Bring On The Funk

                                                      

So I am in a weird mood and have been for a while. One of the guys I work with said I should write about what is bothering me. Well, here it goes. Now this is not about anyone but a chronicle of stories I have heard lately. I am not sure if it is the weather or just a general sense of unhappiness from a lot of my friends but we all seem to be getting depressed. I am not talking suicidal but just a feeling of not wanting to do anything or talk to anyone possibly ever again.  Yes, I may be a bit melodramatic but it is how several of my friends and I have been feeling lately.

I normally just buy books to make me feel better but even that is not really working right now.  I have bought Lexi Blake’s book and anyone who has ever talked to me knows that I am addicted her books. I am hoping by the weekend I will be able to give the book the attention and love it deserves. I am worried about reading and that has to tell you something. I mean who worries about reading a book. Books are supposed to bring the reader a sense of happiness and I am not sure that I am in a place that it is possible for that to happen.

 The only joy I have gotten lately is from beta reading for a friend.  I was not sure it was the best time for me to do it but I love this author so I thought I would at least give it a try.  I was happy that the book that I have been asking for was finally in my hands but I was scared.  I was frightened that I would not love the book and I think if it had not been so good I might have just cried. Alas, the author knocked it out of the park.

Books have always been my refuge and anytime that I am depressed books have always worked to bring me back to life.  I have found so many bad books lately that I am afraid to start a new author. I spent 4 hours last weekend going through all my ebooks and organizing them. I have close to 300 authors and multiple books by each author. I am apprehensive about starting a new author and I have read my favorites so many times that I can’t work up the enthusiasm to reread. 

My fear is getting out of hand; I am beginning to think I will never get out of this hole of reading despair. I know I should just suck it up and pick a book and get to reading but I don’t want to do the author or book an injustice. To me this is of paramount importance. Even though I do not write reviews I still give my opinions to friends not to mention the people who come into the store where I work and ask for recommendations.

One opinion I have heard is from a friend who is suffering the same issue. She tells me that it doesn’t help when authors sometimes to solicit reviews or beg for likes on their pages. She has said that when an author is doing things like that it sounds like the author is afraid to let the books speak for themselves. I also have that feeling sometimes. No, this is not a slam against any author; it is just the way it looks from an outsiders view. 

Lots of things will turn me off of a book or an author and that just makes my reading funk worse. A bad cover, hearing too much about the book or even just blurb will make me not want to read a book.  I sometimes think that I want to read a book and I will buy it but by the dedication or acknowledgements I want to toss the book across the room. I am not sure what it is about those first few pages but my mind wanders away from the story and into the No Reading Zone.  I can pick the book up later and have no problem getting into the story but only if I skip those first couple of pages.  

Another thing that I have heard is that if an author has too many series it just gets to be too much. This doesn’t bother me but I do have a friend or two that gets confused easily. They have told me that it feels like the author is all over the place and if the reader doesn’t reread the series they forget which series is which unless they are radically different and if they characters crossover just forget it. I normally do not have a problem but it has happened to me in the past too.

I think I am beginning to ramble so I pose this question to you. Have you ever suffered from a reading funk, and how do you get yourself out of it?

Sinfully Sarcastic,

Shmuttmeister