My Semi-Fictional Life #12 (Reading Slumps: Yeah or Naw?)

Welcome to all the new followers. Now that I’ve been blogging daily the site is seeing more traffic. I appreciate you dropping by and reading my stuffs.

*hugs and/or high fives… whichever you’re more comfortable with*

Man, I’m tired. I’ve been editing Slasher: Live nonstop, getting it ready for submission to publishers, and my brain is fried. And I STILL have over a hundred pages to revise.

Dude, this is only the first content edit… I know, dude… 

Oof.

Anyway, I spoke earlier this week about Me Time. I think I’m going to take myself up on the offer tonight, right after I post this blog.

I also seem to be in the beginning of a reading slump. I read a string of terrific books recently, and I know they can’t all be good, but sweet baby Tom Cruise, do they have to go from Grade-A directly to Dumpster Fire? This Richard Laymon book I’m re-reading, Cellar, is awful. I’m also reading Alan Moore’s 1,280-page masturbatory effort, Jerusalem, which I should have put down 900 pages ago.  Unfortunately, now I have to know how it ends. Only 380 pages left to go! Fuck my obsessive brain. Seriously.

So let’s talk about reading slumps. Why do you think they happen? Is it because we get on such a good run that no matter what we read next is going to be bad, like a book hangover? Or do we set ourselves up for failure, like authors who give themselves writer’s block by thinking too hard about not hearing from their muses? FWIW, I don’t believe in writer’s block for the same reason I shouldn’t believe in reading slumps, but I do believe in ghosts, I do, I do, I DO! If you read enough, slumps are bound to happen. I guess that’s why I lend credence to slumps and not blocks. I’ve never been blocked. Well, not when it comes to writing. TMI? Probably. But I’m being honest. I’m never in need of the next word. I might struggle to find the proper description of something, but I’m never stuck. I write through it and revise later. But I’ve had plenty of reading slumps, believe you me.

So I’m reading through it and hoping the next book isn’t the literary equivalent of Face AIDS.

Do you believe in reading slumps, or is everyone off their rocker? When was the last time you read a bad book? What was it? What’s your social security number, bank account info, and birthday?

See you tomorrow,

E.

Pic of the Day

I do not own the above image.