Monday, March 18, 2013

Getting Yourself out of that Stupid Reading Rut (I just made that up)

I've been reading a lot of posts lately from fellow bloggers who talk about how they are stuck in some kind of reading rut they can't get out of. They want to post more reviews and keep their blog updated, but they can't find the enthusiasm to do so. Why?
What I've found is that once you've been out of the reading game for a while, it's hard to get back in. Sometimes I'll finish a book but can't really be bothered writing a review. Or sometimes I won't have the time to read for a few weeks and I just don't feel the appeal of reading, as I so often do. 
But once you get reading again, everything goes back to normal, right? At least that's what I've found. As a reader and reviewer myself (gasp), I know how this feels. Reviewing books starts to feel more like a task, like something you have to do, rather than something you enjoy doing. That's a sucky feeling and a hard one to shake too.
So I thought I'd share some of my extremely non-credible tips with you all. Here we go.
  1. Read an amazing book.
    Pick a book you know is fantastic and just read it. Sit your butt down and read it. You know, one of those books you just cannot put down or stop thinking about no matter how much you try? Yeah, one of those. This always, without fail, helps me find the thing about reading that appeals to me so much.
  2. Think about why you even started reviewing books in the first place.
    Why did you create a blog to review books? What inspired you to do this? Was it because you loved reading? Wanted to meet new people? Whatever the reason, we all started reviewing for something, so think about what got you started in the first place and maybe this can give you more of a motivation to keep reviewing books.
  3. Make a list of books you want to read.
    Devise a nice long list of all the books you hope to read in the future and why you want to read them. Working off a list of books gives you a new book to look forward to, which is an amazing feeling. It's also a great way to get yourself motivated and is also kind of a goal-setting type thing, because you're working off a list of books you want to get through. If that makes any sense, I mean I'm a book reviewer for goodness sake, not a motivational speaker.
So there you have it! Three crappy tips that I hope will help you out as much as they help me when I can't get myself out of that reading rut. If you do any of these things or are thinking of trying them, please let me know how it goes down in the comments section below or just let me know if you enjoyed reading this post because it lets me know that you like this kind of thing and I can keep doing it (yay!). 
Keep an eye out for my review on The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead, which I will try to get up as soon as I can! :-)

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