Hi. It's Teso. Lemme paint you a picture. You're a reader. You just finished that tremendous book that's been on the tippy top of your TBR for months, and you're officially giving it a rating and putting it away. Great isn't it? But it's not. The book you just finished is the end of the series you've dedicated the last year (or more, if we're being realistic) of your life to, and now you're disappointed. These characters that you've fallen in love with are no longer going to get more stories written about them, and you don't get to see what happens next! It's too painful to even look at the book since you know it's all over.
Here's another picture. You're a reader. You just finished that tremendous book that's been on the tippy top of your TBR for months, and you're officially giving it a rating and putting it away. Great isn't it? But it's not. The book you just finished is the most recently published book in the series you've fallen in love with and when you go to check the release date of the sequel it's *gasp* a month away. Well, that's a little bit too good to be true. It's more like a year away. Or two and eleven months. *Insert Teso sobbing uncontrollably here* "I waited a year for this book to come out and now I'm done with it and the next one is so far away! What do I do?"
Well hello. I have tips.
For those of you asking how common book hangovers are, I just finished Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao. I read it in two days and now have to wait for...almost a year for the next book, after the last one JUST ENDED IN A CLIFFHANGER! I am fine I am chill I am breathing and not crying this is fine. 'Tis life. I've been crying over the ending of novels since I was a short loud child with lots of energy and small muscles, and here I am, a short loud teenager with a lots of energy and smaller muscles. Seriously, how is that possible? This is what reading does to you. Well not this. You don't become muscleless, you become a person with a book blog who suffered from many a book hangover. As a person familiar with the feeling, here are my tried and true Teso tips how to cure a book hangover, that don't include "just read". These tips will also apply to getting back into reading after a break.
Reread a past favorite.
In my experience, one way to get rid of a book hangover is to reread the book over, looking for any things you missed. Foreshadowing, references to previous novels (see my previous post), funny lines, scenes that make you giggle so hard you fall off the bed and your grandma thinks you're gravely injured, whatever. One thing I do to make this process even more fun is getting some form of small paper to write annotations on (I use cut up sticky notes, but I know people who go all out and buy those fancy tabs), using those to mark the funny scenes, usually with some form of sarcastic remark (if you cannot tell, I think I am a real comedian). I'm not one of those people who enjoys highlighting the book and stuff like that, mostly because I find it's not a fast enough method for me to jot down my idea (mostly because I'm slow), as well as the fact that bleed through bugs me and also the teeny tiny fact that I forget to recap my highlighters or pens and they no longer write so I suddenly find myself looking online for fancy stationary instead of reading. Don't do that.
Convince someone to read the book and fangirl with them.
This may be off topic, but fangirl is a universal term in my opinion. Anyways, if you already have a fangirl friend, this is perfect. You get to talk about the book with someone who understands how you feel! It's a great bonding experience, which may create a closer relationship. I enjoy seeing other people's perspectives on the characters and relationships and plotlines of the stories I am reading (hence why I spend so much time on Pinterest), so this works for me because am suddenly reinvigorated by the fact that this person likes it as much as I do and understands my feelings. Also, they sometimes have great recommendations for you which means you can find a new book to enjoy! If not? Do what I do! Convince-or force-a friend, cousin, mother, father or generally someone you know who may like the book to read the book you just finished and make them enjoy the way you do (cut to an image of my father and mother reading Steelheart after my brother and I bugged them to read it). I mean, sure you have to wait for them to finish it and not give them spoilers-or give them fake ones to really mess with them-and not get too excited for it, but it is very helpful to make a friend to read it with you.
Write a blog post about it
Why do you think I'm here? I'm here because I need to handle my feelings and I find the best way to do that is here on a blog where I am my only viewer! I am very passionate about my mission here on Wings and Roses, I also happen to find it cathartic to write rambles. If you cannot tell by the fact that the rambles have overtaken my actual reviews, I enjoy rambling. I find it is a great way to get out all my feelings about a book or a character or a concept in general. For every blog post you see there are probably 13 more that I've started and not completed, as well as a 40 minute recording of me rambling about a concept in my voice memos app (which is somehow less sensical than what I'm writing now, if that's even possible). It's cathartic. It makes you look at what you feel, and if you publish yours on the internet, you sometimes even edit and revise them to see it again. Can you believe that I revise these and STILL put them on the internet like this? Yeah, imagine what the recordings are like. Write a book blog. It will be good for you. It's good for me.
Read a bubble gum book.
What's a bubblegum book? It's a book that doesn't force you to think as much, either because you've read it too many times, it's predictable or the main character is really bad at making good choices. I've found that reading "trashy" novels help me get into the reading mood because either I feel like "wow, that book sucked, I need to read something good to clear my head" or, more commonly "Wow! That book was great! I want to read more!".Both scenarios that convince you to read more. These books are wonderful for that kind of purpose, and I will come out with a full rundown about my feelings in a little bit. Of course, bubblegum books can't be what you read all the time, but if you have to read two, three, or even four that's fine.
Compete in a reading challenge
I love these, be it at my local library, or geared towards ten year olds at the library by my house, I am devoted to these kinds of things. They make you want to read to get that title kick of happy juice (which, to be fair, is fantastic), which makes the happy juice a pavlovian response to reading afterwards. You can find them online or at any local book place near you (store or library, they usually have these). There are many kinds, like coloring pages, or the ones that give you little gifts, like sticky notes or journals. I like those.
Look online.
There are so many resources recommending good books (*wink wink*). There are hundreds of people online who dedicate themselves to putting out content about the novels they love. Of course, as someone who is personally, quite biased, I think this is a fantastic way to get out of a slump. Seeing what others are reading and enjoying makes me want to read and enjoy more. My personal favorite is either YouTube or Pinterest. Pinterest always has pretty pictures (anything vaguely pretty interests me) and YouTube is full of great content, both in short and long form. I, personally, like long form content for deep dives, but love to get recommendations from short form. It's really up to you!
Have a ton of work you don't wanna do.
I'm not saying that you need to skip doing your homework, because we support education on this blog, but sometimes, if your homework sucks and you need a little break? Escapism! Pick a book you've read many times, or something new, whatever! Instead of scrolling mindlessly to ignore the impeding doom of that Spanish homework due tomorrow during first period that you don't understand and don't want to do, pick up a random book, completely unrelated to the work you need to do, and start reading. Your brain, spurred by its need for a distraction from whatever you need to do, will keep you reading. At least, in my experience it will.
Honestly, the best way to get back into reading after a hiatus or a book slump of any kind is to have fun with books again. It depends on you, so try a few of these out and see if they help. They might not work for everyone, but from me, the owner of a literal blog dedicated to books, these are pretty good ways to cure whatever reading ailment you have been facing.
Happy reading,
Teso