I’m in such a rut – I keep reading 20-30, maybe 50 pages of a book and just can’t get into it at all, and move on to something else. What should I read?
The last books I’ve actually \*liked\* were:
Remarkably Bright Creatures
The Running Grave
Small Mercies
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Crying in H Mart
Hamnet
The Vanishing Half
Station Eleven
(Theoretically I also really like non-fiction, but haven’t found anything that has kept my interest in a while. But I’ve loved books like Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Nomadland, Evicted, Educated, etc.)
So what should I read next?!
by salem913
12 Comments
Maybe check out Interesting Facts About Space by Emily R Austin, its about an autistic lesbian with OCD and anxiety dealing with her fear of bald men and her suspicion that someone has been breaking into her home. It was emotional and interesting and I thought it was a pretty fast read!
You could also check out This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El Mohtar and Max Gladstone, its about two agents on opposite sides of a huge war that spans worlds and time, and they slowly fall in love through letters. Its very short and beautifully written.
Take a break, stop reading and do something else for a while like nature hikes or photography or work out a few extra days at the gym. Bad book burnout is real. I got to the point where I read so many crappy books I couldn’t take it anymore, and I stopped reading for a while.
Give yourself permission to quit if a book isn’t grabbing you in the first fifty pages. Even if you quit thirty books in a row, so what? The library police won’t revoke your right to read.
Have you read anything by Fredrik Backman? His books seem up your alley
I re-read an old favorite when I feel like that.
The Space Adventures Of Commander Laine. I doubt that you will put that book down
If you like dark/crime/inspector types of stories (I saw TRG on your list) I really loved Karin Slaughter’s Will Trent series and the companion series Grant County. The crimes are pretty brutal but the characters drew me in the further in the series I got.
They aren’t super long or tedious reads either. I also love anything by Karin Slaughter.
Terry Pratchett Nation
Don’t know if you like fantasy, but “the false prince” and “the belgariad” are really good little known books I’ve read. Or there’s “the blackthorn key” which is historical fiction. Hope this helped a little 🙂
Rough Sleepers by Tracy Kidder sounds right up your alley (non-fiction). For fiction, have you tried Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley?
Kristin Hannah books. I loveeeeed The Great Alone
Small Mercies was so damn good
Sometimes when I get like this I’ll read short stories or essays – they’re quick and easy to digest without being overwhelming. I also have a “go to” comfort genre that I’ll always return to when idk what to read and for me that’s usually a very predictable and formulaic mystery (shout out to Ann Cleeves)