After a demanding nonfiction book I often stop reading for a week, not because I disliked it but because picking up another dense volume feels like work. Lately I've been alternating one challenging book with a brisk mystery or short story collection. My finished-book count has gone up, but more importantly I've stopped dreading the next chapter. Does anyone else deliberately keep an ‘easy’ book between harder reads, or do you read several at once?
Alternating difficult and easy books to avoid reading slumps
- books-reading
- alternating
- difficult
- easy
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3 replies
Yes, and sometimes the easy book is not even a palate cleanser, just a momentum keeper. A few short chapters between denser reads keeps me f...
Yes, and sometimes the easy book is not even a palate cleanser, just a momentum keeper. A few short chapters between denser reads keeps me from staring at the shelf like it insulted my family.
I do this with one novel and one nonfiction at a time. If both are heavy, I stop reading entirely and then act surprised when that happens.
I used to think reading several books at once meant I was being disorganized, but it actually helps me match mood to book. Some nights my brain wants sentences that move faster than my life does.
That's a nice way to put it. I keep one book in the kitchen, one by the bed, and one in my bag, which sounds chaotic until you realize it's...