The time between finishing one book and starting another (which I’m calling BBT or between-book time) is one place where a reading slump can start – but it can also be a time of anticipation and excitement.

I find that what determines for me whether it’s one or the other depends on a few factors: how I felt about the book that I just finished, how easily I land on a new book that I enjoy and finish, and my general state of life and mood, i.e., how busy I am, how stressed I am, and what my general mood is like.

That last one is obviously the most complex and has a lot of factors beyond my control. But if you, like me, want book reading to be a regular and constant part of your life, focus on the aspects that you can control. The first is about getting to know your own reading taste and choosing books that you’re likely to enjoy – easy, but also hard, and more so depending on where you’re at in your reading life. I’ll write more about that in separate posts.

I find that when I’ve just finished a book that I’ve really enjoyed or that has had an emotional impact on me, I want to leave a day or two before starting another one. This is a time for lingering and savouring the book’s atmosphere, themes or characters. It would feel abrupt and disrespectful – and maybe somehow that I’m not getting my money or time’s worth –  to move on immediately to whatever book I read next, which could be about something dramatically different. A day or two of this kind and quality of transition time is nothing to worry about and even something to welcome and enjoy.

Reading a book that I love and am intellectually or emotionally stimulated by is a wonderful experience, which makes me eager to have it again – so I’m likely to want to read something new quite soon. However, the stakes and expectations are high when you’ve just finished a great book – no one wants that to be followed by disappointment – and this can make the experience of choosing the next book a little fraught. This can be a good time to return to a book if you already have one or more in progress. While there are still some mental adjustments to be made and perhaps some back-tracking to do, the transition feels less abrupt when you’re already familiar with a book’s subject, concepts or atmosphere. This can shorten your transition time between books.

Choosing a new book can feel even more tense when you’re moving on from a book that was not inspiring or that you didn’t finish. There can be a more pressing sense of need or even slight desperation. When I’ve finished (or abandoned) that type of book, in the best case, I will want to move on quickly to something better. In the worst case, I might feel like there are better ways I could spend my time, so there’s no rush to pick something right away.

How fast I move on to the next book will often depend on what’s already downloaded to my ebook reader or available from my queue of ebook holds at the library. It’s great when something I’ve been looking forward to reading is available – then I move on quickly, as long as the first few pages are promising. 

Often, however, I end up needing to  “audition” a few books that I either have bought but not yet read or that are available but I’m not sure they’ll work for me. If it takes me too long to settle on one, that can be the beginning of a reading slump, as can also happen if I end up wanting to abandon more than one book in a row. 

The best advice I have for shortening your between-books time and keeping a satisfying reading streak going is creating and maintaining a robust could-read/want-to-read list – and possibly more than one of them, as I  have (even though I wish I could have just one). Link. 

Depending on how and which formats you read, I also recommend having several books that you’ve already bought on your physical or digital shelves so that you always have lots of choices when it comes to genre, length, mood and author. Just because a book that you want to read at some point in your life is available now doesn’t mean it’s right for you at any given moment. Forcing yourself to read books that don’t match your mood or circumstances is a good way to induce a reading slump.

I also recommend that you keep reading books during your between-book time so that you can continue with the tiny habit (link) of reading a paragraph (or even just a sentence every day). This helps you maintain the habit and also maintain your identity as someone who regularly reads books. Plus, there are lots of brain and other benefits to reading books, even if you’re not reading new books. (link). If you’re just reading a paragraph or a few pages of a book that you’ve already read or are not particularly invested in, this won’t be jarring or interrupt your savouring of the just-finished book that you enjoyed.

But if you haven’t settled on a new book, what is there to read? Lots of choices here,  and it would be helpful to maintain a separate list or lists for such times too – e.g., books I want to read again, easy reads, short reads, short stories, and books that are structured in a way to allow for dipping in anywhere, etc. Or just re-read some of the book you just finished. Reading books is intrinsically good and healthy, even if you’re not learning or experiencing anything new.

So, to summarize, here are my recommendations for keeping your between-book times short

• Get to know your reading tastes and preferences
• Maintain robust and easily accessible lists of books you want to read
• Buy books so that you’re not completely dependent on the availability of library books you want to read.
• Make sure you have access to a library so that you’re not completely dependent on having a book you own that you want to read next.
• Keep reading at least a paragraph (or even a sentence) every day during your between book time
• During your BBT, read books you’ve already read, easy books, short books, short stories, or reference books to keep your daily reading habit going.