I fully admit I was a total slacker for well, all of 2013. I could not, no matter how hard I tried, get into a reading groove. I read less than…*gasp*…50 books. I was around 47/48 even with some re-reads of my faves. For me, this is truly a tragedy. In 2011 and 2012, I’d surpassed 200 books, if you included re-reads, and was close to 200 on new (to me) books. I know there are a lot of you who would love to have read what I did (numbers wise) in 2013. Peeps, this isn’t a contest on who reads how much, etc. If you’ve read 1 or 501, it doesn’t matter as long as you’re reading. And that is my point with this post. I love to read and I mean LOVE. Usually it is what you can find me doing with any and all downtime. In 2013, playing on Facebook seemed more enjoyable, and by playing, I mean those stupid games that suck you in. Hello time drain!
I want this to be more of an interactive thing. I’ll tell you why I think I was in a slump, why I’m hoping 2014 will put me back on track, what my reading goals are for this year and what I’m planning on doing to try and get out of my funk/slump. In return, I’d love to hear from you, LE’s fabulous readers/fans. You never know, either, I may just find it in me to part with some swag if we can get some discussion going *grin*.
2013 was a total suck of a year. It seemed to start out fine…what with a brand new relationship and work going well. Then February hit. Let me tell you, relationships seriously cut in to my reading time and this new one is really what started my slump. At first for the good, then for the not so good. Fast forward through January when my reading was initially reduced because I was spending time with the new beau. Move into Feb. when that relationship ended and his cray cray carried over into me. Without going all TMI, we’ll just say that he made ME feel like I’d done wrong, all while saying it was HIS issues that caused him to leave. I mean, what kind of WTF-ery is that?! So I had to sort through all that. That meant I didn’t feel much like reading. This was odd, as in years past, once I found my love of reading again, post-law school, I escaped into books to deal with stress. But alas, I just could not get into a groove.
Then we get to late March and we found a new boy, the one I’m with now. He’s awesome. But, I still couldn’t get into reading. Partly because….hello, hot boy around and well, sometimes there is more fun exploring him, I mean getting to know him….oh get your minds out of the gutter. Wait, that’s me. Nevermind, I digress, my apologies. Anywho, you get the point, I was still occupying my time with the boy as well as the silly FB games.
In summer I learned I would need surgery…major surgery…in October. I knew I’d be out of work for most of that month. So the next couple of months was spent busy with work and any downtime I found, I was with the boy. We even went to NOLA for a short vacay. I had every intention of spending several hours/day while in NOLA by the pool engrossed in a book. Yeah, didn’t happen. We did, however, explore the Quarter, which I did not get much of a chance to do when I was at AAD:NOLA back in 2012.
Get to October. I’m out of work due to surgery, for the first few days have some nice pain meds (I hate narcotics and am never on them long. They don’t do more than what OTC meds do for me…). I couldn’t work at all for over a week. I needed and wanted downtime to focus on getting as much rest as my body needed. I thought surely I would spend those 10 glorious days off reading like a madwoman. Nope. Didn’t happen. Still playing those bloody FB games.
*Sigh* when would this ever end? After surgery, more stress due to some financial issues. There would be no new books bought b/c I couldn’t afford it. Didn’t need to buy any, I had (and still have) plenty of “new” ones to read on Mt TBR. But that hasn’t ever stopped me from buying before. But, finances did (do still) now.
I tried and tried over and over to break the slump. I re-read my favorite series, Night Huntress by Jeaniene Frost (have you been following LE’s read-along? Don’t forget, only a few weeks til Up from the Grave! Yes, that is a total shameless plug *G*), I re-read some of my faves in the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. I tried some new to me authors. I couldn’t even get into twitter. I have my personal account, which has well over 10,000 tweets, and access to the Lit_Escapists account, from which I interact with you lovelies. I was barely on either all year. I just didn’t and couldn’t bring myself to care. I’ve missed so many interactions and book releases. I did attend Lori Foster’s RAGT and will be there again this year. I always look forward to it. I talked books with fellow book lovers and caught up with some of my fellow bloggers. Still, even after that, I couldn’t read. I run a secret reading group on FB, I talked books there, too. Still again, no interest in reading.
Now we’re 3 days into 2014, well when I’m actually writing this post anyway. I’ve now read 4 books. I’m pushing myself to break this slump, come hell or high water. I’ve enjoyed those 4 books and currently have a book hangover from the last one I just finished. I’ve tried all methods I have used, successfully, in the past to break my slump. I feel I might be able to do this. I’m still feeling very drawn to the bloody FB games but am finding more willpower to just set my laptop down, close it and find my Nook or tablet (with the Kindle app) or my huge stack of print books, and dive into Mt. TBR. My goal for 2014 is 120 books. Wish me luck!
Now, tell me…have you ever had a slump? If so, why? What did you do to break it? Any recs for me to help break mine? Also, what is your most anticipated book release for 2014?
Girl we will not discuss my number for last year, it was dismal…pathetic really. I barely had time or energy to read, I hate that! BUT, I’m proud to say that I’ve managed to read half of a book so far this year, LOL. It’s more than I have read in months!
We will be better in 2014! We will read, we will review, we will rock!!
