Top Ten Tuesday: Help getting out of a reading slump.
This is what works for me
I made a similar list in 2018. Check it out for more suggestions.
Switch up the book format. Try audiobooks. Let a good narrator do the heavy-lifting for you. Here are a few excellent books in this format:
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
This book is genius in the audio format. Rocky, the alien, has a unique way of communicating with musical notes. It is so cool!!!!
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
This is an excellent story made even better because the narrator is Tom Hanks. I liked it so much I listened to it twice.
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
Everyone I know who read this book didn't like it. Everyone who listened to it, including me, LOVED it. Why? The story is read by 166 unique narrators. It is fantastically fun to try and identify those voices we know.
Switch up and read something outside your typical genre choice. This almost always shakes me out of reading doldrums. Try a graphic novel, narrative nonfiction, a gothic novel, or something written for children or teens.
What the Chicken Knows: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird by Sy Montgomery. Narrative nonfiction and short. So good.
North American Maps for Curious Minds: A New Way to See the Continent by Matthew Bucklan. Reference. Illustrated. I devoured this book in one gulp. It is both fun and sometimes funny.
Encyclopedia by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. Humor. I adored this book and made me laugh again and again.
Join a few reading challenges and put in a bit of effort to meet the goals. My favorite reading challenges are those which have a limited time period, like a month or a season. Year-long reading challenges are too easy to push aside. Here are a few I've enjoyed over the years:
Big Book Summer -- Read a few books over 400 pages
Novellas in November -- Read a few books under 200 pages
StoryGraph: Genres Challenge -- attempt to read books from all of SG 58 genres
Austen in 2025 -- Read one or all six of Austen's books this year, her 250th anniversary
Read from your own TBR -- self-explanatory (couldn't find link)
Classics Club Spins -- Make a list of 20 classics, read the one on the winning number
Nonfiction November -- Not only read nonfiction but answer prompts about nonfiction
Goodreads Seasonal Challenges-- Click on you Goodreads photo. Pull down, click on Reading Challenges. Fall/Spring season is coming soon.
Go to a library and ask a librarian for help selecting a book. They live to make recommendations (I know. I'm a retired librarian.) Or locate the "Librarian suggests" section on the shelves. Your library may also have a feature where you can request librarians find books for you to try. I did this once. I requested "short poetry books for adults." I was given some really fun books to explore, books I never would have picked myself. Another time I did the same thing with children's books.
Make a few selections from others' best books lists. I am a big fan of doing this and have found some books I ended up really liking on them. Here are a few lists to peruse:
Can't find anything that interests you? Try a shorter commitment, selecting a short novel or a few short stories. Here are a few I like:
-Orbital by Samantha Harvey
-The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
-Murder Bots: All Systems Red by Martha Wells
-Foster by Claire Keegan
Still stuck? Try a reread of an old favorite.
I have three authors I turn to when I'm good and stuck: Jane Austen; John Green, and Alexander McCall Smith. Any of their books will do!
How about you? What works best to get you out of reading slump?
Right now I'm following my own advice:
- Selecting a novella for an upcoming car trip with the family, a book title we can all agree on.
- I just finished a book from the NYT Best books list: Say Nothing. It is 19th on the list. So good.
- Making selections for books to help me complete the genre challenge at StoryGraph. I only have ten genres to go out of 58.
- And, right now, I am reading a book recommended by the librarians on their "We Recommend" shelf: When the Moon Hits Your Eye.
-Anne
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