Stuck in a Reading Slump? Here’s How to Get Out

10 techniques for rediscovering your love of reading

Ash P.
7 min readSep 1, 2021
Photo by Suad Kamardeen on Unsplash

I’ve recently come out of a reading slump that lasted a few months.

It all started when I fell into a depressive episode that wiped out all my motivation. Hobbies and healthy habits fell to the side as my depression took over, and my love for reading was one of the casualties.

But as of a month and a half ago, I’ve rekindled my love for reading and am back to devouring books like I was before.

Here’s what I did to break out of my reading slump:

1. Let go of judgment

When you’re in a reading slump, your bookshelf can become a source of pain and guilt. Where once it functioned as the home of your favorite reads, it may now feel as if it’s only a trigger for self-judgment.

This happened to me, too.

I’d walk by the bookshelf and instantly be overcome with guilt. Guilt about how much money I had spent on my books, about how I was falling behind on my Goodreads Reading Challenge for the year, and even about how my TBR list was only growing.

But I realized that torturing myself this way was the perfect way to ensure I’d never read again. Why would I pick up a book…

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