begin?

Again, I'm no expert on your life but looking at the small practicalities might be the best place to start. Are your eyes ok? Do you have a comfortable space to read? Are you trying to read at a time of day that doesn't work for you? What format works best for you?

And then you can tackle the biggest question - what aspect of reading makes me happiest?