Book Hangovers

Terms in the book industry are weird. We’ve got cinnamon rolls that we ship—neither of which have anything to do with breakfast or the high seas. Writers experience writer’s block—though we still haven’t received a block of wood, thank you very much. And readers get book hangovers—who comes up with these terms? I don’t drink, so I don’t care for this last one, though I’ve certainly experienced it before.

Book Hangover: noun, 1) Being so engrossed with the last book you finished that you can’t get into a new book. 2) Having nothing to read, not necessarily the absence of reading material; synonymous without having nothing to wear or having nothing to do.

I wish I could say I’ve never had a book hangover, but it simply wouldn’t be true. Right before we moved, I set aside all the books I wanted bring while I didn’t have access to a library, and I slowly returned all my library books and forced myself not to check out any more.

Unfortunately, there happened to be several days in-between my setting aside the books and not having any library books, so I had no idea what to read. I tried asking my sister, and she kept pointing to books to which I said, “No… No… Just read that one… No… No… I HAVE NOTHING TO READ!”

Eventually, she just gave up on me. After a day of reading boredom, I finally settled on Esperanza Rising. Sure, I’m still learning, but overall, I’ve come up with some methods that have helped keep me from getting a book hangover.

Genre Hopping

I’m not saying you should read two different genres at once, though if that works for you, go right ahead (see next point). What I mean by this point is switching genres each time you finish a book, unless you only like one genre (how?). For example, if you just finished a fantasy novel, try a contemporary or nonfiction.

Not only does this form of genre hopping help me get into a new story better, it also helps me enjoy it more. I’ve found myself leaving higher star ratings. That’s not to say that I haven’t had my fair share of books I haven’t enjoyed, but it’s been easier to get into the ones that I do.

Bribe Reward Yourself

Sometimes, I have a hard time getting through nonfiction and classics than I do historical fiction or YA. I’ve found that listening to audio versions of nonfiction helps me because I can be productive at the same time. While listening to a book, I’ll often clean or commute. I’ve also found that sometimes, I’ll read a YA book after a chapter or two of another book, especially for classics as dense as Moby-Dick or Les Miserables.

Of course, if you just can’t get into the book or you don’t want to read it, there’s no 

saying you must finish it. Unless it’s for class. Then, you poor unfortunate soul, bribe yourself. In my undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, I would study for 45 minutes, then read a chapter or two in a fiction novel. That’s actually how I finished all 1,000 pages of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in a week. Everybody needs a study break. Why not enjoy it by reading?*

*Granted, you should take other study breaks too, like going outside, eating food, and hanging out with friends. As a former hermit, I can confirm that these are helpful methods too.

Know Your Reading Habits

On an average day, I focus best on writing in the morning and reading in the afternoon. If I try to read in the morning, my eyes start watering, even with reading glasses. If I try writing in the afternoon, I usually can’t focus. Of course, there are exceptions such as when I’m traveling or visiting with friends, but this schedule is generally the one I follow.

As such, when I start a book in the afternoon, I either try to finish it that evening or the next day. If I finish a book too early—at say, two o’clock—I may not know what to do with myself the rest of the day. For some reason, I just can’t read two books in one day, unless it’s a series.

Likewise, I’ve found that if I’m in the mood for a certain genre, I should pick that one up, even if I’m in the middle of another book. While this can cause some plot confusion, it can also keep the forward momentum going. If I try to force myself to read a book I’m not interested in at the moment, I’m just going to find ways to avoid the book more and more. Lately, I’ve been struggling with getting into some graphic novels—which is weird because they’re generally quick, easy reads—so I picked up Sadie and quickly breezed through the novel.

It all depends on what you like. And of course, most of these tips have to do with the first definition of a book hangover: being so engrossed with the last book you finished that you can’t get into a new book. I still have yet to figure out what to do when I have nothing to read.

Let’s chat! When’s the last time you had a book hangover? What are some methods you use to avoid them?

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Similar posts: Confessions of a Bookworm Tag; Pre-ordering, Boarding the Hype Train, and Letting it Pass; Slow-Paced vs.Fast-Paced Books

Literary references: Pam Muñoz Ryan’s Esperanza Rising, Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, and Courtney Summers’ Sadie.

Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover

You know that one thing readers say you should never do? Never judge a book by it’s cover, right? Well, I’m guilty as charged. I do this all the time. Even though I’ve grown up hearing this phrase, and yes, I believe it’s important, I still do it. Why is that?

