How to Break Out of a Reading Slump

Reading slumps can happen to even the most passionate book lovers, leaving you feeling unmotivated and disconnected from your favorite stories. In this season finale episode, podcast host Alesia dives deep into understanding reading slumps and provides practical strategies to reignite your reading passion. 

Key Takeaways:

Recognize Common Causes of Reading Slumps

• Stress and burnout 
• Information overload 
• Life transitions
• Disappointment with previous reads

Effective Strategies to Overcome Reading Slumps

• Take a short break from reading
• Set realistic reading goals 
• Change your reading environment 
• Explore different genres and book formats 
• Connect with other readers

Don't let a reading slump discourage you. Remember, reading should be enjoyable, not a chore. Give yourself permission to explore, experiment, and most importantly, have fun with your reading journey.

Running list of books mentioned (Doc)

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Connect with Alesia:
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This podcast was produced by Galati Media.
Proud member of the Feminist Podcasters Collective.

Chapters

• 0:00 Season One Finale and Host Introduction
• 2:27 Reading Slumps and Personal Experience
• 5:13 Common Causes of Reading Slumps
• 9:01 Tips for Overcoming Reading Slumps
• 16:21 Connecting with Other Readers and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Alesia Galati: 0:00

If you have ever been in a reading slump, then you know how difficult it is to get out. But I'm hoping that this episode gives you some tips and tricks to escape that reading slump that you might be in. Listener discretion is advised this podcast contains mature content intended for adult audiences only. Hello and welcome to our season one finale. I cannot believe that we are here. I'm Alesia and I am the host of this podcast. I just want to say thank you so much for listening to this show, for being part of this journey with me. I had been wanting to do this podcast for years, and I'm just so happy that I was able to finally do it. I don't know if you know this, but I am a podcast host and a producer. I've been podcasting since 2018 in some way, and this is actually my fifth show. So I knew I wanted to do it, but it would be a hobby because I am not making money from it, whereas my other shows, as well as my production company, I do make money from, and that is actually my job, which is wild to say that I make money podcasting and producing podcasts for other people. So I have produced about 50 shows at this time, which is just pretty incredible that I'm able to put this content out into the world. But enough about me. Season two is coming, and I cannot wait for you to be part of that as well. So if you are wanting to stay tuned. Please, please, please follow the podcast on your favorite podcast app as well as subscribe on YouTube. Follow me on Instagram at we read smut, and you'll get notified as soon as there are new episodes. The plan right now is that season two will air in july 2025 so if you're listening to this in the future, Hello, future. You. I will have the episodes ready for you so you don't need to worry about this. But for those of you who are tuning in to the end of the season, I would like just a month or so break to gear up for the next one. And I'm super excited about some of these episode ideas. All right, let's get into today's topic, which is reading slumps. I have been in quite a few reading slumps in my time of reading as an adult, I started reading romance in 2021 fell in love with it. Well, I have had quite a few reading slumps, I don't know that I've had as many as maybe my romanticy readers. There are, feel like every time I turn around and see someone talking about being in a reading slump, they are a romantic reader. And I think what that has to do with is this idea of like, the romantic Sea has story building, and there's characters you fall in love with, and it's six freaking books long, and then you get to the end, and you're like, What do I do with myself? What do I do with my life? What? Where do I go from here? It's like, if you had never watched Game of Thrones before, and then you just binge watch all 12 seasons. I believe there's 12 seasons. You binge watch all of it, and then you're like, I don't know what to watch next. What do I do? So very similarly, I think that's why a lot of my romantic sea friends tend to fall into these reading slumps. But a reading slump can feel like you're unmotivated to read, you're struggling to finish books, or maybe you're feeling a little overwhelmed by your TBR. Pro tip, delete your TBR if you're a mood reader, please. If you have found yourself having 1000s and 1000s of books on there because an Instagram post said that it was good, and then you added it to your TBR, and the next thing you know, you've got 700 800 1000 books on there. Delete it, especially as a mood reader. I am someone who's a mood reader, and at the beginning of 2025 I deleted my TBR, and I don't miss it. I've added to it since, and for whatever reason, I'm not even really following this new one either, but deleting it allowed me to kind of refresh, also noting that books I read or was interested in reading back in 2021 2022 those are different books than I want to read in 2025 I don't want to read those books. I am changed the books that I want to read, the books I want to engage with, the authors that I want to engage with. And so I think that it's important that we kind of refresh and receive. Get where and when we can now. Storygraph has eight, literally, like two buttons to delete your TBR. Goodreads is a little more convoluted, so if you're looking to delete it there, I believe you have to do it one by one, which is a little frustrating, but storygraph makes it super easy. Highly recommend. 