Lately, I've been in a reading funk re: fiction. Nothing serious but a nagging one just the same. My brain has shut down. Enough! Enough, it screams. My attention wanders off like minnows do in a stream.

So: what to do? How do you recharge the old batteries and get on with it?

One trick I try is to switch up genres. Read Westerns instead of crime fiction. Or I'll branch off to nonfiction and just skip the fiction for a while. At one time, I listened to audio books while I did other stuff.

For me, the size of a book matters when I'm in a funk. So, if it's as big and daunting as a cinderblock, then it'd better be a GOOD book. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was the last honker I read, and I liked it well enough to finish.

Let yourself be an impatient reader. If a book doesn't click in the first 50 pages, chuck it aside. (I got the 50 Page Rule from the 4-MA Yahoo group.)

So, my reading funk will soon pass. It always does. What is your best technique to break out of one?

By Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Nice addition to anyone’s summer beach reading schedule."
Florida Times-Union