A Reader's Block

[miercuri]

I am going through a rather upsetting reader's block, this post might turn out a bit long and whiney. I'll try not to rant too much, or be too personal.
I haven't really felt like reading since early December, around the same time started living alone. I've had other reader blocks before but this one is the longest and most persistent. I have no idea where it's going. I need to reignite the spark and feel the joy of reading again. Basically, if I don't get to finish a book in one sitting by the next time I pick it up the thrill is completely gone. And I know it's not the books, it's me. Even if I eventually finish them, my heart just isn't into it. So, I've been reading less and less. In spite of the fact that right now I have a lot of spare time on my hands for the first time in months, there never seems to be a good moment for curling up in bed with a book.
If only I did something else, like studying, or watching movies, going out, but I am not doing much of those either. I also have trouble sleeping. I am living alone for the first time since I was born, I had been looking forward to it for ages and now I can't believe how badly I am coping with it.
I guess the reader's block is just one side-effect. Once I get my living routine sorted out I will probably start reading again. I pretty much answered my own question about where it was going. But I could easily settle for just reading again first and sorting out the other issues later. :o
Reading on the forum about what and how much you guys have been reading made me feel rather bad about myself, but I just couldn't help it. This place is too nice not to come back to, even when it isn't exactly inspiring me to read (or post for that matter). Have any of you been through something similar, a really nasty reader's block?

[lenz]

Oh, yes. As a matter of fact, this forum started me reading seriously again after thinking for a time that there was nothing to be gained from reading any more - or from going out to see the world that writers want us to understand. Living alone, with only oneself to reason with, or cook for, can lead to a sense of futility but you're right - the reader's block is a side effect of dealing with new circumstances - you will start again when you feel the need. It's important to get out, to be physically active - brain cells need fresh air from time to time, and it helps you to sleep, too. You needn't make a choice between "just reading" and "sorting out the other issues," time for reading can be a reward for being good and getting that sorting done.
I felt quite bad too, at first, seeing how much some people read (!) and with such passion! That has made me want to catch up - so I can talk about the books I've only heard of but haven't read. Some progress has been made!
You're so intelligent and I know you really love reading. I'm sure you'll be back to it soon. I look forward to reading more of your posts.

[Jayaprakash]

Reader's block just might be a sign you should write more! :)

[Bottle Rocket]

Dear miercuri

I sympathize very much, having at one time or another suffered from blocks of all sorts.

My advice is pretty simple: try to take some of the pressure off yourself. There is no law that says you have to read two books a week, or be overly serious about your reading. It's never easy to change your routine, even if it is not for some traumatic reason like a romantic quarrel, And even if you look forward to the freedoms of being alone, you must remember that the price you pay for that kind of freedom is sometimes to be lonely; it doesn't always help to know that you are a valued member of a community like this one, especially if you begin to judge yourself sternly against a standard you feel you aren't meeting.

I have often found that humor goes a long way -- and the best humor always addresses itself to real, difficult issues where everything feels like a bad choice and all you want to do is pull the bedcovers over your head and sleep until you feel better ... but you can't even sleep.

I have three particular suggestions,

1. Read something easy, with pictures or rhymes -- a favorite old childrens' book can reawaken a spirit of joy and wonder. The best childrens' books are not childish at all, they are child-like, mixing playful and serious things. One book I have always loved, although many may find it sentimental, is The Velveteen Rabbit. I will post a link (http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/williams/rabbit/rabbit.html) here, but perhaps you should not follow it because the whole text is reprinted with the illustrations, But if you feel very bad, it will make you feel better even on the computer screen, although the book is lovely to hold.

2. Another, similar idea also involves childrens' books, or at least illustrated books, but in an almost opposite way. Edward Gorey, for example, draws odd but funny pictures to accompany stories of wayward or very unfortunate children, making poems about them with titles like "The Gashleycrumb Tinies" who all suffer horrible fates -- so horrible they make you laugh. It is a bit like Struwwelpeter, except ... well, I will quote just the first two lines:


A is for Amy who fell down the stairs
B is for Basil, assaulted by bears ...

By the time he gets all the way to Z, if you are not laughing your head off you must be dead already. Eeyore, from Winnie-the-Pooh, is always sad and expecting the worst, but you come to love him for it ... and it makes you (me, anyway) realize that your friends still love you even when you are being mopey. Another book in somewhat the same line is by a cartoonist named Lynda Barry (http://books.google.com/books?id=LlsXlDfKJj0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Lynda+Barry+AND+Marlys&source=bl&ots=dGkMkYFSZR&sig=-bA_7fH_5eyhTsIY0XoFcpw4AeA&hl=en&ei=49JzS6WHBsbS8Qam1pTMCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CBsQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=&f=false) (follow the link and you will get a taste of her very bracing work.)

