Top Ten Tuesday is a bookish meme originally created by The Broke and the Bookish and currently hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week there is a topic and participants list 10 books related to the topic.
The topic for this week is books to help you get out of a reading slump. I’ve split this into four sections, which you could take as different types of books to read depending on your personal tastes, or as a step-by-step way to get out of a particularly bad reading slump gradually. Without further ado, let’s take a look!
- Solution 1: Page-turning Fantasy
- Solution 2: Short(ish) and Comforting
- Solution 3: Long but fun!
- Solution 4: Short and (somewhat) hard-hitting
- Question Time
Solution 1: Page-turning Fantasy
I often find the best thing to get me out of a reading slump is a fun, easy-to-read fantasy series, with some degree of romance (although not necessarily romantasy) and short books.
My go-to is definitely Ilona Andrews – I nearly always end up rereading their books when I get into a reading slump. The fact that they’re series is also good because if my slump isn’t gone I can just continue the series! There is always the risk that you get another slump after reading these because of the book hangover, but luckily the authors have multiple series, so that’s when you just switch to one of others!
The three series I recommend most are the Kate Daniels series (Magic Bites), Innkeeper Chronicles (Clean Sweep) and Hidden Legacy series (Burn for Me). Of the three, Hidden Legacy has the heaviest romance, but still has a punchy plot, whilst the other two are more fantasy with a romantic subplot rather than romantasy. Something for everyone!
Solution 2: Short(ish) and Comforting
Sometimes we just need a quick sense of accomplishment paired with a damn good book to give us the motivation to keep reading (and remind us of what great books are still left to read)!
A Psalm for the Wild-Built and Under the Earth, Over the Sky are both excellent for transitioning between dopamine-rush page-turners and being able to pick up more challenging or longer books without putting yourself back in a slump. Psalm is much shorter (160 pages) but is a duology, whilst Under the Earth is a standalone (350 pages). Both have plenty of comfort, loving characters and great worlds to get lost in!
Now you’re ready for either solution 3 or 4!
Solution 3: Long but fun!
This solution works well if you a) feel ready for something a bit longer or b) are predominantly a sci-fi/fantasy reader. The Incandescent and Project Hail Mary are both on the longer side, but still not very long for fantasy and sci-fi respectively. They’re also standalones so no cliffhangers to put you back in a slump. Plus they’re just some of my favourite books generally. (P.S. I read The Incandescent recently and just reviewed it!)
Both are also books that are relatively easy to find something to read after if you’re in the mood for something similar again – for Project Hail Mary you can read The Martian by the same author, whilst any of the popular adult fantasy books set in a magical school would probably work as follow-ons from The Incandescent, even if they are slightly different.
However, neither of them are super easy reads, especially Project Hail Mary does have some quite technical and emotional bits. If you’re not quite ready for that and you enjoy YA books, you can try a YA book instead. One that I love and I think is super underrated (which should mean you likely haven’t read it yet) is Rook by Sharon Cameron. It’s sci-fi that reads like a historical fantasy!
Solution 4: Short and (somewhat) hard-hitting
On the other hand, if you don’t like sci-fi and fantasy, or if you want to get out of your reading slump enough to read other types of books too (I always find it easier to read fantasy/sci-fi in a slump than anything else), these are a couple of short books that can help you make the transition.
The White Book is far from Han Kang’s most famous work, but I think it’s perfect for post-slump reading revivals: it’s short, emotional but not too emotional, and has an excellent audiobook that takes less than 1.5 hours to finish on 1x speed. I usually struggle with audiobooks, but I read this one by audiobook and really enjoyed it. It’s not fully a novel, so the prose is often brief and concise – somewhere in-between poetry and novel-like prose.
The World Keeps Ending and the World Goes On is one of those rare poetry collections that you don’t have to read in one go back to front, but you absolutely can – so you don’t need to get stuck reading it bit by bit for months. The poems are accessible (you won’t need to Wikipedia every other line) but well-written and very impactful. Some of them are truly excellent and I don’t see enough people talking about this collection!
Neither of these are super easy reads, but they’re in that perfect sweet spot to remind your brain it can cope with something slightly harder or slightly more outside your comfort zone without completely overwhelming it.
Of course, the most important thing for getting out of a reading slump is to read a book you enjoy – which is why I often end up rereading loads of books as my starting point for getting out of a slump. Any book is better than no book, so just read!
Question Time
What are your go-to books for getting out of a slump? Or do you have any other strategies that help? Let me know in the comments, or if you did your own Top Ten Tuesday post, feel free to leave the link and I’ll be sure to check it out.
Keira x
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