You’ve got a To-Be-Read pile as huge as Alyssa’s, big enough that your family has started to refer to it as Mt. TBR, and yet… you’re not reading.
You pick up one book after the other and listlessly put them back again. Nothing feels exciting anymore. Those same books which you found so fascinating at the bookstore don’t manage to hold your interest past the first couple of pages.
Or even worse: you read about the books coming out and… nothing. Nothing tempts you. It feels as if everything being published, you’ve already read a hundred times before.
Reading slumps. Few among us are lucky enough not to have gone through at least one of them. And they can be especially horrid for romance readers. Most of us read more books in a month than other readers usually read in a year, so, to go from reading one book after the other to nothing can be pretty depressing.
This is a frequent topic on romance message boards, and there are many theories on how to overcome a slump, but I’m not going to go into that. What I would like to do is share how I’ve managed to avoid one in the past 3 years or so.
I’d had slumps before, and pretty frequently, too, but the one I went through early in 2002 was my first since I started keeping a reading journal. Bored, and with nothing I wanted to read, I went browsing though my journal, looking for inspiration about what might finally manage to catch my interest.
I didn’t find that inspiration, but I did notice that, right before my slump, I’d gone through a couple of longish periods of reading exclusively one type of book. The first: over a month of only light and frothy contemporary romantic comedies, then had come a few weeks of futuristics, and after that, a long stretch of reading nothing but old category romances.
When the slump was over, an idea kept niggling in my mind. What if my burn-out with the entire genre was related to this habit of going through periods of reading compulsively in a single subgenre?
And so, I decided to try an experiment. I’d hop from one subgenre to another. If I’d just finished a dark historical, I’d read a funny contemporary. After a sweet Regency, what better than some spicy Romantica? And nothing would do after an angsty Harlequin Presents title but to read a campy futuristic. No more extensive reads in one subgenre for me.
This has worked so well that I’m still doing it today. I’ve just finished Nora Roberts’ latest, Black Rose. After that, I read Heart of Night, by Taylor Chase, a dark historical set in Elizabethan times, with a touch of the paranormal, and after that one, I went for a reprint of an old Sandra Brown category. Right now I’m whipping through a Susan Elizabeth Phillips and rereading an old romantic suspense favourite.
In the past three years, there hasn’t been even the merest shadow of a slump in my reading horizon, even though I’ve been reading mostly (but not exclusively. Ha!) romance novels. Not only that, I might be bored with certain aspects of romance novels, but I’m as enthusiastic as ever about the genre.
So the next time you finish a wonderful romantic comedy and you want nothing more than to read something just like it, my advice is: Don’t follow your instincts! Read an angsty western instead.
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Good advice, Rosario!
I’ve been through plenty of reading slumps, and for me it’s always been a problem with me, rather than a problem with the books… although it’s alway easier and less worrying to blame the books…
Thanks for sharing what *is* working for you. I have hit a reading slump. I found that after 3 bad reads in a row I wasn’t willing to invest myself into a long story. So then I picked up anthologies which created a whole new problem of ‘not enough’. It’s not often that I am as busy outside of the house but we are in the final weeks of reno house # 2 and the painting and work that have to be done are overwhelming. When I am done for the night, I prefer to veg out in front of the TV than pick up a book.
Hopefully by July 12 (Brockmann’s release) I will be done with work and I can relax for a few months…at least, as long as my husband doesn’t find another project house before then.
Once I get back into the swing of things I am going to use your idea. The last time I started to slip I noticed that I had read too many historicals back to back. So I promptly picked up a contemporary and I was in fine form for a few months longer.
CindyS
I went into a reading slump about a month ago, even though I do alternate among subgenres. My solution was to read some books in totally different genres– science fiction and chick lit. It seems to have helped!
Oh, absolutely, Rosario! In fact, the more I enjoyed the book I just finished reading, the more different from it I try to make the next one. Not only does that keep me from reading burn-out, but it also ensures that the fabulous romantic comedy or suspense or whatever stays fresh in my memory longer instead of blurring together with the similar books I read afterwards.
Mind you, this doesn’t always work. Last week, I read a romantic suspense, then a women’s fiction, then a romantic comedy. Nice variety, wouldn’t you think? Every single one of them had bad/distant parents who were nonetheless controlling, and in two of them the bad guy ended up going over a cliff. Odd.
I agree! Change genres as well is my advice: try that non-fiction book you’ve always wanted to read, or something from classical literature (“Jane Eyre” is always a good choice, something by Jane Austen, or my favorite comfort read, “Little Women”).
Terrific suggestion. I think in the last few weeks, I hopped from re-reading an old SIM by Suz Brockmann to a Catherine Anderson to a romantic action-adventure by Cherry Adair to an Anne Stuart novella and am now on Black Rose by Nora Roberts. You’re so right! There are so many terrific styles of romance novels I don’t ever need to hit a slump.
I hop all over the place in romance and other genres. My problem isn’t a reading slump. It is finding time to read and on top of that I read slowly so it takes me a lot of time to get through a book.
When I start to slump in romance, I usually switch over to reading mystery for a little while. That helps. Also, I’ll try reading a “little” book. Dig through my TBR for Harlequins/Silhouettes or anthologies. Most of the time when I slump it’s because my attention span is shot all to heck
Isn’t it wonderful how we can all deal with the same problem in a different way. A reading slump for me usually means it’s time to take a break from new stuff and reread some of my old favourites. I’m an avid reader. I have to read. Everyday. Even it’s just the last couple chapters from one of my favourite books. So when I just can’t get into the book I’ve been wanting to read for a while I just reach for an old favourite. Sometimes I even know exactly the scene in the book that I want to start reading from.
Sharon
Great idea! But you know what this means, don’t you? I have to run right out and buy a bunch more books to make sure I have an adequate variety of genres and sub-genres on hand to follow through and avoid the dreaded slump. Woo hoo! Another reason to add to my TBR pile. Heck, I might even have to start several different TBR piles.
I’ve been through a lot of mini ones lately. One day I picked up and started six different books. It wasn’t the books, it was me. It’s funny how a book can be a gotta read! but when I hit a slump, I don’t even want to start it in case my slump infects the book.
Kristie,
Yes! Slump infection! Finally someone who came up with a term that I couldn’t explain for the life of me! The worst is when you get that book you have been waiting for and it turns out, meh. Just happened to me and now I am afraid to pick anything up. I’ve also been burned (horribly so) by anothologies lately that even reading the first page of a short story will start my teeth grinding.
Oh, well. I just ordered 5 books from Amazon and I want to read all of them right away…except one, a new author and that is always a hard sell. So hopefully by Tuesday I will have a few books in the house (of hundreds) that I will want to read immediately.
CindyS
I have been lucky and haven’t hit a Slump yet but I can’t keep up with my buying. I need to stop, ok slow down a bit so I can catch up a lil.
I agree with you on reading out of your box if you hit a wall. I am the last person you would have thought would have read or liked westerns but on a fluke I read an Elizabeth Lowell, and as they say the rest is history
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