Do you ever find yourself unable to read YA because your heart isn’t in it? No matter how much you want to read it, that little voice in your head is telling you “nahhhhh, let’s not read that or that or that. Not that either.” You’re absolutely beside yourself because it looks like you’re heading toward a reading slump and that’s the worst thing to can happen.
But then, you realize, no, you’re actually not. Reading slump? Not at all! You just want to read books from a specific genre (like romance or sci-fi) that’s not YA or you want to reread books you’ve read before.
That’s me.
I get into reading slumps and I have two main types:
- I can’t read anything.
- THIS IS THE WORSTTTTT. No books are read. None of them can hold my attention or my interest. I can’t force myself to read any books. I spend my days attempting to read anything, but then I give up.
- I can’t read YA, but I feel like reading all the romance books in the world!
- This happens a lot. More than I realized. I reach for romance books almost on instinct when I’m not satisfied with YA.
I’m having one of those phases right now where I can’t read YA, but I WANT ALL THE ROMANCE BOOKS! GIVE MEEEEE.
Since the New Year, I haven’t been inspired to read YA. From the 11 books I’ve read so far, only three of them are YA. :\ I had feared that I was headed to another dreaded #1 reading slump, but luckily, my heart was set on reading and it wanted books that I can breeze through and entertain me. Usually when that happens, I start rereading a bunch of my favorite romance series (like the Psy-Changeling by Nalini Singh or the Highland Pleasures by Jennifer Ashley). Romance novels are always what I fall back on when I enter a YA reading slump.
This time around, I am all about new romances (that I haven’t read). I’m actually quite happy about this since I yearned for new ones when I went through this romance phase (but I wasn’t feeling any then). I went from wanting to read contemporary romances to historical romances. It’s absolutely great! So far in my historical romance reading phase, my absolute favorite one is The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas. It’s soooooo awesommmeeee. (Alexa at Alexa Loves Books and Racquel at The Book Barbies can vouch for this!)* Go read it!
Sometimes, we need a break from reading YA and from reviewing any books. I know I get burned-out, so I’m happy that romance novels is an outlet for me. I think I fall back on them because they are light and fairly easy for me to breeze through and that’s what I want when I’m in a #2 reading slump. Also, if I don’t like a romance book, I’m more inclined to stop reading it and toss it in my DNF pile so I can pick up one that’ll keep my interest.** It’s easier for me to do that because I really can’t deal with incredible cheesiness or absolute over-the-top ridiculousness with characters or the situation. I don’t like getting irritated or angry when reading romance books because that defeats the whole purpose for me. I don’t do that with YA books I don’t like because I have to finish it or else I won’t ever pick it up again, which I don’t like doing. (I know. It’s quite weird.)
It would be awesome if I suddenly have the urge to start reading YA right now, but alas, not yet! In the mean time, give me all the tears and the sexy times. ;D
* Felix and Louisa are frickin’ adorable. All the power play they do to get the upper hand in their relationship is funny and amazing! I am just so into the way they fell in love. Both are learning from their mistakes and gahhhhh. Also, Sex isn’t something that they skirt around. They are totally upfront about it with each other, and I love that!
** I actually don’t keep a DNF list for YA books because I know I’ll read the book again when I feel like it. That’s not the case with romance books.
Do you have different types of reading slumps? Do you ever need to take a break from YA and find yourself reading a totally different genre? When do you find yourself going through those phases? Tell me about them.
Ugh, I know how you feel! I’m in a huge book slump right now. I went through a couple of really boring YA novels, and now I’m a little burnout and don’t know what to read next. Usually when that happens I turn to fantasy, but I’m barely wiggling through the two fantasy tomes I’m working on right now. :(
Let’s hope that we both snap out of the mini-slumps soon!
I’m actually in one of these NO-YA slumps right now. The last two books that I’ve read have been NA and Adult. I don’t think I’ve ever had a genre reading slump before, usually its just one of those where I don’t feel like reading anything. Maybe in a few days I will be able to read YA again :)
I’m so glad you did hit a real reading slump…just a young adult reading slump. I have a feeling I’m on the verge of one of those soon, and when I get in one I usually read all the adult books I put off reading and it always helps. Happy romance reading! :) I love a good quick fun romance too from time to time.
I have reading slumps frequently. Does that even make it a slump if I don’t read all the time? I am calling it that anyway. I read whenever I feel like it. My life has only revolved around books for the past couple of years. I used to love reading and stopped once I got to middle school. In the middle of college I picked up the Harry Potter series to finish it, finally. Then I found Goodreads. GR is amazing and bad at the same time. It has been the cause of pretty much all of my reading slumps for like the past year or so. I am constantly finding new books and never reading them! “Oh I really have to have this one!” Ugh. My brain is so erratic that I sit down with a book I am so excited for and can’t sit still. It’s like the hype dissipates. I’ve been getting better though. :) After seeing how much other bloggers read I would say I am average.
I recently decided, since in January I only read 5 books and two of them were novellas… that I HAVE TO & WANT TO read the books I have been really pining over in the month of February. I am tired of putting books off that I really want to read just to read whatever is available and popular (The Collector, The 5th Wave, Night Film- I don’t know why I finished them). As for genres, I mostly read YA but I have been experimenting the last couple of months. I’ve recently found Karina Halle & Sabrina Lacey. So NA & Adult romances have been attracting me more and more as of late, even though I love historical fiction, fantasy/magic & science fiction.