3. Finally, sometimes you can get back to reading with books that don't have any words at all, or very few. Two American author/artists I especially love are Wlliam Steig (http://us.macmillan.com/author/williamsteig), who writes simple stories with wonderful illustrations, and the masterful artist Saul Steinberg (http://www.saulsteinbergfoundation.org/life_work.html), who doesn't write stories but does uses words as elements of his truly original art. (And as a bonus especially for you, he was Romanian by birth.)

Perhaps I am just a three-year-old at heart (or maybe six) but this always works for me. It reawakens the joy of books without making you work very very hard (and I think you must be working very very hard at something in your life, which is making you tired in spirit even if you don't feel as if you are doing much of anything at all.)

Good luck

:) Bottle Rocket :)

[titania7]

Miercuri,
Have you thought about trying non-fiction? From what I have observed of your posts at this forum in the past, it appears that you read mostly fiction. Poetry might also be an option. Nowadays, I read mostly non-fiction (esp. philosophy, psychology, and books written by cognitive scientists and physicists), but I notice on certain days that I need a break from these subjects, and so I turn to a novel. I find this strategy to be very helpful.

Life is about change. . .to resist it will only cause tension and stress.
Some aspect of your being is renewing itself right now, no matter what it seems like. Relax, try the suggestions that I and others here have given you, and allow yourself the freedom to just be.

Have a beautiful day.

~Alexis

"I wish that every life might be pure transparent freedom."
~Simone de Beauvoir~

[learna]

Dear Miercuri!
Maybe, it is better lay aside reading for some days, get rid of unwanted things and thoughts, change something in your appearance ( I mean it is not nesessary to do it redically if you do not want). Find a homeless dog and make him eat :) even in case it does not want, after that feed yourself with something tasty. Scientists say that the sun and sports help to create spirerone - the hormone of happiness. And help somebody who feels worse than you. If it does not help I will invent something more :).

And then read, read, read....:)

"Everything goes and it will pass "(Solomon).

[learna]

For you:

http://i079.radikal.ru/1002/d7/904a6b36ebf0.jpg (http://www.radikal.ru)

[saliotthomas]

Try light easy stuff, like those vampyre stories you read in summer.
It work for me with thriller, fantasy or horror. Once you read a good bit of it, you'd feel like heavier reads.

As for living alone and life turn crisis, i find getting really drunk help, like sick drunk.
It sort of purge the mind of unnecessery questioning or doute, well, once the hangover and shame from the foolish thing you done and said is past....

[peter_d]

As for living alone and life turn crisis, i find getting really drunk help, like sick drunk.
It sort of purge the mind of unnecessery questioning or doute, well, once the hangover and shame from the foolish thing you done and said is past....

My personal experience with hangovers in times of distress are that they are the worst hangovers you can ever have. So my advise would be: don't follow saliotthomas' advise. But I suppose it works differently for different people...

Anyways, I've had a severe readers block some two years ago. I was not interested at all in books anymore. I skipped the books section in the paper. When there was something about books on tv I zapped to another channel. I didn't look at the books on my shelf, let alone touch them. It lasted for about 6 or 7 months and then it was suddenly there again, the joy in reading. Hard to tell what triggered it, but obviously it was in a period that I started to feel better in general after a period of (guess what) getting used to living alone.

Good luck, I hope you feel better soon, Miercuri!

[miercuri]

Thank you, all of you, for being so supportive! :) It feels reassuring to read what you've written here. I will try not to think of reading as something I have to do for the next few days and I'll wait to see what happens.

[Omo]

Read a book you have loved but to which you haven't returned for ages, like the fairy tales from your childhood, or poetry that you (used to) have memorised, or the book that first brought you to reading literary fiction. And of course, don't force yourself.

[saliotthomas]

My personal experience with hangovers in times of distress are that they are the worst hangovers you can ever have. So my advise would be: don't follow saliotthomas' advise. But I suppose it works differently for different people...



I didn't say it was nice, not even remotly.
But i have to agree that it's probably not a very good advice.

Take care of yourself missus, once the snow melte and it warm up, all will be fine.

