Let’s Talk Bookish: Reading Slump vs Bookish Hangover

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted with Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Book Nook Bits has hosted since April 2022, with Dini at Dini Panda Reads as co-host from February 2025.

I was a little too late for last week’s prompt, but I’m hoping to revisit it relatively soon(ish). But I was glad I picked this up in time as it’s such an interesting topic!

Let’s Talk Bookish 8th August:
Reading Slump vs Bookish Hangover 
(Jillian @ Jillian the Bookish Butterfly)

Prompts: What’s the difference between a reading slump and bookish hangover? How do you get out of both situations? What are examples of books that put you in a reading slump and books that caused you to have a book hangover? For more information, Book Riot has some really interesting articles about using neuroscience to understand reading slumps and the psychology of a book hangover.

To me, a reading slump is when there are few books that are appealing, or when you go through a run of just not enjoying the books you’re reading, even if you know at other times you would like them. Or maybe a slump can just be a run of bad books (which, imho, can be both a cause and result). A bookish hangover, on the other hand, is when a book has such a big impact, it’s hard to almost let go of it once you’ve finished, or it’s emotionally draining in some way, which I’ve found can leave me feeling a bit ‘off’ for a few days after. A bookish hangover can also cause a reading slump, but typically I don’t think a slump can cause a hangover.

If I’m finding myself hitting a reading slump, I tend to switch up whatever genre I’m reading. Usually, it stems from reading too many similar books – lots of contemporary or historical romances, or a few horrors in a row, so changing to something different normally helps. As for a bookish hangover, I think that requires a bit more self-care – indulging in something not related to books. Maybe a nice meal or some video games or sticking a podcast or music on and colouring. If I can distract myself a bit, that helps. It does mean I might not write up my review as quick as I’d like to or, very occasionally, it results in me writing up the review ASAP so I can then ‘move on’.

It’s hard to pin down the exact books that make me feel like this, and it’s not always the easiest to identify the why. Plus it feels almost negative, or drawing attention to them in ways I kind of don’t want to do? I think when a book leaves me with a ‘book hangover’, it’s typically because the author has done such a brilliant job with it, I feel so emotionally invested that it’s had a strong impact. It’s also been quite a long while since I did feel like that, too, so I’d struggle to pinpoint those books. As for slumps, similarly, it’s not really the book’s fault, at times, and normally as I move past it I might forget which ones made me feel like that, or I can read two books in a row I disliked and feel myself edging towards a slump, only to then pick up something really good that pulls me out of it!

I would definitely love to hear if any books have given you a hangover though – feel free to recommend me some, as it’s been a long while since a book made me feel as emotionally devastated as the end of S5/start of S6 of Grey’s Anatomy did (I’ve recently been watching it for the first time…), and I wouldn’t mind a book making me feel like that again!