I’m sure we’ve all been there: the week has been leading up to a day off, a day to read and relax and get a book off your tbr list. Maybe it is a long weekend, or a week away, or even the big holiday break. Either way, the day arrives and you have these plans prearranged as to what you’ve reading when…but the mood isn’t right. Something is off. Maybe the week had some unexpected news, or your pet had an op at the vet, or you simply woke up and felt different. That’s what today’s post is about – how do we deal with these changes in mood when we wanted to read.

I fit into the pet vet visit dilemma right now, but I have experienced all of the above. Derailed reading plans, especially when you have a tight schedule or a finitie number of days to relax and enjoy a break, can bring the whole vibe down. Not only that, but it can often make the reading itself less enjoyable and more of a task than it would have been. I think that there are multiple things going on when these events occur and I want to break them down a bit and discuss the layers oing on at play here, how they impact the reading mood, and what can be done about it.

Let’s start with the obvious. When the mind is otherwise occupied, it can be difficult to let things go to escape into a book. Just as books have hooks, these thoughts and events have them too, and they do not want you to forget or be distracted. What would have been a few hours of immersed reading becomes a few pages of the book flicked through before the focus moves to something else. Since getting our cat Ollie, I have gone through several periods of pet owner anxiety, often coinciding with the challenging parts of being a cat guardian like the fluffball being inside for a few months to get used to the space or operations requiring a week or two indoors to recover. This would inhibit my ability to focus, among other things, and almost everything would come to a halt. There is also the matter of waking up and feeling off. This could be a sickness starting to take root, maybe a headache or general fuzziness, or anything at all. Oftentimes, it is difficult to name why we feel off – hence the rather vague term – and trying to label it leads to frustration, disappointment, upset, and feeling like you’re at a loss.

Reading moods are a certin type of vibe, though they can be met many different ways. The weather can spark a reading mood, or the end of a book, or a post on social media, or the memory of a quote from your favourite book. It is a bit of a fickle thing, but it brings us happiness. Unfortunately, I think we are currently living in a time where reading is already seen as a luxury, but more than that reading has become a bit of a competition on social media. I made a post about it a year ago, and the sentiment still stands today. With that pressure to read already hanging over us, any switch in reading mood can feel like the straw that breaks the camle’s back.

So, how shoudl we deal with these changes in our reading moods?

Perhaps we should ask ourselves why we feel the way we do when the change happens. Why am I upset about the fact I can read this book? Is it because I really wanted to read it? There is nothing saying you won’t read it, even if you have to get it out from the library again. Is it because I wanted to post a review of it as soon at it came out? Well, perhaps it is a good thing you fell out of a reading mood. The pressure to read books in a short amount of time simply to be on the pulse of new releases can burn us out so quickly. Is it because this is the first break you have had in a long while and you wanted things to be perfect for yuor time off? They can still be perfect, you just need to reevaluate what would make it so. Maybe you can put your favourite music on, cook or bake something, brew a tea or coffee, sit outside for fifteen minutes, and just relax for a while. Get back in touch with yourself, stay off social media for the day, and just enjoy being in your own company or in the company of others, such as the furry little friends and other lovely creatures you may have at home (or in the near vicinity – I am known to wave at dogs and cats I see).

Forcing reading for reading’s sake is one of the worst things you can do. It not only can ruin the experience for you, but bring this strange mood forward into the rest of your week. Don’t be afraid to put your reading on pause. There is no reading goal more important than your health and wellbeing. Listening to yourself when you feel a mood change is important. Take the time to look after yourself – maybe a few minutes, an hour, or a day – and you will get that reading mood back.