The Happy Homemaking Blog

I used to be an avid reader. Before I began dating my now husband, I used to read all the time and frequently get humongous stacks of books from the library that I would finish in a decently short amount of time. Then my husband and I started dating and I entered a new stage in my life. I was head over heels in love with this sweet man in my life and spending every spare minute I had with him, I was wrapping up my senior year of high school, and after I graduated I was working a lot. 

When we started dating, I stopped reading, and even since then I’ve found it difficult to get back into. From April 2022 to this month, I’ve probably read four books. I enjoyed each of those books and I wanted to get back into reading more consistently each time I finished them. But once I finished each book, I just couldn’t get back into another one for several months at a time. So with that said, I’ve been in a book slump for over two years. 

I believe this happened for several different reasons. One reason is that when I entered a relationship and subsequently got married, I entered a new phase of my life and during that transition, I began to feel like a new, different person. I was beginning to move forward in life and my mind was on other things like getting married, moving out of my parents’ home and renting my first apartment, and beginning my own life with my husband. By the time that all of the newness died down, reading (amongst other things) felt like a part of myself that I had left behind. 

Another reason is that when I was single, reading often provided an escape for me. For a long time in my life, there were too many things trying to take up my time that I didn’t really have much joy in any one of them. But when I met my husband, I was so happy that I didn’t need an escape from life anymore. It reminds me of the quote from Dr. Seuss, “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.”

The final reason that caused my reading slump was that often my favorite part of books was the romance. But now that I was finally living the romance that I’d dreamed of, I didn’t need to read about it anymore. And returning to books with romance in them didn’t really do anything for me anymore. 

But during my whole reading slump, I always hoped that I would be able to return to reading. I love books. I love immersing myself in an imaginary world and I love seeing creativity expressed through the pages of a book. 

This month I was finally able to truly get back into reading, and I hope I’m into it for good. I don’t know if anyone reading this is going through a book slump right now or has ever gone through one before, but hopefully my tips will be helpful to someone. 

Here are my tips on how to get yourself out of a book slump:

1. Start with something you know you like.

When getting out of a book slump, it’s important that you start with something that really hooks you enough to pull you out of the book slump, and then inspire you to want to keep reading once you’ve finished the book. I wouldn’t start with a book you’ve never read because you never know whether the book you pick up will be intriguing enough to keep you interested. 

Being on the precipice of a book slump and trying to get out of it is very daunting. Several times I would pick up a book from the library and I’d try to get into it, but I couldn’t maintain an interest in it, I couldn’t focus on it, and I would eventually end up returning it, which would leave me pretty discouraged for a while. 

I began my journey of getting back into reading by picking up the Hunger Games series. It’s a series that I’ve read before, that I know I like, and that was familiar to me. It was easier and less daunting to get into knowing that I’d read and liked it already.

2. Listen to audiobooks.

By “picking up the Hunger Games series”, I mean that I listened to the audiobooks. For me, this made a world of difference. I didn’t have to sit down and solely focus my thoughts to the words on the pages. I didn’t have to feel bad about sitting down to read instead of getting other things done that needed to be done. I could just hit play and listen to the story as I went about my duties. 

After a long period of not being able to focus on a book, listening to an audiobook came so much easier to me than trying to force myself to sit down and read a book. I still hope to get back to the point of reading a book rather than listening to it, as I do believe that it’s more magical that way and that it’s a large part of the experience. But for right now, audiobooks are doing very well for me. 

3. Watch Booktube.

There is a whole section of YouTube called Booktube, and it’s a community of YouTube channels that give books reviews and discuss literature. This is actually what initially spurred the inspiration that got me reading this month. Seeing people online raving about an amazing book series they just read and being so excited about reading, genuinely made me want to read again because it reminded me of how much I used to love having my nose in a good book all the time. 

4. Explore a new genre. 

Like I said above, a lot of my reading used to revolve around the romance that I loved in books. But when I got married, I wasn’t interested in that anymore because I had a romance of my own. Thus, when I first tried to get back into reading a while ago, I tried reading the same types of books I loved before and they just weren’t doing it for me anymore. 

Then I began exploring thriller and mystery genres and suddenly I was interested again. If the types of stories you used to love aren’t working for you anymore, don’t be afraid to try something new. I was a new person after having gone through a major transition in my life and thus my interests had changed and I needed something different. 

Once you get back into the reading world, chances are that you may return to the types of books you used to love. But it’s also alright if you don’t. If you feel like you’re abandoning something that you’re supposed to love and that’s the thing that’s holding you back from making the plunge, just let it go. 

5. Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.

In my experience, reading is one of those things that has to be for you and not anybody else. It’s not a passion that you can force. You have to start reading if, and only if, you really want to and you’re really ready for it. You can’t force yourself to read because other people want you to or because somebody gave you a book that they want you to read or because other people expect you to because it’s something you used to love. It has to be self chosen or it won’t be genuine and it won’t last long term. 

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I hope that these tips were helpful to somebody out there and I hope that you enjoyed this post even if the tips don’t apply to you. If you do enjoy reading, then happy reading this week!