How To Break Out Of Your Reading Rut With New Authors

If you’re the kind of person who loves to read, the idea of a reading slump can be devastating.

Suddenly, stories don’t hold your attention.

Suddenly, you don’t care what happens on the next page. Much less the page after that.

Suddenly, you’re putting down books by your favorite authors that you’d happily read and re-read on any other occasion.

We say: Go with it. Put that book down. Don’t turn that page. Let that story go.

But just because you don’t have the appetite for books at this moment doesn’t mean you won’t ever want to read again.

Like Olivia Páez writes for Book Riot, these slumps can be a way to take a step back and rethink our reading. 

Even recharge it.

Because once it’s recharged, nothing will stop you from getting back on the reading train and earning those reading achievements.

Today we’d like to offer one suggestion for your next break: adding a broader range of authors to your repertoire. 

Start By Taking A Look At What You Do Read

If it feels like you’ve hit a rut, maybe you have. The nice thing about using apps like Goodreads or Storygraph is you can begin to quantify your reading. Look back at your past six months and see if you’ve over indexed on:

• The same author - Too much Stephen King or Michael Crichton? Maybe it’s time to take a break from horrors and thrillers and find an author that you’re not so familiar with. Maybe part of the reason you’ve grown tired is you recognize all their tricks.
  
  
• The same genre - There’s a reason murder mysteries and police detective novels are so popular. They tend to follow a formula, which can make them fun to read as you see each new author’s spin on the classic setup. Still, when you know how a magician does their tricks, it can feel a little less special. Some time away might refresh your perspective.
  
  
• The same theme - Whether you’re a history buff or into bodyhacking, it is possible to go too far down the rabbit hole on an idea. You might plumb the depths and find you know it all, and that each new book is only adding marginally more information. Or you might find the rabbit hole truly has no end - like trying to read all that’s been written about World War II. Taking a step back to see the best way to continue your quest can be just what your reading diet needs.

In addition to these exercises in recognizing your own reading habits, an influx of new authors can also serve to spark your passion.

Ways New Authors Can Spark Your Reading Routine

We all have a tendency toward the comfortable. Whether it’s sticking with our friends’ recommendations of what to watch or read, traveling to favorite spots, or creating traditions, it can be nice to settle into familiarity.

Fighting that urge in reading, however, can be a powerful tool. As Litreactor writes, reading outside of our own experience is a powerful way to get a perspective of other lives.

Even from an early age, infusing our reading with diverse authors helps to grow our understanding of other people and other cultures.

And if you in particular haven’t felt represented by the stories you’ve read, finding those stories or authors who you can see yourself in have the ability to show how important we really are in our communities and in our world. 

Whether you seek diverse authors specifically, or authors that are approaching themes more diverse than what you’re currently reading, the fresh ideas and voices will not only give you a new perspective on your To Read pile, but on the way you’re living your life.

How do you handle your own reading? Have you dealt with a reading rut before?