Reader Problems Tag
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- čas přidán 6. 02. 2023
- Join me on this #tagtuesday as I answer the Reader Problems Tag.
Berna at @BernasBookishAdventures inspired me to respond to this tag.
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With the passage in life that you have experienced, your inner self will gravitate toward what nurtures its own healing. Reading appeals to the mind and reason but may not reach your heart. You cant force it without frustration. But you can flow with it. There will be a time when reading in general and a certain direction in reading will reignite. It may even take a different course. You are reaching out to an old familiar and your inner self is not yet reaching with you. It will in time. Yours is not a normal slump. It is a passage.
Thank you so much for these lovely words, Douglas.
I was drawn to nonfiction during the pandemic, too. I wonder why? Life is stranger than fiction? That’s a lovely hairstyle. 🤩
Thank you! I heard a lot of people talking about how only fiction worked for them at the beginning of Covid. I had forgotten that you also turned to non-fiction!
If reading that book just doesn’t work, but picking up that knitting project does, go with the knitting, and feel no regrets about it.
Yep--knitting has often brought me peace when I am not concentrating well enough to read!
I'll need to take a wee note of this tag as it was really great.
I went through a hellish reading slump over a year ago. I tried forcing myself to read, but that never worked. I just stopped, walked outside and found something else to fill the time I allocated to reading. Eventually I missed reading and it's solitary nature. I doubt that would work for everyone, but I had to really miss the practice of sitting reading before I could pick a book up and really enjoy it.
A lovely plan, Graham. I really need to have a few long walks in the coming days!
A great tag and a wonderfully thoughtful video.
For your slump I would try reading something the complete opposite of your normal taste. Something you have no expectations of at all
T.J. Klune´s "The House in the Cerulean Sea" got me out of a reading slump. Easy read but deeply human and emotional in a good way. Jasper Fforde "The Eyre Affair" comes to mind, too. Plain bookish fun. Love your channel, Hannah!
In March of 2020 I stopped reading and didn’t pick up a book until April 2021, an unprecedented situation in the history of my life as a reader. It was just a black hole and it wasn’t as if I was even trying to read, it was like reading failed to exist anymore. The book that brought me back was Red Comet, the 1,000 plus Sylvia Plath biography and it was just my love of her and wanting to know more.
My only suggestion is to read the smallest possible self contained units. So diaries or letters. David Sedaris’ two collections have entries as small of one sentence to large paragraphs, but they are doable tiny units, and eventually, like potato chips, one follows another and so on and so on. Being humorous helps a lot too. Humor definitely can be best reward and motivator. Jenny Lawson and Samantha Irby both write punchy, short, humorous, funny essays that lull you into reading just one more. Both talk about chronic health issues as a central theme, but they find the humor in it and are great storytellers.
I think it is fascinting that Red Comet pulled you back! What an absolutely fabulous book. I will definitely pick up Jenny Lawson and Samantha Irby at the library next time. Thanks so much.
I went through the same things Hannah when my late hubby was diagnosed with cancer. He lived another 8 years, and those days and hours were some of our most happy and also tearful. Sometimes these tears are more precious than diamonds. I wish you both the best and hope you continue to make such happy memories.
So much love to you. It means so much to me to have you here.
@@HannahsBooks you mean so much to all your subscribers.
@@battybibliophile-Clare ♥️
A slump you say? Novellas. Daisy Miller. The Yellow Wallpaper on audio. Visual history. Blanket Toss Under Midnight Sun is beautiful. Or. Or. Maybe it’s just time to knit and rewatch The Golden Girls. 😊 Thinking of you all and was hoping to make you smile. 🥰🥰🥰
How funny: I was thinking about doing a reading of The Yellow Wallpaper on this channel at some point! And a confession: I've never seen The Golden Girls. I think that has to be on my rectify-immediately list!
@@HannahsBooks Golden Girls is some of the best comedic relief on TV!!! 🤣🤣🤣
When I am in a reading slump, I always go back to a Barbara Pym novel. It seems to pull me out of my slump. Her books aren’t too taxing but they are engaging.
Pym! Brilliant choice for times like this!
In a slump? How about a collection of absolutely filthy limericks? Something funny. Roz Chast cartoons? Something short and sublimely ridiculous? Margery Sharp, if she’s still in print? Nothing gets me out of my head like a really good joke.
Ooh, Margery Sharp and filthy limericks might do the trick!
Berna's channel is a delight. I am no help with cures for a reading slump alas. I have honestly never had one except when I had tiny babies and fell asleep as soon as I opened one.
I've never had a real one either, and this one is resolving into a time issue rather than a concentration issue. Back when I had a tiny baby, I spent a lot of time reading what I wanted to read but reading it aloud in a sing-songy voice. David was finishing his medical residency then and read baby Abe all about "allergic rhinitis" is a Dr. Seuss accent!
Hello Hannah, sometimes when I just can’t read I buy a few magazines with lovely pictures. The Shetland wool magazine or one off the shelves magazines here in the U.K. about country living or something…I spend a few days flicking and looking at the pictures and just don’t force it. Sooner or later the magazines just leave me needing a good book.
I am so envious now, hearing that their is a magazine called The Shetland Wool Magazine! I must go find something vaguely similar...although the US does not provide things that seem quite so perfect, I'm afraid. Actually, my spouse and I have been watching Escape to the Country--about real estate in the UK of all things--and loving the silly lighthearded warmth of the whole series.
