After much careful deliberation, I chose 4 fiction books to take with me on vacation (and a few digital photography how-to's, because I swear I am going to learn how to use my camera one of these days). I brought along Richard North Patterson's Exile, which I have been trying to finish since Christmas; Francis Clark's Waking Brigid, which I had already started; Joshua Ferris' Then We Came to the End and Lawrence Goldstone's The Anatomy of Deception. I was looking forward to some uninterrupted reading time, but for some reason I got very little done. I still haven't finished Exile, barely got into Clark's and Ferris' books, didn't even get to Goldstone, and I still don't know how to work that camera. Maybe it was the distraction of the ocean-I mean, who really wants to read a book when you can stare out at the beautiful blue ocean after looking at gray slush for 3 months? Or maybe these books aren't good fits for me. Or maybe it's worse. Maybe it's...
the dreaded slump.
I call it a reading slump. Once in a while I just can't seem to find a book I like. I can't finish anything. I am easily distracted and nothing holds my interest-not a thriller, not a historical novel, not a non-fiction book. I have some theories as to why this happens, but no good solutions. I broke out of my last slump with Sophie Kinsella, but since I have read all of her books and her next won't be here until March, I've got to find something else.
Do any of you ever have reading slumps? What do you do? Any sure bets to bring me out of the slump?
2 comments:
Sometimes, and I get movie slumps, which is quite annoying! I would try some short story things like Chicken soup for the soul, or the Darwin Awards etc.
This happens to me at times. The best solution for me is to watch some mindless TV in the evening rather than reading. It doesn't usually take long for me to wish for a book again.
Also, I have sort of a default genre that I return to when I'm out of reading ideas. Reading something familiar, if unimaginative, is a good way to get back on the reading track.
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