With social media fragmenting, I’m bringing back my old “You Tell Me” Wednesday discussions to try to get good old fashioned blog conversations going. If you’re reading in a feed reader or via email, please click through to the post to leave a public comment and join the discussion!
We have been living through uncertain and disorienting times for quite a while now.
I’m finding myself curious: when times are stressful, how does it change your reading habits?
Do you go cozy and light? Do you dive even deeper into dystopias? Do you re-read old comforts?
Personally, I’ve found myself retreating into history, which both contextualizes what we’re living through and is usually a solid reminder that no matter how bad things seem now, chances are they were vastly worse in the past.
What about you?
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Art: Chateau Noir by Paul Cezanne
Stress dries up my creativity and makes me seek out comfort reading.
In 2020 the only thing I could read was D.E. Stevenson novels. She wrote fiction mostly set in Scotland around the WWII era, when the Nazis were evil and punch-worthy, the good guys got what they needed, and the bad guys got punished. The House in the Cerulean Sea was another book in the same vein. I also couldn’t write at all.
This year, I’ve found I’m reading a lot of romantasy, and for similar reasons. Happy endings, bad guys punished. Fortunately I’m still managing to do creative work, despite the fact that 2025 seems to be three 2020s disguised in a Gestapo coat.
My reading has moved towards cozy and light, or to rereads of things I found comforting. However, my writing has moved deeper into dystopia as I have to keep making things worse for my main character just to keep up with how bad things are in the real world.
My reading habits have always jumped around. I do have to say that I’m adding more inspirational works to my list nowadays though.
It’s purely coincidence (or is it???), but I’m reading Robert Harris’s Munich and the parallels to what’s going on in America to what was happening in Munich in 1938 are chilling. Harris is such a good writer, though, that I can’t put the book down.
A copy of Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower has been on my nightstand for months. I’ve tried to read it a couple of times but it’s too real.
So basically everything I read these days is set in England. Fiction or non, historical is good but not necessary, it just has to be in my fantasy country.
If my reading changes because of stress, it’s very subtle. I just pull whatever is next off the TBR pile. Perhaps stressful times influence what I choose to add, or what I hear about, or whether or not I decide to ditch the book before finishing. But seeing as how it takes years for something to work it’s way from the bottom to the top of the pile, I think any changes to what I read are subtle, and get average out over the years.
What is I read is determined by my mood. There are times when I feel exhausted by things. I’ll find a biography of someone I know. How did that person cope? If I want a laugh, bring on the rom-coms.
Hi Nathan, missed this blog post (stress haha!) I’m drawn to stories that have a sense of humour: Andrew Cotter, sport journalist who ‘commentated’ (see u-tube) on his Labradors eating dinner and then wrote ‘Olive & Mabel’ diaries, isolate during covid.
Also found William Shatner’s biog on our b’shelves. It has inspired a ‘StarTrek’ viewing season – from the 1st TV episode (love the retro sets) through to the latest movie – should see us though to the Australian elections being over… which i’m not avoiding, but need to switch-off from in the evenings.
And: Thank You for the consistency of your blog, a lovely community.