I'm wondering if you still have any go-to bookstores around you or at least near your area. Here where I live, there's literally none. I have to drive at least 20 miles just for the nearest big box bookstore. This may not be a big deal for most people, but for me - as I'm sure you all can understand - this is an upsetting thing. I haven't really gone in a bookstore in a very long time where I live, and I truly think the lack of these visits - that used to inspire and motivate me to keep trying new titles and authors - have contributed to my lack of posts here. I miss blogging, I miss talking about books, and I definitely miss reading.
Lately I just have been so uninspired. This is probably the biggest reading slump I have ever had, and I am not a fan of it.
I know a lot of you can understand that it's a big deal, and may have gone through the same thing. Your thoughts, as always, are more than welcome here. Thanks for listening.
Oh you poor thing! I'm in a slump (it's like the flu in the blogger's community right now) and it's killing me. Sounds like yours is mega sized. *hug*
ReplyDeleteDo you have a library? Do you read eBooks?
There's always NetGalley and all the free Kindle books Amazon gives away.
I read on my iPod.
I always keep an eye on this list: http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/digital-text/154606011
(Right column)
Good luck!
Thanks for sticking around here Juju :)
DeleteI haaaate reading slumps. They're not so bad if you're just 'off reading' (like, hooked on a TV series or something instead, or just really busy), but if you WANT to read and you just CAN'T... talk about killing me softly. It sounds like what you need is some Inspiration. Maybe a trip to that bookstore a while away for an afternoon of browsing? Or an hour wandering around the library drinking it all in? Or maybe pick up a 'book about books', that sometimes does it for me - something like Anne Fadiman's 'Ex Libris', Tom Raabe's 'Biblioholism' or Jeremy Mercer's 'Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs'? Whatever eventually works for you, may it come quickly and quietly and make you bookishly happy again. :)
ReplyDeleteYeah, that is most definitely the case I have now. Thank you so much for those recommendations. I'll maybe try to look at them to see if they could be something I would love.
Delete+JMJ+
ReplyDeleteHi, Jillian! It's great to see another post on your blog . . . even if it's only about a "reading slump."
You know, I was just musing to another blogger who has had a couple of bad months of her own that we probably wouldn't feel these dry periods if it weren't for the pressures of keeping a private blog. And I can't recall the blogger who retired her blog and announced that she was never blogging again--because she hated the pressure of having to review everything she read and having to read stuff that was "hot" but uninteresting to her. She cited, in particular, one summer during which she reread the entire Harry Potter series all over again, and nothing else. It was one of the best reading experiences of her life, she said--but was something she didn't think the book blogosphere could understand.
As you know, I tend to do my own thing on my blog. It's better for me, but it likely costs me commenters. November has been a huge "reading slump" in the sense that I haven't read a single new novel and only managed a few W.W. Jacobs short stories. But I've been watching a lot of old Are You Afraid of the Dark? episodes and writing FF for the show--the first fiction I've produced in years. Apparently, a "reading slump" can be a writing high!
So I'm sure you have had something else going on in your life that just doesn't fit well on a book blog but is just as wonderful as a period of intense, focussed reading!
Either way, I'm glad you're back. =)
Thanks, E! :) It's definitely nice to see a familiar name here on my blog! I am thinking of re-reading an old favorite, maybe that will spark something. Hopefully.
DeleteBut that is a good point, about being focused on something that must be important. I just miss being here and being enthusiastic about being here!
Reading slumps is like embracing depression, sigh, we hate it and not having a book store is your motivation. Just like that taken away. I feel you Jillian.
ReplyDeleteYou may have to try networking more, reading more blogs and finding book newsletters to subscribe to.
I feel like I just need to get back to blogging and maybe re-read an old favorite to get me back to my old self!
DeleteReading and blogging slumps... yep here too. Have plenty of books to read (ARC) and keep adding books to my TBR list... but just need to go read them somehow... and am way behind with reviews too... so should be a good time to catch up right since I am hardly reading?! Sigh.
ReplyDeleteAw, I know that feeling. Sigh indeed. Hope it picks up soon for you.
DeleteIt's been a long time, I was wondering where you were.
ReplyDeleteI'm so sorry to hear about the book stores that were shut down... I feel lucky since in France there's a regulation on the price of books that helps book stores owners. Plus in Paris there are still a lot of them!
I hope you get out of this reading slump soon!
Aw thanks Touloulou. I have been away for a while! But hopefully I am really back for good. Thanks.
Delete