Blog Post: Reader’s Block

I recently finished a run of three fantastic books and because of that I’ve been stricken with what I’ll call reader’s block. You know the feeling when you’ve finished a book that fostered an emotional reaction in you, a connection to it that is deeper than usual – it creates a sense of loss when you finish the final page and disconnect with the characters and worlds you’ve come to love or fear.

This is the sign of a good book, but as a bookworm it is a double-edged sword. It makes picking up the next book a far more arduous task. Once you’ve experienced this nothing seems to stand up to it, for a while at least. We all have a ‘to read’ stack of books at home, that’s natural, but everything that once appealed to you and the reasons you added them to the stack in the first place, now seem insignificant by comparison. I’ve had this feeling more times than I can count and it is the sort of thing you just have to ride out while the impact fades, or you can simply dive into a new book and charge through the first chapters headlong with pure force of will until something clicks.

I’m in the former at the moment. I don’t really have anything that I want to read. It’s a tough situation to be in when you intend to keep a blog on books active. It’s especially bad when you’re so accustomed to having a good book to read that when you don’t it feels like there is an imbalance in your life. I seriously feel out of sorts when I don’t have a book I can pick up and start reading in my down time. It’s a bit of a mania. Food doesn’t taste as good, sleep isn’t as sound and videogames aren’t as fun. It’s trouble.

For the sake of my own sanity and comfort I’m hoping that something will capture my imagination and I’ll be back in a papery world of escapism soon. I’ve got a couple of new reviews coming up this week, books that are directly responsible for my fugue: first up The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay. Both were stellar books and I’m excited to share some thoughts about them. After that it’ll be whatever captures my attention next.

If anyone reading this has any suggestions I’m open to them. Please feel free to drop a suggestion in the comments if there is anything you’re excited about recently, I’d love to hear about it.

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