Helllllo readers, today’s post is a little different because I’m not doing a book tag but instead I wanted to talk about my most recent reading-slump. Before I get into it I just wanted to make a note that despite the slump I’ve still being reading and reviewing as you will have probably seen – it’s been more of an intolerance, or procrastination.  I just wanted to talk about the stages of how it’s consumed my reading, and how you can beat it if it ever happens to you.

Stage One: Book Refusal

It started when I was reading on the train, I was half-way through a book and yet after ten minutes of reading, I just couldn’t hold onto the words. Instead I was reading paragraphs and not taking anything in. I stopped, took a deep breath and picked up my Iphone and played Subway Surfers for the remainder of the journey.

Feeling at stage one: Normality, I’ll just pick it up again in the book tomorrow.

STAGE Two: EXCUSES

The week after I still hadn’t picked the book up or anything else for that matter and I started to make excuses. I need to do work at home, or get ready for the festive season ie writing up 57684596 blog posts and tidying my room/packing my bags/wrapping presents. I scoured my inbox for books I’d read already that needed writing up and focused on that.

Feeling at stage three: Well I was making excuses so, I pretty much just ignored it

STAGE Three: Distraction

During the run up to Christmas I developed a respiratory lung infection in my right lung which was horrible. I was allowed a couple of days off work to recover. Did I read? Did I hell? I watched almost an entire season of Prison Break (which is amazing)  and didn’t think about reading atttttttt all.

Feeling at stage three: Slight panic, but mostly just distracted by the sheer wonderfulness of Dominic Purcell

STAGE Four: Panic/GUILT

Christmas was on the whole a wonderful time for me and I was so busy and rushed off my feet for the entirety of the time that I was continuously distracted. But the panic set in when on an afternoon with nothing on, no jobs to do, I spent hours doing anything but – cuddling Lolly and Barbie, playing Mario Kart, organising presents, calling friends. But then, the guilt set in.

See I haven’t read anything really passionately or obsessively since the beginning of November and the books I have, I have openly gushed about, but I’ve had to make myself read them – as though it’s a chore. When I realised that ya know I own a blog completely dedicated to books I definitely started to have a wobble.

Feeling at stage four: Just like giving in (I mean for me not wanting to read for over two month is just not a thing.)

STAGE Five: Acceptance

Step five was definitely accepting that maybe it was going to take a little longer than I thought to shift the reading slump and that’s where I’ve been now for the last week – just waiting for the want to read to kick back in. I WANT TO READ but my brain just won’t let me.

Feeling at stage five: Utterly rubbish.

The Solution (well maybe) 

So where am I now? Well, slowly slowly I’ve felt the reading buzz begin to come back but what has helped to make it come back a little quicker I hear you wonder – well.

• Give yourself some time off – when I first started to get back into reading I forced it making the inability to read 100000% times worse. Kick-back watch some netflix, and give yourself time.

• Saying that if you do have the feeling to read I would 100% recommend it – throughout the first week I thought about reading but just didn’t because I didn’t realise how putting it off would make the problem so much worse.

• Read what makes you happy – the first thing I did when getting back into reading was look for authors to read that I knew would make me happy: Rachael Richey, Thomas Flowers and a number of Children’s books have definitely helped to get me reading again.

• Finally – DON’T PANIC. The worst thing I think I did was telling people I wasn’t reading. I got shocked looks ‘well you run a book blog, what the hell are you going to do.’ As with any hobby be it sport, knitting, writing, reading. blogging we all need time off and time off can be good!

so, if you’ve been wondering about my book slump(ish) then I guess it’s all here to see – if you have any tips for book slumps to help me really put this behind me let me know in the comments!