Reader's Block

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Bookstooge

I have a reading rotation on my kindle that I cycle through. It has a mix of SFF, classics and nonfiction. I don't pick and choose what I feel like reading, I just read whatever is next. I have found that taking the "choice" out of prevents a reading slump for some reason.

People are so different. Not being able to choose would take all joy out of reading for me and make it a chore. I would not be able to read at all. Freedom to choose (pretty much everything, not only reading material) is hugely important to me.

That said, I've read that people are supposed to be happier when there are fewer choices. Personally I've never understood that. Perhaps having to constantly pick and choose is stressful for some people, but I enjoy it.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

That said, I've read that people are supposed to be happier when there are fewer choices. Personally I've never understood that. Perhaps having to constantly pick and choose is stressful for some people, but I enjoy it.

I've always rebelled at that notion, but it has some validity and has been studied. The problem comes from too many items that are difficult to tell apart and apprehension that there is a bad choice that needs to be detected and avoided.

[Bookstooge]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

People are so different. Not being able to choose would take all joy out of reading for me and make it a chore. I would not be able to read at all. Freedom to choose (pretty much everything, not only reading material) is hugely important to me.

That said, I've read that people are supposed to be happier when there are fewer choices. Personally I've never understood that. Perhaps having to constantly pick and choose is stressful for some people, but I enjoy it.

It isn't so much that I'm not choosing, but that I'm choosing ahead of time whenever I place a completed series on my kindle. I'm simply removing the "what next" choice. With about 20 series running, I simply cycle through. Once I'm done a series, then I load up another one from calibre and it goes into the rotation cycle.

It certainly isn't a method I'd recommend to most people, but it has improved my reading satisfaction at least 50% since I started doing it this way back in '16 or so.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Bookstooge

It isn't so much that I'm not choosing, but that I'm choosing ahead of time whenever I place a completed series on my kindle. I'm simply removing the "what next" choice. With about 20 series running, I simply cycle through. Once I'm done a series, then I load up another one from calibre and it goes into the rotation cycle.

It certainly isn't a method I'd recommend to most people, but it has improved my reading satisfaction at least 50% since I started doing it this way back in '16 or so.

Hmm there might be something in what you say. Possibly just keeping fewer books on the device would do the trick. Or not... Some people are hard to please. (meaning myself, of course.)

[Apache]

It is well known, in the retail jewelry business, that giving the customer to many choices tends to confuse them and they have a harder time making a choice.
Apache

[Bookstooge]

Originally Posted by Apache

It is well known, in the retail jewelry business, that giving the customer to many choices tends to confuse them and they have a harder time making a choice.
Apache

Sounds true to me. It took me several months to figure out the optimum number of series to cycle through. It wasn't even until the next year that I realized it wasn't necessarily the number but the time between each return. 2 months between a series works great for me. Now that my reading time has dropped I'm keeping less series on the kindle but still keeping that 2 month cycle.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Apache

It is well known, in the retail jewelry business, that giving the customer to many choices tends to confuse them and they have a harder time making a choice.
Apache

I've read that you have give a small child at the most a choice between two things - "so little Jimmy, so you want a hamburger or chicken nuggets" rather than "so little Jimmy, what do you want".

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by Bookstooge

Sounds true to me. It took me several months to figure out the optimum number of series to cycle through. It wasn't even until the next year that I realized it wasn't necessarily the number but the time between each return. 2 months between a series works great for me. Now that my reading time has dropped I'm keeping less series on the kindle but still keeping that 2 month cycle.

Interesting, I do binge read when I find a new author, but if the books are too similar, then yea, I get tired of them pretty quickly. I do use your strategy with audio books with great effect.

[4691mls]

On the rare occasion where I don't feel like reading I *SHOCK* do something else for a while!

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

On the rare occasion where I don't feel like reading I *SHOCK* do something else for a while!

Yep. Though I understand the pressure folks put on themselves to read. I used to do the same. Somehow I've gotten over it. (Although I still feel an unreasonable tinge of "guilt" sometimes when I'm not reading.)

[Junket]

Reading, other than perhaps required reading at University has never seemed unattractive or a chore to me. I'd have a harder time fielding the antithetical question - how do you put a good book down so that other obligations don't get pushed aside?

If "readers block" crosses my path, like others I start with a bit of a favourite author or an "easy" read then move on to Nabokov or what have you.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

I've read that you have give a small child at the most a choice between two things - "so little Jimmy, so you want a hamburger or chicken nuggets" rather than "so little Jimmy, what do you want".

Small child? I have one friend who can spend an hour studying the menu at a restaurant (I'm talking a menu with maybe 20 choices). This includes asking everyone at the table about every menu item, consulting the waitperson, etc. The one time we went with her to a prix fixe dinner, she managed to make a production of ordering leaving several members of the Hart House staff rather bewildered (how hard can it be to order the one and only multi-course meal of the day?).

[Junket]

Sounds like a self-limiting problem. Order like that and your friends won't shouldn't invite you to dinner again. Whereas it would be frowned upon to starve little children who do the same.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

On the rare occasion where I don't feel like reading I *SHOCK* do something else for a while!

The issue isn't not feeling like reading, the issue is feeling like reading but none of the books in your to be read pile appeal to you.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Small child? I have one friend who can spend an hour studying the menu at a restaurant (I'm talking a menu with maybe 20 choices). This includes asking everyone at the table about every menu item, consulting the waitperson, etc. The one time we went with her to a prix fixe dinner, she managed to make a production of ordering leaving several members of the Hart House staff rather bewildered (how hard can it be to order the one and only multi-course meal of the day?).

My mother was like that. Since she was the youngest of 13, I always suspected she liked the attention. Of course, it could be just one of those shopping experience things.