Several reasons actually. It’s there something just marvelous about art? When visual art is combined with the power of words, a magical thing is created. How can we not judge a book by its cover if we are predetermined to judge art? If you don’t believe me, take a look at two of my collections:

Don’t tell me they’re not pretty. Look at the details on those covers! On the left, you can see so many layers in the night sky, and if you look closely at Sherlock’s silhouette on the right you can see it’s made up of smaller images. (Yes, I did keep the price tag on Arabian Nights. No, you can’t buy it from me. I like the peel the stickers off gradually as I read because I’m a fiddler, [not the musical type].)

But there come times when art can be misleading, discouraging readers from picking up particular books. Take this one for example:

I hate this cover. This is actually a library copy. When I was reading it for my class Speculative Fictions, I was super self-conscious, kept the cover facing down whenever I was in public. In fact, from the very cover, I thought I’d hate the book itself. Instead, I ended up liking it and giving it 4/5 stars. Yes, the cover is crude, and there are some parts of the book that were disturbing, but I appreciated how Fevvers is a woman who ultimately doesn’t rely on other people for her identity, and throughout the book gender norms are often reversed. And the writing style is poetical.

On the other hand, pretty covers can be misleading.

I’d say this one is intriguing to say the least. It can lead readers to ask questions and crack open the book? Why is the sun so big? What’s the ruined structure? Who are the characters? And to be honest, even though I’ve read the book, I still don’t know. Last and First Men only has a couple selected characters. Humankind is the main character of this book. Overall, while I found everything rather interesting, I didn’t care for the book and gave it 2/5 stars.

Then there’s my Tolkien collection.

Not bad, right? Sure, some people don’t care for movie adaptations as covers, and sure this scene is from THE TWO TOWERS, but the book itself is good. And besides, it matches The Silmarillion in size and looks nice next to it on my shelf. Then I went out and bought these beauties:

Brilliant right? The shading, the angles, oh, I just love it. Except they don’t match. But in a way, this mishmash of editions is like my life as an army brat. I’ve moved around so much that I’ve picked up various cultures along the way. They may be different, and I’ve lived in different states and countries for different lengths of time. But despite my experiences, I’m still me on the inside.

Covers are unreliable. Yes, they can be pretty (or maybe not), but they are not the end-all-be-all of books. The words are. That’s why we read books, isn’t it? For the words? Yet it’s still difficult to separate an idea of a book (the cover) from the book itself (the individual words) until you’ve actually read it.

So, how do we go about not judging a book by its cover? Here are just a few tips that I use:

1)     Read the back blurb first.

If you can, don’t even look at the cover. Just read the description on the back or online. This will help give you a sense of the story more so than the cover. I did this with We Were Liars (4/5 stars; definitely recommend. Book review coming soon!).

Pros: Getting actual words!

Cons: Sometimes the back blurb gives away important parts of the book. If this book came with a recommendation, just skip the cover entirely and read the book!

2)     Ask for recommendations.

Word of mouth is a great way to find good books because they’ve already passed the test of at least one person.

Pros: If you enjoy the book, you already have somebody to discuss it with and you might find even more good books to read in the future.

Cons: Different people have different tastes. Until you find somebody who has similar tastes as you, you might end up with recommendations you hate.  

3)     Read reviews.

This is one of my favorite things to do. Not only do you get to read the blurb, which tells me what it’s about, but you can actually read what other people thought about it and why they did or didn’t like it. I even like to read the bad reviews because if all of the negative reviews center around the book being too long or simply too poetical, I’ll probably pick it up.

Pros: You’re more likely to know what you’re getting into, and it can lead you to think about things you wouldn’t have considered before.

Cons: Other people’s opinions can taint yours and potentially ruin your chances of picking up or enjoying a book.

4)     Take a chance.

Whether it’s grabbing a book merely based off the title, reading a book because of an ugly cover, or buying one of those books wrapped in paper so you can’t see the cover or the blurb (a.k.a. a blind date with a book), go for it. No matter how much pre-reading prep you do, reading a book is always taking a chance. So what are you waiting for?

Pros: You get to read a book! Who knows what you’ll discover.

Cons: You might choose the wrong book and end up spending money on something you don’t enjoy. But then, you’ll just have to get another one. 