[Daniel del Real]

I've been having a kind of block this year, and it goes hand to hand with my lately bad selection of books.
It's true that one of my purposes this year was to read less. What for? you may ask. Like Jayakaprash said, to write more. I need to get more time to start writing short stories again, and I get the good run, a novel maybe.
I also wanted to write more reviews about what I read. Besides, since I read Jerusalem by Tavares, it's been a row of regular to bad books, and that doesn't work when you want to take out a reader's block.
And finally, ask me If I've read one classic a month like I said here before?
So, in my case, not a reader's block, but a bad year so far for my readings.

Cheer up Meropi, you're not alone in this :)

[Flower]

I think you have been given great advice here!

One question: A major life change has occured in your life, so howcome you expect everything else to be the same?

The block is there for a reason, I bet the more you force it to go away, the stronger it gets. So dont fight it!

Take your time to adjust to your new life! Your love for reading will come back, no need to worry.

[Stiffelio]

Miercuri, your situation is quite logical, given your life changing circumstances. Try to enjoy your new life and don't put any pressure on yourself. If you want to resume your reading habits, it may be not a bad idea to read short stories. You can read one story every night (as you probably did when you were a child, or when someone read to you) and then let the book rest for a day or two. And if you don't like the story you can move on to another thing without being guilty of having abandoned a novel.

[Loki]

It happened to me as well and then it was kind of worse as there was no apparent reason for it. As far as you are concerned, there is a reason for what is happening to you. I just can't add anything to what all the others has said and suggested to you.

I can only tell you that once you start again you will feel the joy of reading even more than before. It's when you lose something that you really get how important that something is; and once you get it back, you appreciate it more.

[titania7]

It's when you lose something that you really get how important that something is; and once you get it back, you appreciate it more.

Do you have any idea how powerful this statement is, Loki? Write it down somewhere. . . in a notebook or a journal. This is truth, stated purely and simply. I love it. And, I agree completely.

~Alexis

"When you realize the value of life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future." ~Dian Fossey~

[learna]

The song of the day :

YouTube - Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry Be Happy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9K4BKkLaCI&feature=fvst)

[saliotthomas]

Do you have any idea how powerful this statement is, Loki? Write it down somewhere. . . in a notebook or a journal. This is truth, stated purely and simply. I love it. And, I agree completely.

~Alexis


oh yes, oh yes ! or embroider.

[titania7]

oh yes, oh yes ! or embroider.

Sure, why not? Or create a tapestry. With or without unicorns. The choice is yours.

~Alexis


"The way the world responds to you is a direct reflection of the person that you are." (C) 2010 Alexis Wingate

[peter_d]

Do you have any idea how powerful this statement is, Loki? Write it down somewhere. . . in a notebook or a journal. This is truth, stated purely and simply. I love it. And, I agree completely.

~Alexis

"When you realize the value of life, you dwell less on what is past and concentrate more on the preservation of the future." ~Dian Fossey~

Yes, embroider! Or put a melody to it. Although... didn't Joni Mitchell sing something similar?

[titania7]

Yes, embroider! Or put a melody to it. Although... didn't Joni Mitchell sing something similar?

Possibly, Peter. I must confess, I'm not terribly familiar with Joni Mitchell. Although my musical taste is moderately eclectic (and when I have heard Joni Mitchell sing, I have found her voice to be quite lovely), my knowledge of music is confined mostly to the classical music genre.


~Alexis


"Society encourages us to judge things by appearances and on a scanty amount of evidence, and we allow ourselves to be swept into the mindlessness and insanity that this generates."
(C) 2010, Alexis Wingate

[lionel]

Oh God.

'Voice of society:
"You read and you think for yourself, therefore you're mad"
Voice of me:
"I read and I think for myself, therefore I am."'
(C) 2010, Tony Shaw (pace Ren? Descartes)

blog (http://tonyshaw3.blogspot.com)

[peter_d]

Possibly, Peter. I must confess, I'm not terribly familiar with Joni Mitchell. Although my musical taste is moderately eclectic (and when I have heard Joni Mitchell sing, I have found her voice to be quite lovely), my knowledge of music is confined mostly to the classical music genre.

Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgMEPk6fvpg) is the link: 'Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone...'

[titania7]

Here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgMEPk6fvpg) is the link: 'Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone...'

Thanks, Peter. Great song.

I wasn't really trying to stir up anything by praising Loki for expressing thoughts about life that have clearly been expressed by others (including Joni Mitchell) in various ways before.

I live by a certain creed, which I express at least in part at this link.

Thoughts I Live By Successdiva's Blog (http://successdiva.wordpress.com/2010/02/12/thoughts-i-live-by/)

I feel that everyone can benefit from being encouraged, and my intentions behind complimenting Loki for the comment he made were nothing but positive.

Be well,
Alexis