Hi Hannah. I don't know if this will help, but I've got a few thoughts to recommend. The basic approach is to try reading books which repay short bursts of reading and are on the less trodden path for you - perhaps anthologies of poems where there's a new style each page. Read the poem out loud a couple of times - different experience to silent reading. A poem is a small unit but a pleasant little mental puzzle to find more, if you're in the mood. Or can just be enjoyed for the wordy pleasures. Perhaps even a book with a brief couple of thoughts about each poem. (I'd recommend "Lifesaving Poems" ed. by Anthony Wilson) Or a book of many short but interesting small biographies (Mason Currey's "Daily Rituals: Women at work" is excellent for overall unified theme of creativity/life balance but in small separate life stories). Or humour books of published columns (e.g. Norah Ephron). Or sometimes we just need a high ratio of wonderful pictures to text, to let our eyes 'read' pictures, with less verbal processing - a big art book on a favourite painter or photographer, lavishly illustrated. Hope some of these work for you. (Just realised: might have been quicker to make a video on it - instead of trying to get you to read all this!!!!! Ironic.)
I love the idea of reading poems aloud--and I can imagine that David will as well! Thank you. And Daily Rituals sound really fascinating.
@@HannahsBooks Alternatively, I'm just about to upload me reading aloud a poem - as part of my occasional series on poetry. I don't over-analyse, just spread it out as something to enjoy.
Thanks to your recommendation last year, I recently read The Warden and loved it. I am almost half way through Barchester Towers and do not believe you will need to re-read The Warden. The characters will all come back to you and Trollope does give enough history for those who do not read The Warden first. Enjoy what you can read, love the knitting you're working on and my best thoughts to you and your family❣
Hey Jodi. Wish I had read this comment before I responded to the other one. So sorry. Reading is getting a whole lot easier for me, and knitting continues apace. Thank you so much for sticking with me.
@@HannahsBooks you’re the best of the best😇
@@jodihowe7274 ♥️
i'm so glad this video popped up in my recommendations (probably because i've been watching a lot of booktuber tags recently). it's been a stressful day, and this video is so calming and really helped me slow down. thank you for the soothing voice and grounded presence and for sharing such unique points of view, i have gladly subscribed and can't wait to watch more!
Welcome! What a very kind comment. My apologies for being so terribly behind in replying to comments this month...
@@HannahsBooks oh never any need to apologize, there's always so much to juggle and so little time! pleasure chatting with you 😁 and wishing you a wonderful weekend.
@@ChloeTheePayne ♥️
Reading slump advice (none of it profound or original):
1. Really try not to read
2. Read trash -celebrity memoirs on audio helped me through Dec & Jan
3. Books in translation from places you rarely read books from. (This is likely much easier for me than you) my women in translation month reading really propelled me through August.
4. Short, quiet books. Have you read _The Hills Reply_ by Norwegian author Tarje Vessas. It’s a book of very atmospheric stories which feel kind of other worldly.
I think #4 may be right up my alley. I have several which I think you have recommended already on my library hold shelf waiting for me, including Leonard and the Hungry Paul as well as Small Things Like These. Thank you.
Personality: the Book Proselytizer. I hear this! And I suppose it does all balance out... and I'm waiting for the Right Moment to crack open Habits of the House by Fay Weldon, as she recently passed away. Your dilemma of reading seems to be similar to my dilemma with editing. I keep trying to approach, and I keep shying away or refusing the fence. I have a good session and congratulate myself all the way til next time I mean to edit and can't. Sigh. Novella progress slow, it goes without saying... ;D
How interesting, Margaret! "Refusing the fence" is such a fantastic phrase. For me, editing is comforting, but actually producing original drafts? Terrifying!
I have no reading slump advice but wish you good reading soon!
Thank you so much, Melissa!
i have watched several of your videos, you seem so kind and sensitive, I may be speaking out of turn but I think you may be still grieving your loss which is so normal and not having the mindful energy and analytical mind to read . Knitting is a great way to do a simple easy therapeutical way to while away some time and think about where you may be going. I really love your videos but do understand the standstill right now. take care of yourself.
Thank you so much for your kind words. Knitting has been an important part of my life since I was a child--but especially for the past year. Perhaps I'll share my current project in an upcoming video. This video was filmed at a very different time, when David's health was starting to decline rapidly. Now, I am grieving in a new and different way. You're very kind to offer these words of support.
you are welcome , i do knit but haven't for several years since I started watercolor painting . take care mary gallant
How about reading an old favorite, one that takes little effort but provides that readerly comfort? That might spark something?
Perfect! I have a few ideas here and will get back to you...
I don't know if this appeals to you, but maybe an anthology of short stories? Mix and match, nothing you have to carry over mentally to the next time you read. I also like picture books when my brain or heart is tired. There are some fabulous illustrated folk tales in the 398.2 children's section of the library.
Ooh, I love the idea of illustrated folk tales! Thanks!
I wish I had advice to offer about getting back in a reading way but unfortunately I'm in the same boat as you. Right now I'm trying to focus on being okay with the little bits of reading I do here and there.
Kari, I hope we both can get back to our old ways!
I wish l read books authored by Hannah.
Ha! I actually have two books out--both academic history--and am currently working on a memoir with my spouse. I don't recommend reading earlier books, unless you're ready for footnotes. If you really are, check out Unspeakable: The Story of Junius Wilson. Actually, there was a video discussion about it on booktube. Let me see if I can find the link...
czcams.com/video/EKTP-eigg9s/video.html
i hope your slump ends soon...have you tried a mystery novel..i found the first book dissolution in the series by c. j. sansom engrossing.. and i'm with you i love shelves full of books waiting to be read and i too give most of them away when i finish them.
Mysteries are a great idea. I've turned to them at other times when I had my mind on other things. Thank you. I don't know CJ Sansom's work but will look it up!
@@HannahsBooks 😀