I haven’t been reading many books over the past month. There are a couple of reasons for this: I had been reading a lot of dense history books, and I think I eventually burned myself out on the subject for a while. Then I couldn’t decide what I felt like reading; I haven’t been keeping up with new novels and I didn’t have any subjects in mind for nonfiction reading. Finally, I was on vacation for a week and a half but made the mistake of taking A History of the American People by Paul Johnson to read, not exactly breezy holiday reading.

There’s nothing objectively wrong with not reading for pleasure for a period of time; there are plenty of other worthwhile things to do. But when you self-identify as a reader, losing the urge to read can be more difficult. You start to feel like you’re losing a part of yourself, or even that you’re getting dumber. However, I try to remind myself that reading for pleasure is supposed to be pleasurable, so if you are forcing yourself to read when you don’t feel like it, it’s defeating the purpose.

To try and get back into reading, I usually select shorter books that I can finish in a sitting or two when I do get the urge. I found Bloodbrothers by Richard Price at a used book store for a dollar, which lasted me a couple of days, and I read Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger (for the first time!) in a couple of hours while babysitting the other night. I also tend to read mysteries or thrillers, because they’re designed to be propulsive and keep you reading. I (along with just about everyone else in the world) read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (actually a pretty solid mystery).

 Do you ever get “readers’ block”? What do you do to break out of it?