Harbinger of Books

If you are a person who reads a few books a week you will probably experience a point in life where you just get burn out. In case you have been very lucky and not had this happen to you allow me to tell you how it goes. You crack open a book you cannot wait to read and all of the sudden you have ZERO interest. So you think ah well that book was a dud but it happens with everything you try to pick up. If you are like me you get a little frustrated because this is your hobby.

Last year I got the worse case of burnout. It was summer and for the first time in a long time I actually had time to read, but nothing held my interest. It was like the words on a page just blurred together and nothing made sense. I fought it for about a week changing books but nothing helped. Eventually I took all of my books back to the library and let it go. Every few days I would try a book and got nowhere. Finally after a month I accepted that I had burnout and I needed to figure out something else to do during the time I would normally read. In the mean time I did appease myself by reading magazines and more newspapers but as you know that is just not the same. My burnout streak continued for another two months. Then finally I picked up a book and I just read it, the book was not that good but it was interesting and I was back to my four books a week habit!

Since then I have thought a lot about what causes burnout and what can you do about it. After harassing several fellow friends on goodreads and searching forums I came up with this list.

·       Personal challenges which have cause you to have significant stress or anxiety;

·       too much of the same author or genre;

·       the book is to intense

·       too much reading/writing

·       or the most obvious your brain is sick or reading and quite simply you need to do something else.

Despite the why of it all the real question is how do you deal with burn out?

1.     Accept it for whatever reason that series you have been devouring or the book you have been dying to read is just not holding your attention

2.     Leave reading alone for a day or two…do something else: go for a walk, watch a movie, clean out the closet, listen to music, have sex, etc… whatever just no reading

3.     When you do feel like picking up something to read make it a favorite book or something that is very interesting to you

Sometimes the rut can last a day sometimes it can last for months. The most important thing is for you to remember that the lovely thing about books is that they will always be there.

If you have other ideas on how to cope with burnout please post them here.