How to Bust Out of Your Reading Slump

Every avid reader has them, reading slumps. Gosh they are the worst, and I am sad to say I am currently in one. You know the feeling of wanting to read but just not being able to cop up enough concentration for it, your eyes and mind wonder off and before you know it you find yourself reading the same sentence over and over again. Reading slumps are quite upsetting for a person who loves to read, so in this post, I am going to do my best to help you get out of it. These are some thing I find helpful. I hope you will be able to snap out of your slump fast with these tips.

1 Read a book you love. If you read one of your favorite books you will be sure you'll love reading it, which will likely get you your reading mojo back.

2 Ride it out. Even though we all obviously love books sometimes you just need to step away from them for a while. Focus on something else, study hard or hang out with your friends. Go life your life for a while and after a period of time you'll get the reading itch back, I promise!

3 Change your reading environment. Maybe a change of scenery is all you need, go to the park or a coffee shop to read. If background noise makes you lose focus find a place without noise, or if it instead makes you focus find a place that does have background noise. Choose a comfortable, calming space and just read.

4 Visit a book store or library. Hopefully when you are browsing you will reconnect with your love for books and get excited to read again.

5 Use a different medium. If you have been reading e-books switch to physical books, and the other way around. A different type of book can sometimes help to switch things up. If your slump is really bad you can also try an audio book.

6 Watch BookTube. If you want to be inspired I'd recommend watching some BookTube video's. It reminds me how fun reading actually is when I try to hard. Two of my favorite BookTuber's are; PeruseProject and BooksandQuills

7 Read with a buddy. Ask one of your friends if they want to read a book with you, not necessarily in the same place. Have a kind of book club and discus what you have read after each chapter. This will most likely make you excited to read the rest of the book.

8 Watch a book to movie adaptation. Watch a movie which is based on a book. If you really loved the movie you will probably like the book too which might give you your reading mojo back.

I hope these tips will be able to pull you out of your slump. If you have tried any of these tips, or have any of your own please leave a comment!

Lending Out Books

Everybody has different views on lending out and borrowing books and I thought I'd share mine seeing my latest experience.

Today I got myself into a little bit of a pickle. I was sitting in Geography and to fight the boredom me and my closest neighbours started talking about books. We talked about Eleanor & Park, a bit of John Green, some Harry Potter was touched and last but not least the Divergent Trilogy. A friend of a friend asked me if I have copies of the books, and I answered that yes I did. She immediately jumped on me and asked if she could borrow them from me because her friend wouldn't lend them to her. This made alarm bells ring in my head and I searched the most creative part of my mind for a plausible excuse. It's not the nicest way I know, but honestly I'm kind of anal about my books.

Everybody treats their books differently. Some people like to give their books annotations or they like their books to look well read. While I personally like my books to be read  at  the same time I go out of my way to avoid cracking the spine. I shudder when I read a library book or an assigned book at school and I see a previous reader has given it dog ears, and when I see someone reading with the cover bent it just gives me anxiety. Books aren't cheap so when I spend my money on books I like to take care of them. Lending out books puts this responsibility in others their hands and I am not certain some people can be trusted with this. I asked one of my friends their opinion on lending out books and she reacted in the same way, yay I'm not alone (Private dance party). But if you want to lend out your books to someone here are some tips.

1 Expectations
If your not certain someone will be careful enough with your book subtly tell them to be careful with it.

2 Time frame
Another negative part of lending out books is the uncertainty if you'll get it back or not. Give the person borrowing your book a time frame in which you expect them to return the book to you.

3 Marking Your Territory
To make sure you can always identify your copy mark them. Piss methaphorically all over them. OK maybe not that drastic but putting your name in there shouldn't be an issue. If you don't like marking your books try writing on washi tape it looks cute and it isn't permanent.

And if your still vehemently anti lending out that is fine too, and here are some tips to deal with that.

4 Gently reject 
Tell them to maybe try the library and see if they can lend the book there.

5 Elaborate
When they are still on your case for lending your copies tell them that you don't like lending out your books. Maybe touch on past experiences. Tell them about when someone didn't give you a book back or damaged a copy when you are always very careful with your books.

6 Evade
When all else fails make an excuse, you have tried your best to do it the nice way.
Examples:
- I have already lend my copies out.
- I have them stored away.
- I seem to have misplaced them.


Good luck with your borrowing and lending experiences! Also I am really interested to hear what your borrowing and lending stories are.