I want a nightshirt or pajamas that say "Sleep is god.  Go worship." 

Not that I need any encouragement--just time. *yawn*

Aye, but unless there's a Burger King on the Royal Mile, don't expect him.

There are plenty of Burger Kings in Germany.  And since I'm going to be here for another 3.5 years....  Seriously, Shannon deserves that European vacation.   

Whoops.  Sorry.  TBR = To Be Read.  Refers to the giant stack o' books in my bedroom that remain as yet unread.

And WOS (What Orissa Said) about reconnecting with whatever it is that you love and have been ignoring, especially if you haven't been feeling yourself.  The comics may help, too--just something light to feed your reading need without triggering the readers block.

Or, if something temporary is going on that's making you feel not yourself, stick with the comics and don't sweat it.  That happened to me when I was pregnant with my 2nd child--I absolutely could not read anything new.  So I re-read all my Rex Stout and Agatha Christie books. 

One last thing--I've spoiled a few books that I normally would have loved by plodding ahead and forcing myself to finish them when I really didn't feel like it.  Just food for thought. 

Good luck. 

I used to do that all the time.  I'd pick up book after book from the TBR pile, and just didn't feel like reading any of them.

I finally realized that I'd kept picking the same books over and over (and overlooking the same ones).  So they all felt stale.  Since I started a random system for picking books, making sure not to read two similar books in a row, and some goofy TBR challenges (things like "pick a book with gold lettering on the cover") to shake things up a bit, I hardly ever have the readers block anymore.

Ah, yes.  Making OCD Work For You.  I could write a pamphlet. 

Of course, if you don't have a TBR pile, that makes the challenges a little more risky--picking up the first book at the library that you find with a verb in the title might net you something really odd.  But then again, that might just be what you need to break out of the readers block.

In another group, we have a quarterly reading challenge, which I've found really helpful for getting out of a reading rut, too.  Summer's was a book that won a Pulitzer; Fall's is a banned book. 

Mostly, in my experience, anyway, readers block is the result of being in a reading rut, so anything that gets you out of that will help.  Non-fiction is good, because it doesn't feel the same as reading a novel.  Or maybe ask for a recommendation for a really good read in a genre that's completely new to you.

Something else we were discussing elsewhere is how reading things you think you should read can really kill the desire to read.  I spent decades avoiding anything remotely resembling good-for-you reading after a period of time when I was trying to read what I thought I should read, or what people who I thought were smart recommended, and I ended up not feeling like reading at all. It was only a few months, but it affected my reading for a long time.

I've only just recently started picking up non-fiction and lit-fic again, very cautiously, making sure the recommendations come from people whose taste I tend to share, rather than people I think I should listen to.  So far, so good.  And I'm definitely mixing them in with fun reading.

Once reading = medicine, you might as well forget it.

Well, here's one way of dealing with it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU4S2BIqoHY

I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, though.   

   
What, do we have leprosy or something?

Vastly OT, but the book I'm currently reading suggests that what used to be called "leprosy" was actually syphilis.  Puts a whole new slant on the thread here. 

Quote from: Cathy Clamp on October 10, 2006, 11:08:37 PM

"This is just like Buffy, only mixed with Terminator."[shrug]

Oh god. Anyone who descirbes their work as something meets something else should be dragged into the street and shot. I remember I was at a small writing conference a few months back when someone told me that their work was like "Jaws meets Dances With Wolves" Needless to say, I cursed him out and threatened him with bodily harm.

LOL!  I thought that was "high concept" and what everyone was looking for as a way to sell their work. 

oh, no way, that is so cool, what part of germany are you in?

Quote from: Darla on July 09, 2006, 07:11:29 PM

Heck, I've got to have something to show for 12 years (so far) in Germany besides a taste for Jacob's Kroenung coffee and Broetchen with Nutella.  And a lead foot.

Sorry it took me so long to reply--we've been in Italy.   

I'm currently in Miesau (near Homburg).  Also lived for 5 years in Landstuhl (near Kaiserslautern), 3 years in Heidelberg, and 2 years in Seybothenreuth (bitty town near Bayreuth).