Losing the way.

[pleaseprufrock]

I am pained to admit that in recent months, I have felt little desire to read. I know, a shameful thing to admit in front of such esteemed readers as yourselves. Yet I am here to throw myself at the mercy of your suggestions. I need to find inspiration again. I need to rekindle the passion within myself for literature, that adrenaline-like rush when you begin a new book and the content feeling when you close the page on a truly great novel.

What are novels that you feel have this ability? I am a reader. It is all I know and the only way I feel I can relax. Not having the desire to read, feeling lazy and uninspired has made me slip into a type of depression that I know you all can understand.

Help!

[mtpspur]

Well I'm getting old and lazy in my old age. Would help if I knew what sort of novels that have been in your experience. Dou oyu like romance for interest, adventure, science fiction, historical novels, etc. Personally I like series characters. If you can stand a LOT of descriptiosn try James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking series. I read them in chronological order (which was a blessing in disguise as the first two are wonderful--The Deerslayer, Last of the Mohicans and the other three have their moments but determination to finish the set won the day or The Pathfinder would have ended the experiment.

Now as to why you're not reading I suspect oyu've been doing it TOO much and have simply overdosed and your last few books were less then satisfactory. Spread oyur wings a little, get out of the house or office and live --just a little --then come back refreshed. With respect--Rich

[lyni]

perhaps you needed to have a break so don't feel guilty about it. enjoy it. don't push yourself to read just because you think you should read. if/when you are ready to read again have a look around the threads here. someone is always recommending various books. so it just depends on the sort of books you're into as to what may spark your interest.

[blazeofglory]

I think you seem not to have come upon a book that goes with your taste. Of course different books interest different people differently and there are oceans of books you can look thru and once you get tuned you can find them unputdownable.

Flip through pages of a few books and if you find them palatable you will develop a habit and then not to read will be difficult for you

[mal4mac]

I can't understand your depression as there has never been a time I didn't feel a desire to read something every day. If you don't desire to read then obviously you are desiring to do something else, even if it's only staring at the wallpaper. But, anyway, you are contradicting yourself. By posting to a forum you obviously desire to read something, even if it is only forum replies. Maybe this indicates a desire to read something else than novels, maybe somethhing shorter & more varied, at least for a while?

I'm reading "The Oxford Book of Essays" at the moment. I can't imagine an easier to read or more enticing collection of short prose literature. I've been watching blockbuster five star movies over Christmas and found myself wishing them to end so I could get back to my essays. So try that. Start with Samuel Johnson -- if you find the older essays in any way a drag. If it doesn't rekindle your passion for literature then you need a new hobby, probably an outdoors one, at least for a while.

Many of the best essays are by the greatest novelists - Swift, Fielding, Dickens, Eliot, Conrad, Twain, Butler, Chesterton... So if a novelist-essayist really inspires you it may give you some good ideas on which novels to read next. It's certainly giving me some!

I'm also reading Tom Jones by Fielding at the moment -- try it! It's light and amusing and always leads you to wonder what Tom is going to get up to next. But to stimulate the jaded palette of a novel reader, I would recommend the "Essays" as first choice -- the variety of styles is wonderful, like eating a vast selection of hors d'ouvres produced by a five star Michelin chef.

[Scrooge Mc Duck]

Try reading The Gunslinger by Stephen King, great story that will hopefully keep you interested!

[Travis_R]

Try reading books that don't use such complicated language and have a bit of humor in them. I recommend Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut and/or Catch 22 by Joseph Heller for this.

[Blanket Heist]

Try reading books that don't use such complicated language and have a bit of humor in them. I recommend Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut and/or Catch 22 by Joseph Heller for this.

Sound advice.

It'd be better to read something "uncomplicated" to get your blood pumping again.

Baby steps, grasshopper. Baby steps.

[Dinkleberry2010]

I look at a newspaper and it gets me so upset and feeling down that I gladly go back then to reading literature.