As some of you who follow me on Twitter may know, I went on a social media hiatus for a few months. I’m back now, but I’ve changed my approach to reading. Before the hiatus, I reviewed almost every single book that I read. It was too much stress. This resulted in a book slump as well. During my hiatus, I didn’t read many books at all and have only started to read again over the last few weeks.
This post will mainly just serve to collect my thoughts about and experiences during the slump.
The book slump was really bad. I just didn’t want to read anything, because I kept having this thought in my mind that I have to review every single book. Of course this wasn’t the case, I didn’t have to write a review for every book I read, but I felt like I did.
I had over 30 book reviews scheduled, so I knew that I could take a break and be able to post review. I made good use of the sharing function on WordPress in order to share my posts on Twitter, and thus have a semi-active account there. It was so good to just remove myself from social media and rediscover what I enjoy about reading without the stress of having to keep up with the bookish world.
Slowly, I started to read more books again, however I told myself I wasn’t going to write any reviews for a while. This definitely helped me and I found myself wanting to read books again.
At the beginning of the book slump, I was watching Netflix on my phone while commuting to work because I didn’t have any interest in reading a book. Slowly, I actually started reading physical books. I didn’t want to look at my Kindle for some time – I assume that that was because most of my ARCs were on the Kindle, and it made me feel too stressed.
I also noticed that I enjoyed reading standalones and series where the individual books function as standalones more. I’ll be writing a blog post about this soon.
The last two weeks, I’ve started to read regularly again. I read ARCs on my Kindle and read physical books as well. I don’t review every single book I read, as I want to have some books that I can enjoy without the thought of having to writing a book review coming up. I’ll mostly just be reviewing ARCs.
I’m happy about my decision, as the pressure of reviewing every book has been lifted off me, and I find that I can enjoy bookish social media and book blogging. I’m more active on Twitter and Goodreads now, and intend to continue with my Bookstagram account soon!
Huntress of Diverse Books 
Enjoy reading don’t stress out yourself. We enjoy what you share. Thanks much.
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Thank you! Sometimes this is what you need to hear.
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It sounds like your hiatus was helpful. I’ve been in a book slump for a long time related mostly to how much I’ve been working. When I’m done with work (much of it research and writing), I don’t want to see more words, even if it’s in books I would usually enjoy. I haven’t been blogging much as a result, but I don’t mind that. At some point, I’ll return to a regular schedule.
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I totally get where you’re coming from. I’ve heard this is an issue with researchers. In the end, you’re not obliged to do anything.
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Book slumps are the worst 😦 when I’ve been reading too intensively for too long I always have to take a break because I feel really sick and tired of reading… I think the important thing is not to force it, or you’ll just end up hating it. Breaks are healthy!
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Exactly! I’ve had to relearn this!
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I can relate to that a lot. I’m happy you found a middle point with more balance 😊 I think I’ll do something similar 🤔
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I hope it works for you!
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I’m glad you’re back! I’m sort of in a slump, too. It’s not that I don’t want to read, though. I do find myself wanting to read but I feel as if every book I read isn’t that good. I don’t think it’s because of the book themselves, because I couldn’t find anything wrong with them. I just didn’t like them. I think switching what I usually read is helping me love the books more. I read a ton of ya fantasy before and not I’m moving to adult books in a ton of different genres. 🙂
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I noticed that I was ubercritical about books, which I think was the result of reviewing all of them. So I kept waiting for disappointment, and it stressed me out.
Switching is great. I tend to read certain authors for enjoyment only and not to review.
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Hiii! Happy to see you back! I went through a similar thing at the end of last year and deciding that I wouldn’t review every book I read turned out to be ne of the best décisions I made, it was really freeing!
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I feel so free as well! It’s lovely! And it makes reading a lot more fun!
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I can totally relate to you hun. Ever since I started reviewing, I feel as though every single book I read, even if it’s a classic, must be reviewed on my blog. As a result, lately, I’ve been really choosy about what I was choosing to read. And then while I read, I focus on the style, thematics and try to pick out special details that I could write about in a review. This, after a while, gets tiring and results in me taking mini hiatuses between each book I read so I can take a break from writing a review too.
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This is exactly what I was doing. You definitely shouldn’t feel tired from blogging, it should be fun.
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I’m sorry you’ve had such a tough reading slump, I completely get it though. There have been times when I’ve felt so much pressure to churn out content for my blog and/or keep up with lots of reviews that it just stopped me from enjoying blogging and/or reading. I just felt too stressed out to be able to continue. Taking a step back and having intermittent breaks has been great for me – they’ve given me the chance to recover and rebuild a positive relationship with blogging/reading in my own time, without the massive pressure hanging over my head to create content.
In terms of reviews I made a similar decision to not review every single book I read, only the ones that I feel particularly moved to review either because they were great/terrible or ARCs that I need to review. With ARCs I started making it more clear that I have a lot of ARCs to get through, in addition to my own books, and it will take me a while to get round to reviewing the book so that I’m not having to blow through ARCs to review them “in time”. Having more flexibility in what I read, when I read it, and whether I review it has really helped me.
I hope that you get to a place where you feel happier with reading again.
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That sounds like a good plan. I am enjoying reading a lot more now.
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Thank you for sharing about your book slump! Recently I was reading an article which pointed out that most bloggers stop posting by one year after starting a new blog. Definitely feeling a blog slump lately but I’m trying to accept that the posts and comments I want to make don’t match up with my time to commit to blogging currently.
My big tip for book slumps is to switch something up – try a new genre or read picture books or do 100 word reviews or something. Lately I’ve found suddenly I just can’t read as much fiction which was very surprising. I can only read a novel if I know there’s enough time free for me to finish the whole book in the next day or two, otherwise I’m stressed reading feeling that it’s keeping me from the family and stressed when not reading wanting to know what happens in the book. So lots of nonfiction lately or fiction rereads that I can stop and start.
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Thanks for these tips!
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I only read one book at a time- too hard for me to read multiple books at a time
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Understandable. I have that sometimes.
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