Ha ha ha YES!! :D
OMG! That happened to me too in 2013! Major book slump! I hoarded so many new releases and debuts and never read them. Picked them up and put them back sooo many times. Now that new books are coming out which I really want to read, I have to read the previous books first! My problem was about 9 months of relationship drama from a four year long relationship. I was too drained and drama’d out. I spent all my time reading book blogs and playing candy crush. Now that the relationship is finally! over! I’m seriously making time to grab those books I hoard and start catching up! It is a matter of forcing yourself to push forward into a book until you’re hooked. No more starting and stopping.
I completely understand! That kind of thing (though that relationship wasn’t nearly as long) is mostly what stated mine. Good luck on breaking the slump! We can do this! *G*
I have book slumps all the time, sometimes I just don’t know what genre I want to read next (Depending on what mood I’m in) and sometimes, the samples I download & blurbs I read just don’t grab my fancy.
Or I have overtime at my job, or uni work to do, exams I need to study for etc. and life (people) get in the way. ;-)
I usually break my book slump by downloading LOADS of samples, recs from here, amazon or even just browsing though amazon by going to the genre I want and try a bit of everything. Over the next few days I read each sample and when ‘one’ comes, what I know is going to be a good page turner, I jump into it. lol.
Also, if it’s a time issue, I try to go to bed slightly earlier (I tend to read at night as pesky ‘people’ are less likely to want me to be a social human being and ‘interact’ ;-) ) so I have a little bit of extra time to get into my book and read a couple of pages.
Recs! Depending on your mood (and sometimes that’s hard to figure out in itself) here are some good ones I’ve read lately;
Urban fantasy/fantasy: Priceless: Rylee Adamson #1 – Shannon Mayer
Each book gets better and better, strong female ass kicker and lots of humour to boot
Romance – erotica: Welcome to Sugartown – Carmen Jenner
AMAZING book, loved it, on the faves list. ;-)
Chick-lit/mystery type: Gotcha! (Tall, Hot & Texan) – Christie Craig
Bonus, it’s currently free (my side of the pond, at least)
Romance – erotica: MC Sinners – Bella Jewel
Series of 3, every book is amazing.
Fantasy: Far from Heaven: Cherrie Lynn
Romance (little bit of suspense): Until November – Aurora Rose Reynolds
Romance-y: Holding Out (Hawks MC #1) – Lila Rose
Light hearted, quick read, though it has V mixed reviews thus far
I have more, but I think I’d better stop now, lol. You can tell what kick I’ve been on lately, but the Rylee books are pulling me back to urban fantasy again (and tiding me over for the next Jeaniene Frost/Ilona Andrews books!) ;-)
P.s; Hope your surgery was all well !
I may have to try the downloading samples. I think the first one I try may very well be that Rylee Adamson *G*. Thanks for all the recs!! Also, surgery went fabulous and I do feel a lot better. I still am working on 1 issue (I had several different ones, and there was 1 that may or may not have been causing issues w/my weight. Won’t really know for a couple months as my body re-adjusts post-op).
Oh I understand that time sink of FB games. In 2013, I’ve gotten caught in their cruel grasp as well. Candy Crush is evil! Sadly, I can’t blame them entirely for my reading slump. I just haven’t been in the mood. I think a lot of my problem was that I haven’t really ready anyone new lately. So that’s how I’m going to try and beat my slump. Completely new authors, once I can knock out the Night Huntress Read-Along.
OMG Candy Crush is EVIL!!!! Even when I look at new things, it all sounds “meh”. I searched ED and NG last weekend and didn’t really see anything :(. So, in desperate need of recs. Gonna try Jane True this weekend …
I’ve definitely had book slumps before. I hate them. Toward the end of 2012 I had a major one where as much as I felt like reading, I felt too overwhelmed by the number of ARCs I had that I felt should get priority over books I bought, but I didn’t want to read any of them, so I’d get frustrated and end up not reading anything at all. That was around the time my own health started taking a nosedive (though I didn’t know how badly at the time), and I ended up taking a 3 month official hiatus from reviewing right on the tail end of about 2 months of lackluster blogging.
That turned out to be exactly what I needed, though. Without the pressure to write reviews for new books, I could read whatever I wanted to, guilt-free. That one pressure removed made a big difference, took some stress from my shoulders, which came at the right time because I ended up out of work for 6 months and needing a surgery of my own to remove the tumour that was causing all my problems, so any less stress at that point was a good thing! But after my hiatus, I felt refreshed, happier, and much more interested in reading just about anything that someone put in front of me.
I go through minor book slumps every now and again, and usually the only thing that pulls me out of them is to take a break. Play some video games, watch a bunch of TV, anything but reading for a little while, until it feels less onerous again. Works like a charm!
So glad you got your health issues resolved. I’m hoping mine are…but I have got to get the weight I gained back off and Dr and I are not 100% sure if what I had going on contributed to the weight issue or not. If it doesn’t, I’ll get to go be a guinea pig for an endocrinologist. Yay, fun. NOT ;). Jackie has been super awesome and understanding this past year and has given me some leeway and time away. It has helped, some, and I’m very grateful to her. I think I may need to play some video games…my SO bought my Wii, so I may need to bogart his 360 for a bit *G*.