10 out of 10 will do again, most likely. Okay, so here are some common causes to reading slumps. One is stress and burnout. Maybe you are feeling like you cannot focus. You are stressed. The world is on fire. I understand, believe me. And so you might be feeling like that has impacted your ability to enjoy reading, and that is okay. Take a deep breath. It's all right. Maybe you've been feeling all the bit of information overload, where you have been constantly overstimulated and bombarded, and it's difficult to figure out what you want to read next. I feel this so much. We live in a world where we are constantly getting fed news and information and everybody's highlight reels of their picture perfect life, as well as everything that's going wrong in their lives. And it can feel really overwhelming, especially when we subconsciously compare it to our own lives. Or maybe you are seeing books to grammars who are reading hundreds of books a year. Or maybe you're seeing people who are saying, only read this, or do read this, or this author is canceled now, right, which is a totally valid thing. In case you didn't know that, that's a conversation for another day, but it can feel really overwhelming, like, What in the world do I read next? I have no idea, because everything just feels like a lot. Maybe you were disappointed in your previous reads, I'm not someone who DNFs a lot of books. It has to be pretty rough for me to DNF a book. I want to say the last book I DNFed, the female main character and her friend were talking negatively about sex workers, and I was like, Oh, hell no, no, no, no, no, not interested. And it read like a high school drama, even though they were adults. Not interested. No. Thank you. Moving on. And so I DNFed it. Those are reasons why I would DNF a book, but I don't typically DNF a book. I will read some of the most unhinged things and be like I was telling my husband about a book I read recently, and he was like, What in the world are you reading? I was like, Would I recommend it? No, did I enjoy it? Yes, it was wild. I had a great time, but I would not recommend it to other people, and so you might be disappointed with your previous reads. Maybe you've had a subsequent series of this book didn't work. I went to a different one, then that one didn't work, and then I went to no none of them seem to be working. And so that can lead to feeling frustrated and like, Where in the world do I go from here? Maybe you've had life changes or transitions. We're hearing a lot about people losing their jobs, having families, having babies, getting married, right? I think in this space that we're in, in the bookish community, we see a lot of that, and those are changes that can definitely impact your ability to read regularly. I mean, honestly, within the first two years of becoming a mom, I don't remember a lot of it, just a lot of especially after my first kid, I had postpartum depression, and I was not myself, and I don't know that I could have read during that time. My goal was to keep living, and that is it. And then after my second kid, it was like, I'm taking care of a three year old and a newborn, and I'm working, and how do I navigate this? Like everything just feels really hard, and you don't feel like yourself for that first two years, really. And so I could not have read like I do now in those first two years now, my kids are going on, oh my goodness, it's wild. Going on 11 and eight, and I have a lot more time to read, because I can just say, hey, here, go play the switch for an hour and give me some time to read. Or, hey, go read a book for an hour. Give me time to read as well. And so life transitions and changes can impact our ability to read. So here are some tips and tricks for getting out of those reading slumps. First and foremost, I want to give you the full permission to take a break from reading if you are finding yourself feeling like. Oh, my goodness, I have been reading non stop, and I feel like it's a job. Now, take a break if you're feeling like and I'm finding this about arcs advanced reader copies that if I have a lot of advanced reader copies to read, I feel really frustrated about that. It's almost like homework, and I don't know that in the future, and we're talking like three months, because I still have arcs I need to read, but I don't know that three months from now, I will be accepting arcs because I want to read for fun and I want to read to enjoy, and I'm happy to promote bipoc authors and new authors in whatever way I possibly can, sharing it, pre ordering, etc. But I just don't know that arcs are going to be in my future. We'll have to see. I will revisit that, I think, in season two, and let you guys know what I decide. But taking a short break to make it feel like reading is no longer homework, I think can be really helpful. Another tip is to set realistic expectations of your reading goals. If you are someone who has set a goal for 200 books this year and you had a big life transition, something happened that you did not expect, or you're in a reading slump, then it's okay to shift that goal post. It's okay to say, look, this is no longer working for me. I'm gonna change it. And so I want to encourage you to set a reading goal that feels sustainable for where you are now today, and you can shift it and change it. If life changes in the next six months, that's okay, too. But set realistic goals for yourself so you don't feel like you're failing at reading. Because if you're reading, you are not failing. Even if you read