Thank you for this post. I needed to vent!
I think we have a similar kind of reading slump. Romance is a good fix when some books just get on your nerves. But I’m more of mixed. Whenever I don’t feel like reading, I just go to Tumblr and insert myself with good feels, its that or I draw or watch Project Runway.
I agree with the fear though. There was a time where I just wanted to stop reading, and it scared me. I hope you finish the reading slump phase you’re having. :D
With me, I either want to read nothing, or I want to read something like something else that has touched me. Usually it relates to a book hangover of sorts. I start desperately wanting a somewhat funny contemporary that I can really relate to and might be slightly darker (*coughs*John Green*coughs). I had it happen several times last year. The Fault in Our Stars, This Song Will Save Your Life, Golden, Some Quiet Place, etc. Sometimes I just want something to touch me like certain other books and then I sulk like a three year old when I find myself not having immediate access to said books. When I was younger, it was dragons. Specifically dragon shapeshifter-ish things. Or people with wings of any sort. I had trouble reading for a bit after any of those books.
The Luckiest Lady in London is SO GREAT.
Right now, though, I sort of feel like I’m in a romance reading slump, ha! The last few I read just haven’t satisfied me, so I’m being a little careful about reading them right now. That’s happened to me with YA before, too, where I just felt like I wouldn’t be able to give the books a fair chance. Even though I never completely stopped reading YA, I feel like it’s really only been in the last month or so that I’ve been able to really get back into it.
And sometimes I find that nonfiction can break me out of a slump!
It’s funny because our reading slumps coincided this time around! I do EXACTLY what you do, which is indulge in romance novels. I LOVE reading romances, particularly historical, so I indulge in them when I’m not in the mood for YA. So happy to hear that you loved The Luckiest Lady in London, as it was EFFING amazing. (Thanks for mentioning me!)
I really think that makes sense. Sometimes you don’t have it in you to read something specific when you *have to* but there is still something else you would want to read. So it makes sense to say it is a specific slump but not an all around slump. I call it a slump when I’m not enjoying what I read. I’ve had a ton of 3 star books lately so I called it a slump because other people were enjoying the books a lot more and I was just so-so enjoying them. But when I do read a book that just blows me away, I feel like I’m judging other books more harshly.
I definitely go through phases where I’m in a slump/need a break from YA. It most often happens when I read a ton of review books in a row, because while I love having the chance to review books that aren’t out yet, that does mean that sometimes I have to forego what I *want* to read. Sometimes all it takes is reading one nonfiction/memoir and I’m good to go. Other times I read a YA book or two and don’t review them, giving myself a break from the pressure that comes along with blogging. I try to just go along with whatever my heart/brain tells me, and if I need a break, I take it because I know that in the long run that’s what’s going to make me the happiest.
I absolutely agree! There are times when I’m in a reading slump and just don’t want to read anything. & There are times when I only want to read a specific type of book and all other books will be put aside for later. I typically have the second type of reading slump more often than the first, which is good since I’ll still read. It’s horrible though if I have ARCs I was planning on reading. If I’m not into the book at the time, I won’t enjoy reading it. Then again, I guess I’m kind of like that all the time. I do classify myself more as a mood reader.
This always happens to me! I read three or four YA books and need a break from the YA genre so I usually read an adult book. My current pattern is read a YA book and then read a J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts book and then another YA book. I love the YA genre but I also like adult books. Specifically Romance books. It’s a nice break from YA books. Since you like romances you should try the author Julie James. She writes contemporary romances that are always pretty funny! I’d recommend Something About You.
I’m kind of in this same situation, but not completely. I’m read the four and final book in one my favorite series, but a few days ago, I did the unthinkable and picked at the last page….just to find out my favorite character dies….now I can’t even force myself to look at the book….*heart BROKEN*
Lisa
http://www.turningpages94.blogspot.com
I go through these YA slumps all the time–last year I didn’t read ANYTHING for several months and it was really scary, because I didn’t know if my desire to read would ever come back. Thank goodness it did.
And I was sick for 2 months recently and alllll I wanted to read was romance. I blew through dozens of historical romances with new authors (hey, Courtney Milan, you’re awesome!) and old favorites, as well as a bunch of erotic romances as well. Hey, it’s nice to be well-rounded. ;)
Hope you get your YA mojo back soon!
I don’t think I’ve ever had a REAL reading slump. I mean, towards the end of last year, I read a whole heap of two star novels that were really just meh for me. I couldn’t get into any of them, and whenever I finished them, I was just so very underwhelmed. So maybe that’s my #1 reading slump. The #2 slump is where I just don’t feel any desire to read. Thankfully, this doesn’t happen all that much. But I’ll finish a book, look at my TBR and just feel nothing. No desire whatsoever to read any of the books I see, even if I’ve been wanting to read them FOREVER. I just feel very unmotivated by the whole reading experience. When this happens, I usually end up picking a book to read anyway, and most likely end up feeling very unfeeling towards it.
I don’t think I’ve ever tired of the YA genre, but I know I have tired of writing reviews. Sometimes I just don’t feel like going into the pros and cons of my most recent read. Sometimes, I don’t feel like talking about a book; I just want to sit on it by myself for a while. I am kind of in that frame of mind right now. I went on a review burner, where I was writing reviews for EVERY book that I was reading, and now I feel burnt out. I just don’t feel like writing them right now. Hopefully I will pull myself out of this really soon, because I like writing review. They’re fun. D: