📚 Whenever I finish a book, I usually have a good idea of what I want to read next. At the start of each month, I brainstorm and list four to five books that interest me. While this list often shifts as the month progresses, it gives me a good starting point.

But after finishing my ninth book of the year, I hit a slump. I looked at my planned reading list, but nothing grabbed my attention. Even “Words of Radiance” by Brandon Sanderson, which I had been working through, didn’t feel like the right choice. I wanted something shorter, lighter—something easier. Since I had only been reading fiction up to that point, I decided to switch things up with a non-fiction book.

I picked up a book on menopause that had been sitting on my Kobo for a couple of months. Yeah, a book about perimenopause and menopause, which was recommended by my friend at my local Book Club. It’s very informative but the topic itself felt a bit daunting given what it means for my future. Still, it helped me get back into reading, but it didn’t make me super excited to sit down to read (mostly because of the topic—menopause can be a very scary experience for some people according to this book 😬).

So, even though I’ve been reading this book throughout the week, it wasn’t exactly scratching my reading bug. I was still missing that feeling of sneaking in a chapter whenever I had a free moment.

Another common tip for breaking a reading slump is switching genres. Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of romance, but I had started and abandoned four different romance novels in a single week. Nothing was clicking. So, instead of experimenting with something entirely new, I turned to a series I already loved: The Vorkosigan Saga. I picked up “The Vor Game” by Lois McMaster Bujold, and just like that—I was back in my reading groove! It brought back that fun I had when reading previously.

Here’s what worked for me this time:

• Sampling different books – Reading a few pages from multiple books helped me quickly determine what sparked my interest. If a book didn’t grab me right away, I moved on.
• Switching genres – Shifting from romance to sci-fi refreshed my reading experience.
• Revisiting a favorite author – Picking up a book from an author I already enjoy meant I didn’t have to worry about adjusting to a new writing style.
• Continuing a beloved series – Familiarity with the world and characters made it easy to dive right in and build momentum.
• Choosing a shorter book – “The Vor Game” is 364 pages—much shorter than the 1,087 pages of “Words of Radiance.” It helps to get that sense of accomplishment when I can zip through a shorter book.

This experience made me think that this year I want to focus more on continuing series I love instead of trying new things.

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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

So this will cover 3 weeks of notes!

• 🍵 I have been feeling (more) introverted this winter. I’ve been enjoying quiet activities, such as reading, walking, yoga, meditation, some private journaling. That means I haven’t shared too much online as well. It’s probably the winter vibes when I usually get more introspective, and I search for extreme coziness.
• 🌼 Spring is getting closer and closer (not quite there yet, because I live in winter land, and winter might last up to April/May) but I hear some birds chirping here and there, while temperatures start getting above zero during the day (here and there).
• 📝 Even though I listed “Journaling” above, I’m not journaling as much as I wanted. I had this goal to do longer private journaling sessions once a week for a more in-depth brain dump. But I didn’t. It just didn’t work out for me. On the weekends I’ve been staying away from my computer as much as possible. I just wanted a break. And journaling by hand never appealed to me. I prefer typing.
• 💼 At work I’m still working on a temporary cubicle (while office renovations are ongoing), and I feel like the noisy environment is very distracting to me. Some days I handle it well, and I can put on my headphones with some music and be focused. Some days it feels cluttered and messy. The cubicles walls are super short, so I can see my neighbors monitor screens and vice versa. I find that very distracting. There are still 1-2 more months of renovations, and I’m doing the best I can to manage this work situation.
• 🖥️ My left cubicle neighbor always has a small window with YouTube videos playing while she works. And it’s fine, I mean, she uses it as background noise I guess, but I always wonder how she can get anything done. Sometimes I feel that little screen bothers me. There is no rational reason for it to bother me: she uses headphones, so it’s quiet, it’s small (she keeps it in a small window between her 2 monitors) but when I look left to glance at the window on the far end of the room, I see that screen in the vicinity of my field of vision and I get overwhelmed/distracted by proxy. It’s weird, it shouldn’t affect me at all, but I can’t help it some days.
• ⛸️ Me and my partner went ice skating on an outdoor trail! It’s a place called River Oak Skating Trails. I was excited to try it out, but I wasn't ready for the ups and downs and twists and turns. The trail is not flat (like the Rideau Canal) and I’ve never ice skated uphill or downhill. It’s not super sloped but sloped enough to make me completely lose control before a bend to the left, where I tried to snowplow-style slow down and fell spectacularly. I bumped my head on the ice, and I think I passed out for a couple of seconds, because I remember waking up sideways with my partner talking to me and I wondered where I was. Anyway, I got a tender spot at the back of my head for a couple of days, and a bruised right hand palm, but nothing else. It hurt my pride most of all.
• ⛸️ There is only one more ice-skating class left in this season for me. I made a lot of progress! I can do forward crossovers both ways and I got better at using the blades for tight turns and stops (as long as they are not in a sloped terrain – see above).
• 🧩 We finished the “Tiamat Queen of Dragons” puzzle! 🥳
• 📖 I was feeling a bit tired on the weekends, so I didn’t do much expect for reading (and the usual regular house chores, etc). I didn’t even want to watch anything because screens were causing me headaches most of the time. No video games either. I’m reading Ali Hazelwood’s “Deep End” romance because I just need a comfort read right now.
• 🧘‍♀️ I got a peg board for my yoga space to organize some of the accessories I use daily.
• 📫 I let my Inbox become messy, I skipped several weekly reviews, and that only made me feel more tired and scattered. But this week I managed to process my digital inboxes, update my work notes, revise my projects and next actions and get some clarity.
• ✅ One of the things I realized about my projects and next actions lists in Nirvana is that I have a bunch of stale items in there. I plan to do a much more in-depth review of my system in the coming days. Delete old stuff, move things to someday-maybe, delete items I no longer want to act on, clean up my someday-maybe lists.

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By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.

1. Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries (Emily Wilde #1) by Heather Fawcett, 317p: The faerie lore in this book is interesting, it has a whimsical feel to it but with a more verbose prose. The beginning was interesting: a scholar, Emily Wilde, spends some time in this small wintery village doing research.  She is portrayed as an introvert neuro-divergent scientist, so I liked that part of her personality at the beginning. The winter ambience was nice, it felt atmospheric.  The narrative style starts interesting, with her journal entries. But I thought it lacked an individualized touch. At times it seems like she's writing an academic journal, but she also uses it to write about her day to day, and the language does not seem to be intimate enough for a personal journal. I found the pacing of the book very uneven, and nothing was happening to move the plot for a long time. None of the main characters were likeable to me. I really didn't care about them at all. But I cared about the magical dog, Shadow. 

2. The Bridge Kingdom (The Bridge Kingdom #1) by Danielle L. Jensen, 354p: I was a bit disappointed with this book. It has been on my TBR for a long time, and I finally got a chance to read it. It starts really well, with a gripping opening scene where I saw a lot of potential. I mean, a beautiful princess who’s secretly a spy? I loved that premise. The world building is well done, and the Bridge Kingdom is fascinating. But I thought the interpersonal relationships and the whole forced marriage trope to be weak and not interesting at all. It also uses the lack of communication trope which annoyed me a bit. The plot became incredibly predictable after a while. 

3. Paladin's Strength (The Saint of Steel #2) by T. Kingfisher, 498p: This was a fun read! Lovely writing, great plot, gorgeous romance. The main characters are Istvhan, a Paladin (whose God died), and Clara, a nun, who cross paths and join forces to deal with some evil problems. They go on a long road trip together! I like that the romance is between two people in their 40's and they are both tall, big, and strong. The banter was delicious and funny. Seeing them complain together about their aches and pain was hilarious. The worldbuilding is excellent and makes me want to spend more time in it. It has dark tones, some terrible things happen and there is violence, but the characters are trying to make the world a better place and helping each other. A major plot point that starts in Book 1 is resolved in this book. I want to read the next one!

4. Priest (Priest #1) by Sierra Simone, 371p: This book is not for the faint of heart. It deals with a priest struggling with temptation and sin and the need to control his feelings. The POV is entirely by the male protagonist, Father Bell (no dual POV here, expect for a few confession passages in the female protagonist voice). The whole book could be very cringe, but somehow the author manages to make it beautiful and touching. It's sexual and emotional. It plays with the forbidden love trope with all the struggles these characters felt. The writing is beautiful.

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Post 74/100 of 100DaysToOffload challenge (Round 2)!

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Thoughts? Discuss... if you have a Write.as account or Reply by email

By Noisy Deadlines Minimalist in progress, nerdy, introvert, skeptic. I don't leave without my e-reader.