Top 20 Ways to Get Over Reader’s Block

You may have heard of writer’s block, but have you heard of the reader’s block? There are some really funny descriptions over at Urban Dictionary. But simply put, the Reader’s Block is this perfectly incomprehensible state where a prolific reader’s bookish habits come to a screeching halt.

Sometimes, the Reader’s Block can go on for days, sometimes weeks. What are the triggers, and how do you cope with it? Read on to know more.

Possible Triggers:

More-itis – There are just too many great books out there. And you, like Oliver Twist, want to read MORE, MORE, MORE, so that the thought of having too little time to read too many great books is just plain depressing.

Genre Overload – Do you only ever read one genre? For a long time, I stuck to urban and epic fantasy … so long that I started hating prophecies about orphans, badass heroines and evil warlords. My then jaded brain showed me how too much of any (good) thing is always bad.

Creative Existential Crisis – This is linked to More-itis. One day, this great book falls into your lap. It’s your ideal version of all those stories buzzing in your head. It makes you despair, because you’re never going to find a book like that again (yes, not even the one that you intended to write).

Reality Bites – When you were younger, you had a greater appetite to read. Then age catches up, as do career plans and mortgages and medical expenses, etc. etc. Life has too many complications and demands to afford enough time. Your worried brain can’t concentrate, and down goes your reading metric.

Awful Overdose – You have read too much mediocre stuff recently – for example, you liked one work by an author, so you wanted to read the entire backlist, and it turned out to be out to be, er, not quite the thing. Complete dead-end.

Fear of Commitment – Have you become too ambitious about your reading goals? Oh, you know. There’s this multiple-award winning book out there … but it’s huge and (be honest) looks boring. You also have so many expectations from it that it’s bound to fall from pedestal. To read or not to read, is where you’re stuck.

Here’s how you can beat that cursed Reader’s Block:

My experience has taught me that one or more of the below can help, and so here goes:

1. Go back to an old favorite.

Yep. An old favorite, no matter how dusty, how lame, how short. Call it a comfort read or guilty pleasure. Whatever you call it in your heart of hearts, don’t judge and just enjoy the ride. I keep a Box.com folder to store all my comfort reads in ebook format, for whenever.

2. Try a new genre.

This helps especially if you suffer from Genre Overload. For example, switch from non-fiction to dystopian sci-fi, from poetry to plays, or from historical fiction to horror. The switch can also be a switch to a different voice, style or language that you typically read in.

3. Change of scenery helps.

Change the time or settings when you typically read. For example, if you typically read before bed, how about reading during a tea-time break instead? Or if you usually read indoors, see if haunting a library, public park or Starbucks works instead.

4. Head back to paperback versions.

Move over ebooks. Sometimes all that glare into the eyes gets tiring. And sometimes you just want to manually highlight books and buy nifty bookmarks and stick actual post-its (if you don’t want to scribble) and smell the new pages.

5. Lean on the visual adaptations.

I’ll be honest. Sometimes when I’m too lazy to read, I’ll look for a movie/ TV version, or even a graphic novel, that’s been adapted from the book. E.g. I didn’t want to read The Tale of Genji, so I watched its anime version instead. It helps to get out of the rut while still learning new things. Even YouTube book trailers help (see list at EpicReads).

6. Listen to audiobooks.

This is similar to #5 above, and is particularly useful for Reality Bites issues. You can multi-task fitness and travel with audiobooks, and give your eyes some rest at the same time. Yes, audiobooks take longer, but if they’ve been narrated well, can add to the book’s value. For me, audiobooks have really helped with getting into science-fiction. Librivox has excellent collections of the classics and poetry.

7. Read shorter forms.

When there’s a fear of commitment kicking-in, stick to the shorter reads, like short stories, essays, novellas and poetry. Even letters to the editor would work. 🙂 I would recommend Chekhov‘s stories, and Rupi Kaur’s excellent poetry in The Sun and Her Flowers. For short stories, Book Riot and John Becker have some great suggestions.

