About that reading slump...

I'm trying to get out of this terrible reading slump. I'm blaming college for this. No time and mandatory reading slowed me down so much that I stopped reading after a while.

I just started rereading DeadWitch Walking by Kim Harrison. I've read this book (and I think two more in this series) when I was 14 years old and I forgot about most of the storyline. It's fun to reread books that I loved when I was 14 years old, because back then I was also a very big reader, I literally dug my way through the library around that age. 

I've always been a reader, even when I was very young and my mother had to read to me. But my reading comes in phases I feel. When I was 13-15 years old I used to read almost as much as I do now. I read Dutch books back then because I used to hate English at school and I struggled quiet a lot with it (and now I study to become an English teacher, how things have changed), it was only when I was 14 years old that I started to love English because of an awesome teacher I had (that was in the third year I had English in school). 

It still took me a while to get better and The main thing that helped me was watching TV shows and choosing to leave out the subtitles. When I was at the age of 16 it finally became fun to read in English, my English was getting better and reading a book wasn't a chore anymore. From that point on I gradually started reading more English books (mind that between the age of 15 and 17/18 I wasn't as big of a reader anymore and only got to about 5 books a year) and Dutch books disappeared, besides the ones I had to read for my Dutch classes of course. 

Last summer, at the age of 17 (almost 18) I started picking up more books again when I was home alone for 2 weeks when my parents and little sister were on a holiday. That's the point where I started reading way more again and I rediscovered the love I had for books back when I was in my early teen years. In 2015 I ended up reading 35 books, which is a lot considering I only started reading as much in July.

Now going back to the reading slump I’m in at the moment. I realized that rereading books that I enjoyed when I was younger really helps me get back into reading. Every time a semester got a little busy this past school year I fell into a reading slump. Once I get more time it’s rather hard for me to get myself back into reading. When I started rereading the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead back in September I could really feel how I found an old love for that series again. I read that series around the same time I read the Hollows series by Kim Harrison for the first time.

So maybe next time I find it hard to get out of a reading slump I guess I’ll pick up another favorite from back then: the Darkest Powers trilogy by Kelley Armstrong.

Another thing that helped me before is reading a new book from a series you really love (or an author you always enjoy). For me it often helps when a favorite author (to me that’s Rachel Morgan most of the time) comes out with a new book, especially when it’s a continuation to a series you love to death *cough* Creepy Hollow *cough*.

Happy reading, a lovely summer and much love,

Ellen