Teal > Status Update

Nonfiction is problematic for me too, because while I'm easily intrigued by a concept, once I've grasped the gist of it I don't necessarily want to hang around for another 250 or more pages while it gets explicated in detail.

This has been me off and on for the past half-year if not more. It's getting slightly better lately, but I'm still DNF a lot of book based on not giving a crap about the world or characters - more even than I mark here, since I'm just tossing the ones that have potential back into the neverending TBR. Sorry you're dealing with a reading slump!

I've been in a slump for so long that it's coming up with variations on the theme. It used to be that nothing appealed to me, and then it was that nothing was good enough, but now even the appealing and the good-enough can't hold my interest. I'm sorry to hear you're stuck in a slump too.

Any non-fic I read cover to cover feels like the exception rather than the rule as most of the time I pick it up seeking specific information. (That and 90+ percent of it is overly padded.) What about short stories?

I have zero interest in short stories. (I've read hundreds, so feel like I know what the form offers, but I'm just not interested anymore.) I want meaty novel-length fiction where I can sink into the world and really get to know the characters. I don't want to make that effort of getting to know fictional characters and then poof, 40 pages later they're gone forever.

That said, there's a lot of short fiction I already own, stories and novellas, and when I'm frustrated with how stuck I feel, sometimes I'll pick up one of those because that will at least eliminate it from my TBR pile.

Well, when I can't read anything I'll work on my massive stash of articles in pocket, but with actual fiction what's worked best for me is always low expectations. And idk if that's really cause an effect or just because when I get like that I avoid anything I actually expect to like or am looking forward to because once I've bounced off something putting it back on the tbr is usually more of a fantasy. Almost nothing actually gets a second chance in practice.

I kind of feel like I've been in post-book hangover since finishing Terra Ignota in April, and honestly the most appealing idea is going back and just starting that whole series over, but I'm resisting at least for a while. I picked up a few things to read as background for a reread, Jacques the Fatalist, some Enlightenment stuff, but haven't gotten past the intro in any of them. Hence pushing on slowly through the mediocre (or is it me?) Wodehouse book and distracting myself with various writing related non-fic.

I think the best path forward for me is likely to be rereads. Although I shouldn't call it a path forward — it's more like a retrograde movement. I'm having great difficulty caring about new fictional characters, but I do have some pretty intense attachments to some I already know.

When I was scrolling through my highest-priority TBR list earlier today, I saw and considered the first Terra Ignota book. But it seemed too risky right now, when I'm almost impossible to please.

Rereads are good. I haven't tended to reread a lot since I was in grade school, but I think I am becoming more inclined to it as I get older.

I feel you. Feels like more and more books are being written algorithmically. In fact going back to the classics because nothing feels new anymore.

Tiny wrote: "I feel you. Feels like more and more books are being written algorithmically. In fact going back to the classics because nothing feels new anymore."

You're probably right that part of it is 'nothing feels new anymore' — basically being jaded after having read thousands of books. But I don't know, something else is going on too, because I'm not rejecting things simply for lack of quality or originality. It's like I just don't currently have the capacity to be interested in the lives of new (fictional) people. It's a weird feeling!

I hope you get over this soon (I love to read your passionate reviews ❤️)
... or not? maybe you need a break from novels?? maybe try some comics? or movies? maybe stories in another format for a bit make you rest from the reading slump and then prepare you to come back and enjoy it all again....

Whatever path you take, good luck!!!!

Feeling like that is the worst! 😢

Thanks, Rhosyo! I can't even finish graphic novels! What is the world coming to?! 😩

Teal wrote: "Tiny wrote: "I feel you. Feels like more and more books are being written algorithmically. In fact going back to the classics because nothing feels new anymore."

You're probably right that part of..."

Yeah it's hard to lose your interest in reading. Now when I think back I have gone through phases where I just stopped reading fiction and then I got back to it so hopefully this is just part and parcel of being a reader. Hope you find something that moves you.