I hope this helps. And remember, despite all the temptation, don’t judge a book by its cover. You never know which favorites you might discover if you take a chance! 

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Be honest, how often—if ever—do you judge a book by its cover? What’s your favorite book cover? What are some of the ways you pick which books to read? 

Literary references: Tales from the Arabian Nights, translated by Sir Richard Francis Burton, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Other Stories, Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus, Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion, and E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars.

Living Under a Rock

Typically, the first year I live anywhere is a blur. It’s that unsettling year of confusion trying to find out how a place works and figuring out how to make a routine and friendships. The first and only year I lived in El Paso, Texas is an exception. I remember lots of things—the mountains and the view of Mexico from my bedroom window, the day we had to put our dog down, the afternoons I spent riding and grooming my horse Connie, and starting community college.

I remember when I was signing up for my classes in community college and my advisor sat me down, glanced at my high school records, and asked if I didn’t want to major in law instead of English. Essentially, why would anybody want to waste talent on studying a language they already speak? I was flattered at the remark on my previous grades, but I stuck with English anyway and breezed my way through my freshman year.

As the spring semester rolled around, my dad received orders to move to Germany. And I was determined that I would go along with my family. There was only one problem—my education. How would I manage to major in English in a non-English speaking country? After much consideration, and several changes of plans, I ended up attending Evangel University that fall.

And many more things changed.

I still majored in English but I also took up a minor in writing and joined Epiphany, the university’s literary magazine staff. But it didn’t take me long to learn that university life was much harder than community college. I panicked when I received my first D on an essay, and not for lack of trying. Having been used to getting all As, such a grade was an unheard of disaster. And while I adjusted to a new level of work, I never quite got used to the reading lists—there were so many readings lists for so many literature classes.

Sitting in British Literature one day, staring at the assigned texts for our course, I realized that I recognized most of the titles but had only ever read maybe one or two of them. And I was an English major! Looking at my friend and classmate, Faith, I said, “I feel like I’ve been living under a rock my whole life.”

Wasn’t I supposed to be a bookworm? How was it that twenty books for a college class should make me feel so ignorant? That semester passed, and the next, and the next. Now that I’m in grad school studying English literature, I still don’t think much has changed. Yes, I’ve read countless books in the past four years, but I’ve also learned that there is so much more to learn.

Studying English in my undergraduate gave me some of the basics, and majoring in English literature at a postgraduate level showed me there are even more things to learn, let alone read. I may have taken a class on Shakespeare, but I haven’t read all his plays. I have studied A Tale of Two Cities, The Faerie Queene, and The Great Gatsby, but I have yet to read Great Expectations, The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, and 1984. And my to-be-read (TBR) list is ever growing.

Studying English has given me a mere sampling of the world’s literature. It’s shown me that learning is a continual process and that there’s more to being an English major than being a Grammar Nazi. (Which I’m not by the way. I don’t want hold people up to such standards when I can’t spell half the time.) And it’s like my mom used to say, “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” I don’t have to feel like I’ve lived under a rock my whole life, basking in ignorance just because I had different experiences.

Connie

I may not have read Les Miserables yet, but I’ve seen Paris twice during summer break visiting my family in Germany. I may not have studied Antony and Cleopatra, but I got to see it performed at the Globe Theatre. I may not have read Black Beauty, but Connie had a beauty of her own despite her shy, awkward temperament. 

On the other hand, I’ve visited Israel with Sherlock Holmes in O, Jerusalem when I might never visit in person while turmoil continues. Through reading, I’ve seen fictional worlds such as Narnia, Middle Earth, and Hogwarts. I’ve even visited Mars within the pages of Out of the Silent Planet and A Princess of Mars.

So no, I haven’t lived under a rock my whole life, though sometimes it feels like it. There’s just more places to discover, more books to read, and less to take for granted—even the ordinary days when I’m at home with family and a shelf full of books. 

Have you ever felt like you’ve lived under a rock when considering what you haven’t read? How many books are on your TBR list?

Literary references: Charles Dicken’s A Tale of Two Cities, Edmund Spencer’s The Faerie Queene, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Charles Dicken’s Great Expectations, Howard Pyle’s The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood, George Orwell’s 1984, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, William Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra, Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty, C.S. Lewis’ Out of the Silent Planet, and Edgar Rice Burroughs’s A Princess of Mars.