I'm about four books behind on my Goodreads goal already, though it's definitely not for lack of trying: I've started and stopped in five (!!) different books for the last month or so. They've all varied pretty significantly - Nonfiction, Mystery, Romance - so getting burnt out on one genre is not the cause, and in spinning my wheels, I'm exhausting two of my most-reliable slump-busting tricks (reread a past favorite, and pick from your reliable favorite topics).
I have no idea what's causing this slump, nor how to fix it. Clearly, some kind of change has to be made.
It's not the first time I've been faced with such a challenge; if anything, I'm kind of an expert. In the past year, I published two of my favorite-ever posts on the subject, with a distinctly D&D lens, in the "Lawful Good" and "Chaotic Neutral" guides to reading more.
I'm also pretty darn well-versed in regular practices to ward off slumps, by way of staging Speed-Dating rounds with my TBR shelves - which, you might remember, number into the hundreds of titles - which has been documented on my blog before, as well. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like not knowing what to read next is my problem... instead, it's just simply sitting down and dedicating myself to the task.
So you might not be surprised to see me taking my own advice from 2019, and staging a bit of a read-in for one this weekend.
Why Now?
It's President's Day Weekend! The three day break from normal life is a great reason to disconnect a bit from social media, take a perspective shift from my regular day-to-day focus, and dedicate myself to getting back to the renewing hobbies that matter to me.
There's more of a general lack of people in the house. I live at home with two parents and a younger sibling, almost all of whom are actually - somewhat miraculously - absent for bits and chunks of time this weekend, for reasons as different as wanting to catch up with work, or having musical rehearsal. I'm not begrudging any of it at all; in fact, I'm looking forward to using the silence for my best advantage.
There's also a lack of distracting events or activities taking up my time and attention. Last weekend was an absolute jam-packed social schedule, as my younger sibling was celebrating a birthday that happens to coincide with Valentine's Day, and next weekend is going to be even worse, because I actually have to spend extended periods of time away from my house. As soon as I had drawn up my schedule for February, though, I immediately penciled this weekend in for myself, and I want to make sure I'm making use of that limited down time.
How I've Been Preparing:
Cleaning up my home spaces so that I feel like I have an easy reason to exist without getting distracted by clutter or "things I should really be doing instead." Do I still have a few things on my to-do list, to tackle before the end of the weekend? Absolutely. But now I know that my affairs are in order to complete them easily, without disrupting my flow too much.
Picking out a stack of books that vary in size and intensity, and even format (hello, trusty Kindle!). I'm meshing these with some of the books I've been trying to read already, so with any luck, I can finish off a few of those while I'm here, too.
Making sure the family knows. Yes, it's hardly the first time I've done a self-imposed "Readathon" weekend, so they know the drill, but then again, the last four times I've attempted to use a meditation app in this house, I've been interrupted by either someone calling my phone or kicking down my door.
The Books I'm Reaching For:
A couple of library audiobooks. I'm still not a huge fan of audio-specific "reading" - not like my podcast-obsessed younger sibling, nor my brother, who manages to make his way through audiobooks at a truly blistering pace - but I'm getting used to it, and saw some success with listening during my last-ditch December run on my 2021 Goodreads Challenge. So, I picked out a few new reads, limited to nonfiction (particularly Food and Memoir), and low-intensity Romance.
Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett
Working on a Song: the Lyrics of Hadestown, Anais Mitchell
Network Effect (the Murderbot Diaries #5), Martha Wells
I'm also trying to wrap up a couple of recent reads that I haven't necessarily DNF'd yet, but have stalled out somewhere in the middle over. An Everlasting Meal, by Tamar Adler, is actually one of my favorite foodie reads, but one I don't feel like I can speedread, and A Murder is Announced, a classic Agatha Christie, hasn't been one of my favorites of one of my favorite authors, but I don't feel like giving up on it just yet (but if there's at least one more bizarrely stereotyped depiction of German people, I'm going to lose my mind).
Alright, team, how many books do you think I'm going to get through? (Here's a hint: it's at LEAST one, because I managed to make my way through an audiobook just this afternoon!) Let me know, in the comments below!
No comments:
Post a Comment