one book this year, you are still reading, and that is incredible. So you're not failing at all. So set realistic expectations for yourself. Another tip that I like to do, and this is one that I definitely hold to a lot, is changing my environment. Now I have severe social anxiety. I can handle one on one conversations and small groups, but get me in a huge crowd of people, and I burn out so quickly, and I feel really uncomfortable, and so it is very stressful for me to be in very crowded places where I have to interact with people, or people look at me like they want to interact with me. It's a little scary. So one thing I like to do is change my environment, but that doesn't look like going to a reading conference that's really big, looking at you a Polycon. And so what are some things that I could do to change my environment? If I am finding that I'm reading in my house a lot, then how can I just get out and read somewhere else? Maybe I go to a local coffee shop, or maybe I go to an indie bookstore and just walk around, feel the books, buy the books, whatever. Maybe I go to my library. Now, I have posted a few videos in my stories about my library. I have a massive library building, and it is a library and Resource Center. So they have, like, a resource area for veterans. They have events for the kids constantly, especially for those home kids. Since I live in the Bible Belt, there's lots of homeschool kids, and my library has a great, like little coffee shop reading area hallway. It's huge, and so I like going there and just relaxing and sitting and reading. If I'm finding that, even from working at home, that I'm feeling overwhelmed or frustrated, just like I need a change of scenery, my library is a great place to go and to support them, obviously, because I want to be checking out books and using their resources, that they have to show that, hey, this is something that I want us to keep doing for our library, and so changing your environment can really help. I also recommend trying different genres or formats. Now I am someone who exclusively reads romance, and that looks like typically adult romance, and I don't just mean smut, though I do read 95% smut, I also believe very strongly that if we are reading diversely, then that means all of the letters of LGBTQIA plus and a being asexual or ACE aromantic, that is one that maybe doesn't have sex in it, or has a different form of romance in it. And so I really think that we can shift that genre, their sub genre, because I exclusively read romance, the sub genre of the books I'm reading. So maybe right now I'm reading a lot of Mafia books, and I'm like. You know what? I'm kind of feeling a rom com. Let me go pick something else up. And then maybe I'm through with my rom com era, because I don't tend to read a ton of those. Let me go pick a historical romance, which we talked about in our last episode with Claire, unsuccessful book club. A ton of romance recommendations that are historical romances across all of the ages. And if you haven't checked out that episode, definitely go check it out. Or maybe I am wanting to get into some werewolves and some vampires and some shifters. Okay, then I know exactly who I need to go to. Tria Anderson, if you haven't listed her episode, go check that out too. But that is what I like to do, to kind of shift things and adjust different genres or sub genres I'm reading, also changing the format. If I'm finding that I'm reading on my phone or my kindle a lot, then how can I change that to read on an audio book instead so borrowing something from my library via the Libby app, or using my Spotify account to snag one of those books that are maybe on my shelf but I don't feel like reading physically. Another is to connect with other readers. If you are feeling unmotivated, then talk about books. Talk about books that you enjoyed. You can join a book club. Or if you're someone who is a mood reader like myself, then you might want to join the diverse trope challenge, where we read tropes from marginalized authors throughout the year and every month has a trope. So for the month of May, which is when this episode goes out, we are doing road trips, and so it just has to be a either LGBTQIA plus or a bipoc author, and that is your book club book for the month you get to decide. And so I like that as just like, here's a trope that we're gonna do this month, pick one book, and that's the one book you can read, and finding ways to just spice things up, to do things a little differently, but engaging with other readers can be a great way to find new books that you want to read as well as get out of that slump that you might be feeling. I want to encourage you that you can overcome this slump if you want to, if you don't want to, that's okay, too, if you just want to sit in your slump and say, Look, I'm in a reading slump, and I'm just gonna sit in it until I'm out of it. I'm gonna go do something else. I'm gonna do some puzzles, I'm going to go color, I'm gonna go hiking right like you get to decide what that looks like for you. So I encourage you to follow yourself, follow your intuition of what feels right for you. But hopefully these tips and tricks were great for helping you. If you do want to get out of that reading slump, I am so grateful that you are here for season one. Thank you so much for listening. It is really helpful. If you leave a rating and review on the podcast, whatever podcast app you're listening, to leave a rating and review, follow the podcast, share it with a friend that helps us grow as well as get in front of new listeners. I cannot wait to see you for season two in July. Thank you so much for being here until next time. Happy reading. You.