Author Topic: Readers Block?  (Read 4926 times)

Offline Stuart1512

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 53
    • View Profile
Readers Block?
« on: September 11, 2007, 07:24:07 PM »
anyone else got it or getting it? for over a week i've tried to pick up a few books i have yet to read but i read the first couple of pages then stop. Put my book mark in then start on another book, currently theres quite a few books lying around my room with book marks in, maybe its because i read the same two genres over and over and i'm looking for something new but its readersblock is really bugging me.

Any advice?

Offline Paynesgrey

  • Bartender
  • Seriously?
  • ****
  • Posts: 12131
    • View Profile
Re: Readers Block?
« Reply #1 on: September 11, 2007, 08:05:26 PM »
Try something that's on the fringe of another genre, maybe something that overlaps with one you know you already like.  Watch some old movies you've heard about but never seen, maybe something an author or character you really like appreciates...it could heighten your understanding and appreciation of both work.  Look up a few old school bands that founded or influenced whatever music you like.  Dig up some classical literature and chew on it briefly.  Any of the above might get the synapses firing again, just smacking them from a different direction.  Plus, you might discover something new you had no clue you'd like.

What are the 2 genres you prefer?  Don't worry about anybody dogging you for something you think is silly to read but love.  I still re-read Anne Of Green Gables, for crying out loud.  Me. Big militant mean guy. 

So let us know what you like to read, and I bet that you'll soon be acrawl with suggested titles.  After you're drowned in titles, authors and ideas, we'll confuse you further by shifting the topic of your thread to taco seasoning, how to change a tire, or trivia such as a species of monkey that doesn't much like bananas.  But hey, that's a fan forum for you.

Offline BjustaB

  • Lurker
  • Posts: 7
    • View Profile
Re: Readers Block?
« Reply #2 on: September 11, 2007, 09:07:33 PM »
Whenever I can't seem to settle in on any one book, I re-read something I love.  Since it is a re-read it usually goes fast.  I always find I am ready for something new after that.

Barbara

Offline sights unseen

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 36
    • View Profile
Re: Readers Block?
« Reply #3 on: September 11, 2007, 09:16:04 PM »
I've been doing that a lot lately, all because of this damn writer's craft I'm studying. When I start on a book and I see bad writing, it just turns me off.

Bad writing in NY Times Bestsellers too.  

And the first few pages of chapter one really have to grab me and keep me interested or I'll pass on that book too.  I now see how important it is to start a book off with something that will keep the reader interested and glued to the pages.

Try going over to the author's blog (most have them now) and see if that will pique your interest in reading again. Or find good authors in genres you wouldn't consider reading, like westerns or suspense.

good luck.

 
« Last Edit: September 11, 2007, 09:19:46 PM by sights unseen »

Offline Stuart1512

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 53
    • View Profile
Re: Readers Block?
« Reply #4 on: September 11, 2007, 10:25:12 PM »
Here are the books i'm reading at the minute:

A Clockwork Orange-Anthony Burges
A Feast For Crows-George RR Martin
Summer Knight-Jim Butcher
The Talisman-Stephen King and Peter Straub
The Lies Of Locke Lamora-Scott Lynch

Guess i could finish off reading ACOO and TT before reading anything else since i'm 100 pages away from finishing both

Offline SunPhoenix

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 321
  • Unlike some people Stupidity doesn't discriminate.
    • View Profile
Re: Readers Block?
« Reply #5 on: September 12, 2007, 12:16:32 AM »
Kind of reminds me that sometimes it just doesn't seem like time to read something like it took me about 7 or so years since having boughten Pulp Fiction to actually watching it. It wasn't until actually just sitting down and watching it that I end up just loving it. I have to attempt to do that with the Tolkien books which I've read through most of the first one but have never fully read the trilogy. Also may help that I like sometimes space in between reading books and should go to the library and read the single copies.

Offline Darla

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 206
  • Charter member Bookstore Commandos
    • View Profile
    • Nichtszusagen
Re: Readers Block?
« Reply #6 on: September 12, 2007, 02:08:28 PM »
I used to do that all the time.  I'd pick up book after book from the TBR pile, and just didn't feel like reading any of them.

I finally realized that I'd kept picking the same books over and over (and overlooking the same ones).  So they all felt stale.  Since I started a random system for picking books, making sure not to read two similar books in a row, and some goofy TBR challenges (things like "pick a book with gold lettering on the cover") to shake things up a bit, I hardly ever have the readers block anymore.

Ah, yes.  Making OCD Work For You.  I could write a pamphlet.  ;)

Of course, if you don't have a TBR pile, that makes the challenges a little more risky--picking up the first book at the library that you find with a verb in the title might net you something really odd.  But then again, that might just be what you need to break out of the readers block.

In another group, we have a quarterly reading challenge, which I've found really helpful for getting out of a reading rut, too.  Summer's was a book that won a Pulitzer; Fall's is a banned book. 

Mostly, in my experience, anyway, readers block is the result of being in a reading rut, so anything that gets you out of that will help.  Non-fiction is good, because it doesn't feel the same as reading a novel.  Or maybe ask for a recommendation for a really good read in a genre that's completely new to you.

