Struggling to Read and the Confirmation of a Peculiar Reading Habit

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Well I knew it was going to happen…I knew this wave of epic reading would fizzle out. It had to. There was no way I could maintain it, whilst at the same time getting all that I needed to do done.

For the past ten days / two weeks, I’ve read very little at all. I’ve picked up three books in that time and haven’t got past more than the first half a dozen or so pages, before putting the books down again, with no interest in picking them back up. I’ve also taken two books off the shelves, hoping that they might pique my interest, but alas, no. I didn’t even open them.

Part of the problem is a lack of concentration. I’ve been ridiculously busy, with much of my work involving an epic amount of screen time. This inevitably tired my eyes and so reading, even an actual physical book, doesn’t feel appealing.

But there is something else tied into this I have noticed. And interestingly, not for the first time. You could say that I’ve suspected I have had this peculiar reading habit before, but these past few weeks I’ve acknowledged the evidence to confirm it.

I do most of my reading in bed, before I fall asleep. At this time of night, I’ve realised, I really struggle to start reading a new book – and enjoy it – unless it’s from a series I’ve read from before. Yet, if I’ve started the book earlier in the day, when I’m more awake, it averts the problem.

The three books I started reading and never picked up again, were started at bedtime. Yet the other night I opened the next Agatha Raisin book (I’m up to The Wellspring of Death) and had no problems because it’s a series I’m already invested in and it didn’t require too much concentration.

The final test of my theory is to start a new book during the day and then try to read it later that night. If I have no problems, which I think I won’t, then that will be the final proof. But if that doesn’t work, I guess I am definitely, conclusively, in a bit of reading slump…