8. Join a reading gang.

Book clubs are great to push you into reading. Besides online book clubs, nowadays there are “silent book clubs” too. Or you could try one of those Read-a-thons — many bloggers host them from time to time. Tor.com often hosts Read-a-thons for the more famous ones (e.g. Kate Nepveu’s re-read of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell). This would be very useful for the Fear of Commitment problem.

9. Time yourself.

Try timing yourself with your alarm clock. If you regularly read more than 5 books a month, slow down. Bring it down to no more than 1 hour a day, or 20 pages a day. Bookmark yourself and leave off. If the book is good, you’ll want to come back to it. If not, you put it away. It’s really that simple.

10. Do some book blog trawling.

I have a weekly goal of browsing through neighborhood blogs and Goodreads and Librarything to get hold of as many book recommendations that I like. I collect all the recommendations in a separate document too. To read about reading is almost as much fun as reading itself. Glossy book covers make it all the more appealing.

11. Try out some puzzles.

Sudoku, crosswords, jigsaw puzzles — whatever floats your boat — are all excellent ways to keep the brain stimulated against all that reading fog. Mystery movies (hello, Hitchcock) and detective fiction (hello, Poirot) are also “puzzles” to solve.

12. Give up on that book.

Sad though it may be, it could be time to give up that book. Not everyone has to like a book (we all know the meaning of hype) and not every masterpiece has to be liked. People have varying page-marks where they give up on the book: 30 pages, 50 pages, three chapters, one-fifth, 25% or even the first half. With Reader’s Block, you decide where you want to call it quits!

13. Be more selective.

Yes, there are many books out there. Yes, you want to read them all. But sometimes, you have to make a choice. More-itis will keep you stuck at Zero-itis the whole time. How to get selective? You could arrange your TBR alphabetically and choose the first one, or pick a random number, or select by the rating on Goodreads. You could try the best-of lists at Time, NPR, BBC, Guardian, and Modern Library. Pick your poison.

14. Binge-read a favorite author’s book series.

I recommend this with reservations. Not all authors have a full-on repertoire of decent to excellent books. But when those books make up a series, it becomes easier to tag along. I would recommend Lois McMaster Bujold’s Chalion series or Vorkosigan Saga. Urban Fantasy too has several “series” books, like Charles de Lint, Patricia Briggs and Ilona Andrews.

15. Journal it out.

Explore the reasons and triggers for the Reader’s Block — in writing. For example, what was the last book you read? Why did it send you down that rabbit hole? Yes, you’re psycho-analyzing your own reading habits. Ain’t it clever? Feel free to curse any book under the sun, it’s only between you and that journal.

16. Make an appointment with reading.

Set the same time every day for reading. Yes, like a daily chore, like a work task, on your alarm clock. This works especially well for those who read whenever they please – till one day they can’t. These readers need to start all over again, by making Reading a “habit”. It’s like muscle training after hitting that plateau phase.

17. Read or watch something light and funny.

I know, I know. Lofty reading, rational thinking, and all that … But your fatigued brain really needs something non-controversial right now. Terry Pratchett, Tintin / Asterix comics, P.G. Wodehouse and Georgette Heyer could do the trick. Watching something funny works as well – The Good Place, Black Adder, and Good Omens come to mind.

18. Take a Holiday.

Sometimes, the tiredness and stress from another area of life trickles over into the things we like best. When I have too much going on at work, my reading always goes MIA. That’s when I realize I need a holiday, preferably while traveling. Even a weekend getaway can recharge the reading batteries.

19. Reduce cyberspace time.

Translation: Reduce time spent on social media. If there are too distracting things going on the social scene, there’s not enough motivation to read. Too many apps blinking means too little focus on written pages. On the other hand, if that’s what your brain wants to indulge in right now, then do that. Go with the flow.

20. Take a hiatus.

Look. If all else has failed, then you really need to take an indefinite break from reading. You need to accept that. You’re not helping anyone by pushing yourself to read just because you have too many books on the TBR shelf or because you think you’re a superhuman. Reading is for personal pleasure, not public pressure.

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So, have you ever suffered from and/or overcome Reader’s Block? How did you manage it?