Something else we were discussing elsewhere is how reading things you think you should read can really kill the desire to read.  I spent decades avoiding anything remotely resembling good-for-you reading after a period of time when I was trying to read what I thought I should read, or what people who I thought were smart recommended, and I ended up not feeling like reading at all. It was only a few months, but it affected my reading for a long time.

I've only just recently started picking up non-fiction and lit-fic again, very cautiously, making sure the recommendations come from people whose taste I tend to share, rather than people I think I should listen to.  So far, so good.  And I'm definitely mixing them in with fun reading.

Once reading = medicine, you might as well forget it.
Darla 
Currently reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers. — A Bit of Fry and Laurie

Offline Stuart1512

  • Participant
  • *
  • Posts: 53
    • View Profile
Re: Readers Block?
« Reply #7 on: September 12, 2007, 04:54:03 PM »
Thanks for the advice oh and TBP? one thing that could be causing it is that i haven't really been feeling myself lately. I've been reading more comics than literature lately. I might buy Watchmen over the weekend, and i also ordered some more books yesterday to help my RB.

Red Seas Under Red Skies-Scott Lynch
Proven Guilty-Jim Butcher(I don't have Dead Beat or White Night yet but they had PG on special)

Offline Orissa

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 433
    • View Profile
Re: Readers Block?
« Reply #8 on: September 12, 2007, 07:13:51 PM »
Thanks for the advice oh and TBP? one thing that could be causing it is that i haven't really been feeling myself lately. I've been reading more comics than literature lately. I might buy Watchmen over the weekend, and i also ordered some more books yesterday to help my RB.

Red Seas Under Red Skies-Scott Lynch
Proven Guilty-Jim Butcher(I don't have Dead Beat or White Night yet but they had PG on special)

I just started Proven Guilty, but for me, it didn't quite grab me the way Dead Beat did.  Not sure it'll help you get past it.  Of course, we are all struck differently.  ;)
But you said you don't feel quite yourself.  I know that feeling.  I find that if there's anything you typically do for yourself that you really love, but haven't done a lot of (for me it was driving and singing), DO IT!  I didn't realize how much I missed just driving around, but with gas prices, it's an expensive release/hobby, whatever you wanna call it.  Just try and find something that is a part of you that you've been ignoring.  Once you sort through it a little, you'll feel more like yourself and the other stuff will come back as well.  Good luck!!   :)

Offline Darla

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 206
  • Charter member Bookstore Commandos
    • View Profile
    • Nichtszusagen
Re: Readers Block?
« Reply #9 on: September 13, 2007, 08:58:33 AM »
Whoops.  Sorry.  TBR = To Be Read.  Refers to the giant stack o' books in my bedroom that remain as yet unread.

And WOS (What Orissa Said) about reconnecting with whatever it is that you love and have been ignoring, especially if you haven't been feeling yourself.  The comics may help, too--just something light to feed your reading need without triggering the readers block.

Or, if something temporary is going on that's making you feel not yourself, stick with the comics and don't sweat it.  That happened to me when I was pregnant with my 2nd child--I absolutely could not read anything new.  So I re-read all my Rex Stout and Agatha Christie books. 

One last thing--I've spoiled a few books that I normally would have loved by plodding ahead and forcing myself to finish them when I really didn't feel like it.  Just food for thought. 

Good luck.  :)
Darla 
Currently reading Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

I think animal testing is a terrible idea; they get all nervous and give the wrong answers. — A Bit of Fry and Laurie

Offline blgarver

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 543
  • There are three things all wise men fear...
    • View Profile
    • Video Samples
Re: Readers Block?
« Reply #10 on: September 13, 2007, 01:44:46 PM »
anyone else got it or getting it?

Any advice?

I'm having a rough time getting through American Gods by Gaiman right now.  Not because it's not a good book or I'm not interested, but because I'm busy with work and all that dumb real life stuff.  I've discovered I go in cycles; for a while I won't read anything, and then all of a sudden I'll finish whatever book I'm hovering on in two or three days, pick up a new one push about 100 pages into it, then get bogged down again and stop reading.  Lately it's because I've been so beat after work that i fall asleep while I'm reading and only get through a few pages at a time.  And the holidays are coming, so I'm going to be swamped even more at work.  I probably won't get back to reading or writing until the first of the year...which sucks.

What helped me for a while:  setting aside an hour before bed to read.  Actually scheduling aside time to make sure I had nothing else to do, so I could take that hour and relax in the tub with my book and a glass of wine. 
I'm a videographer by trade.  Check out my work if you're a writer that needs to procrastinate.  Not as good as Rhett and Link, but I do what I can.
http://vimeo.com/user1855060/videos

Offline meg_evonne

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 5264
  • With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony
    • View Profile
Re: Readers Block?
« Reply #11 on: September 14, 2007, 12:50:52 AM »
sounds like a good time to write!   :D
"Calypso was offerin' Odysseus immortality, darlin'. Penelope offered him endurin' love. I myself just wanted some company." John Henry (Doc) Holliday from "Doc" by Mary Dorla Russell
Photo from Avatar.com by the Domestic Goddess