"But what dreariness can equal the dreariness of a cold gale at midsummer?  I have been chilly and dejected all day, shut up behind the streaming window-panes, and not liking to have a fire because of its dissipated appearance in the scorching intervals of sunshine.  Once or twice my hand was on the bell and I was going to order one, when out came the sun and it was June again, and I ran joyfully into the dripping, gleaming garden, only to be driven in five minutes later by a yet fiercer squall.  I wandered disconsolately round my pillar of books looking for the one that would lend itself best to the task of entertaining me under the prevailing conditions, but they all looked gloomy, and reserved, and forbidding."

Oh, poor Elizabeth.  But then, every book lover knows how unbearably sad a reading slump can be ...

And, of course, count on the Man of Wrath to capitalize on the situation:

"When the Man of Wrath came in to tea there were such heavy clouds that the room was quite dark, and he peered about for a moment before he saw me.  I suppose in the gloom of the big room I must have looked rather lonely, and smaller than usual buried in the capacious chair, for when he finally discovered me his face widened into an inappropriately cheerful smile.

'Well, my dear,' he said genially, 'how very cold it is.'

'Did you come in to say that?' I asked.

'Ths tempest is very unusual in the summer,' he proceeded; to which I made no reply of any sort.

'I did not see you at first amongst all these chairs and cushions.  At least, I saw you, but it is so dark I thought you were a cushion.'

Now no woman likes to be taken for a cushion, so I rose and began to make tea with an icy dignity of demeanour.'"

And nobody at the time, of course, would have seen anything more in that than a quite harmless little marital interchange.

For the last three weeks I have been in a reading slump caused by an awful lot of work and an injured arm (the constant pain of it has been utterly distracting). I just haven´t felt the need to read anything at all (which is why I haven´t been very active here the last couple of weeks. Sorry about that).

And there is only one thing I want to say to this reading slump: Bugger off! I want to read, especially now when the weather is turning bad and the stormy season is about to begin. My problem is that I never know what to read next. I´m so unorganized when it comes to my reading that this sometimes is the cause for me to drift into one of these annoying slumps. Which means I need a plan what to read next:

1.

Finishing up on Stinger for the KMK book club and cathing up on Chapter five, six, seven and eight of The Hobbit.

2.

Mandatory reading after binge watching the second season of "Black Sails".

3.

This is going to be my holiday read and I´m so looking forward to it.

4.

A german classic which I haven´t read in school. I already skimmed the first couple of pages and I think that I´m going to enjoy this book, especially the german language in it:

Ich hatte recht meine heimliche Freude, als ich da alle meine alten Bekannten und Kameraden rechts und links, wie gestern und vorgestern und immerdar, zur Arbeit hinausziehen, graben und pflügen sah, während ich so in die freie Welt hinausstrich.

5.

"Penny Dreadful" is another tv show I´m currently watching and right now I´m up for anything with a victorian setting and fantasy elements in it. The other reason for reading this book is that I want to watch the BBC adaption of it but I definitely want to read the book first. This novel should keep my occupied for a while considering the page count of it.

So this is my plan for the next months. I wish you a nice sunday with a lot of spare time to get some reading done. I will try to catch up on some of your reviews besides reading some more of Stinger and The Hobbit.

Check out Literary Exploration's excellent approach to reading slumps here:

http://literaryexploration.booklikes.com/post/710132/how-to-deal-with-reading-slumps

I am currently suffering through a massive reading slump.

For someone who loves reading as much as I do, this is becoming increasingly frustrating. I keep starting books, enjoying them for a while...but usually around the half way mark my attention starts to wander, and before I know it, I am just not into the story at all anymore.

I have had several DNF book recently, and honestly it's been at least 6 weeks or so since i read a book that I was able to finish and enjoy.

This is so depressing, guys.