Book Overwhelm

[Crazybooklady]

I've got to the point when I have accumulated so many books on my kindle & on my book shelf that I'm in a major book slump. There's too many choices & I'm starting books , reading a few pages then putting it down & starting another one. I used to be a great reader. I'd buy a book, finish it & then buy a new one. Any suggestions to help me get over this please?

I don't own many books or have a kindle. I use my library, browse pick a couple only. I get overwhelmed too when I have too many books in the house!

Maybe set yourself a reading challenge or pick a genre you don't normally read. Short stories might help with the attention span. Agree that the library could help with a low cost way of trying something different. You could set an alarm for the evening to remind yourself to go to bed half an hour early and read then. You could also have a clear out of books you are never going to read again. If you create an empty shelf that could help with overwhelm. I think we expect to stay the same throughout our lives but maybe you have changed and need to clear out the stuff you used to enjoy to make space for the new

Definitely setting yourself a reading challenge to get yourself out of your slump. Try a random number pick - if you know how many unread books you have, do that and read that book. Alternatively, Google reading bingo challenges, and follow the prompts. I've done those a few times.

I know what you mean. I used to read voraciously, several books a week, but it's tailed off with the use of social media (and age!). I keep buying books off Bookbub and they are piled up on my Kindle, unread. Never thought that would happen to me!

I have this too and feel exactly the same. I am trying not to buy new physical books and have a bit of a brutal clear out of things. I tend not to DNF books even if I don't really enjoy them, so am trying to stick to titles and read through to the end - this is not for everyone though. I might reward myself for finishing something - but not with another new book!!

I always have an audio book on the go for the car and cleaning/dog walking, a physical book and a book on my Kindle. It can seem like slow progress but suddenly you finish three books. I actually work in a library which can make things worse as I often have library books out too but sometimes I just return them all unread to concentrate on my own.

To stop putting down books I sometimes choose ones with short chapters and say I will read 5 chapters. Or I will read for 30 minutes. Then later do another 30 minutes. It all adds up. I also have the Kindle app on my phone with some books downloaded so I am never caught without a book.

I really do understand about the overwhelm though. Book buying, either virtually or physically is such a hard habit to break. You are very much not alone in this and it could be worse. Books are, on the whole, lovely.

Give us a list and we’ll tell you which to start with (and commit to)?

I can get a bit like this. I agree with pp re short stories - I really like them - recommend Shirley Jackson and Neil Gaiman in particular.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I joined the library but it's just adding to the pile rather than getting me anywhere so I need a different approach. I hate not finishing a book but I need to get over this. I might read a few chapters & if I'm not picking it up or enjoying it I'll just get rid of it.

Is that that you have too many books lined up or that you’ve lost the ability to concentrate? I don’t see why having lots of books would mean you can’t finish a book you’ve started?

Yes I know exactly what you mean by this OP. So many unread books. I'm doing Read What You Own this year and I'm also on the 50 Book Challenge thread which you might like to join

Yes when I start a book and I don't love the first few pages I think I must have a better book than this & give up on it. If that was the only book I had I would muddle through & force myself to finish it but because I have so many choices I can't persevere.

I deleted everything off my kindle (backed it all up on my laptop) and only keep 3-5 books on it at once now.

When I finish my current batch I replace them with a handful more that I'm in the mood to read soon.

It means everything on my kindle is something I was interested in recently - I've found my tastes vary over the year and what I find interesting one month bores me another so I try not to plan my reading list more than a handful of weeks ahead.

I've got about 500 titles stored on my laptop now and I add to it on a regular basis as I see stuff recommended or stumble on something interesting and sort of "shop" inside my own little library for my next reads.

I am exactly the same @Crazybooklady . I was thinking, pre-digital, our choices were more limited so we had to choose carefully and then persevere with the book. Now, I download endless sample chapters and think well, I quite like it, but do I want to pay Amazon to read it in full? Usually I don’t. I do have access to ebooks through my local library, but it’s not always got what I want to read.

I’ve been thinking about your post overnight as I’m so dissatisfied atm. Think I might try a schedule of buying a physical book regularly, this will force me to make a more considered choice.

And I’m going to put away the Kindle for now…

That's a good idea to go back to physical books because if I go into a book shop & buy one it might make me persevere with it. I don't think I've ever not finished a book that I've actually gone into a shop to buy. When I download them it doesn't feel like I'm really spending money on them. I might actually delete my card details from Amazon too. They make it to easy. Great idea to delete from the kindle 👍

I have created a “ to read” collection on my kindle and put a selection of books in it eg fiction, non fiction etc. This stops me being overwhelmed by hundreds (yep!) of possibilities when I pick my next book. I also filter so it only shows me “downloaded and unread” and make sure I mark as read when finished so I don’t end up doing a re read by accident.

And also - give yourself permission not to finish. If you don’t like it, delete the download (you can re-download later if you want!) or move it to a “try again later” collection.

I was going to ask that question. If I delete them from my kindle can I get them back? I know I probably won't want to anyway but I have spent a lot of money on them so I don't want to repurchase..

there is a “remove download” option which keeps them in the Amazon kindle library, just not on your kindle!

I've categorised my books on my kindle into, horror, thriller, winter, summer, Christmas & TBR. It seems less overwhelming now & I've managed to read a few chapters of a book this morning. I'm going to try read all of the books on my kindle before I let myself buy any new ones.

I deleted everything off my kindle (backed it all up on my laptop) and only keep 3-5 books on it at once now.
I was going to say this too! Make sure you don't actually delete, just "remove download". Then you won't be so tempted to flit between books.

You'll read the right book at the right time.
If you don't get into this time you might a few years down the line. I waited 30 years to read The Go Between and I loved it.

I have no suggestions, as I experience something similar when I walk into a good bookstore, such as the Strand in NYC.

However, your post has me wondering if a Kindle may make things worse, in some subtle psychological way. After all, we know the internet is endless, and the idea of a not-real book that's just electrical impulses may make people feel there's something illusory about the situation, or feel that books are just as disposable as chewing gum.

Maybe the key is how you choose or buy books?

With the physical books, my son gets like this, he can't choose one because he wants them all. So I took half his collection, put it away and now he's reading what's left. When he gets through some, I'll pull some more out.
When I get the book overwhelm - I get someone else to just pick me a book off my shelf and that's it, job done.
Sometimes though, I do just have a slump and nothing helps, then suddenly it's over and I'm back to normal!

I could have written your posts OP!
I've improved on this a bit in the past year or so. I started to put 5-6 books into a Collection and arranged them seasonally. So I have a Collection currently for Winter 24/25 and just working on choosing books to add to Spring 2025. This has worked quite well for me as I only have a few to choose from.
I still struggle to concentrate sometimes, and I do give myself permission to stop reading if a book just isn't holding my interest after a couple of chapters.

I ended up getting rid of my kindle as I was buying too many books I actually wasn't interested in reading because they were in the 99p deal! I also recently sold a lot of my physical books and have reduced it to just a few i can't get rid of for sentimental reasons or which i genuinely still want to read.

I have also started going to the library, which I know I'm lucky to have access to. It is especially good for literary classics as pretty much every library has them! I took out Madame Bovary and Frankenstein the other day. I think books like that are less likely to dissapoint. If I try anything a bit zeitgeisty, or overly popular, they often leave me cold tbh, and I have had a few DNFs this year already.