Since the summer of 2024, I have been in a pretty serious reading slump.
The desire to do anything book-related has been nonexistent. I don’t mean just reading books or listening to audiobooks. My reading slump was so bad I rarely watched Booktube, which was one of my favorite ways to pass time. I took no pleasure in watching and listening to Booktubers talking about books. I pretty much abandoned my bookish social media accounts (Instagram and Threads) because looking at posts and short-form content in books did nothing for me. I would add a book here and there to my To Be Read List. But none of them actually excited me. I added them because they sounded mildly interesting.
As the end of 2025 was approaching, I realized I had only completed four books. Tying with 2011 as the lowest amount of books I had read in a year since I started tracking. This sent me into a bit of a panic. What kind of avid reader am I if I only complete 4 books in a year?
This was in December. I was in the middle of three books: a romance, a middle upper grade historical fiction, and a nonfiction. I decided I was going to complete those three books before 2025 closed out. It shouldn’t have taken much effort and maybe an hour of reading daily.
But I couldn’t make myself do it. Reading for even 15 minutes on my commute to work felt like a chore. And reading before bed never happened.
This is not the first time I’ve struggled with reading, but it is the first time trying to get back into reading felt like walking through quicksand.
As the new year approached, I did something I had never done before. I DNF’d books I was enjoying.
I guess some people will call it a soft DNF, because I do plan to go back to them.
But still, it was a first for me. I’ve never DNF’d books I was enjoying. Not even a soft DNF.
And before I switched those books over to the DNF shelf on Goodreads and marked them as Did Not Finish in Bookly, I felt a bit guilty. Because I could just take them into 2026 with me. I didn’t have to DNF them.
But the action of virtually switching them over to my DNF shelf filled me with a sense of relief.
Also instantly I started thinking about my January stack of possibilities. The next book in Bernice L. McFadden’s catalog was ordered from the library. I turned on Booktube and opened Instagram and Threads to engage with bookish content.
I started thinking about books again. And my first thought was to think about what caused my reading slump and why the Reading Slump of 2024 felt different from others.
The short answer is disappointing new releases back to back
During the summer of 2024, three new releases back to back ended up being huge letdowns.
Books I heard about through the bookish internet and purposefully went out of my way to read close to release.
My disappointment with these three books rubbed off on all the other books I had started afterwards.
And it seems the only way I could stop that was to start fresh. To cancel everything I was reading and start anew.
So, I’m not only starting 2026 with “new” books.
I’m looking forward to reading again, consuming bookish content again, and for the first time in a long time creating content surrounding books.
I look forward to seeing you more in 2026.
