Last year, I went through my annual reading slump. Although it hit harder than usual. And since I’m in the middle of what I call Project TBR Zero, where I try to read all the books I own, I was aware of how bad it was. My reading slump lasted from April to October. I still managed to read a book here and there, but I was never excited to read. I would much rather be doing something else.

How it started

A year ago, I started January reading only one book at a time. This is not normal for me. Since I’m a mood reader, I tend to pick up whatever is on my mind. Usually, I’m in the middle of two to three books. But I was trying something new to see if I would enjoy reading this way. Short answer: no. I reread A Game of Thrones and continued the series with A Clash of Kings. Something I also don’t normally do. The books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series aren’t books but instead tomes. And reading one tome after another wasn’t a good idea. Having to finish those tomes before picking up another book was an even worse one.

My reading slump probably came from the culmination of all these factors. I tired my reading self because I was stupid. I should have paced myself to keep my reading fuel. Instead, I burned it all! In the days and weeks after, I tried to keep reading. Tried smaller books and went back to read multiple at once. But inevitably, I succumbed to it.

Taking time out from reading isn’t a bad thing. When you don’t feel like reading is usually the best thing to do. Taking a break can work wonders, although, for me, it didn’t. Months went by, and even when I reread a favourite book or discovered a new one I was obsessed with, I would close the book and go back to the same place. In a desperate attempt, I looked online for ways to end reading slumps and, to my surprise, I did almost all of the tricks: I took a break, reread a favourite, found a new favourite, went book shopping, DNFed books, picked up shorter books, listened to audiobooks. And it wasn’t working.

Am I never getting out of the slump?

Call it fate or whatever you want, but I rewatched a YouTube video by Robin Waldun where he talks about the importance of having a reading habit. And that rang some bells. Establishing a reading habit. Could that be my answer? Since I didn’t want to read, I stopped making time. So, I picked up a book before bed every day.

It was hard, I’m not going to lie. My mind kept screaming at me the TV was far more interesting than white pages with black ink. But I kept pushing, which worked better on some days than others. And soon enough, I was enjoying reading again. I kept reading multiple books at once and in different formats: audio, digital and physical. Being able to rotate books to read throughout the day kept my reading dynamic, which I never thought was something that it needed to be.

The power of reading every day

While reading at night before bed is noway near enough for the day to progress in books at the pace I want, I’m trying to have at least one moment every day to focus only on reading. And it doesn’t matter if it’s one page or twenty. What matters is reading E-VE-RY-DAY. And the more I do it, the easier it gets. While at first it was hard to pick up a book before bed, and I had to choose to do it, right now, it’s becoming second nature. I’m excited to do it.

Throughout last month, my nighttime companion was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. While some nights, I would read only 6 pages, I was always excited to get into bed and read. And this isn’t the case of loving the story so much I can’t wait for the next time I get to pick the book up. I’m enjoying Monte Cristo, but the story has ups and downs. So, it’s the act of sitting down to read that is exciting me.

Right now, I’m in an incredible reading mood. I want to read all the books and discover new and amazing stories. And this feeling is due to establishing a habit. But not only that. This year, I did something new. To read The Count of Monte Cristo, I divided the book into daily reading thresholds. And I’m calling it a threshold and not a goal because I don’t have any obligation to a page number on a set day. It’s just a way to visualise where I should be in the book to finish it by a certain date. And it’s helping a lot. I don’t feel overwhelmed. I don’t feel I’m reading too slowly. That I’m not making enough progress. That is taking me too long. I’m just on track.

Also, I’m reading multiple books at once and in different formats. As I said, making my reading dynamic showed me how to add more reading throughout the day. But even when I’m not reading in different formats at least I have books for different parts of the day. Monte Cristo is currently my nighttime companion, so I only read it in bed. Meanwhile, Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir is my daytime partner. I read a little bit in the morning or the afternoon.

There is a lot of power in reading every day. Having it as a habit made me look forward to it. Even if I wasn’t reading constantly for the same amount of time or the same amount of pages. Every little progress gets me closer to finishing the book, and I feel excited about that. After becoming a habit, other factors helped consolidate it. Setting daily thresholds, reading multiple books at different times of the day, tracking my progress… I’m not saying all of this will get you out of your reading slump. We are all different readers. Although the conjugation of all these things helped me stay consistent. Now I can say for sure: I’m not in a reading slump. And for what it looks like to me, my problem wasn’t to be in a slump. Maybe at first, that was the case, but towards the end of the year, I was just out of habit. If that wasn’t it, then forcing myself to read every single day would only do more harm than good. Right?

And now I ask: are you in a reading slump or just out of habit?