you ever look at your bookshelf like. wow. love of my life. eternal soulmate. emotional support collection. and still be like… “yeah but not right now” ??

CONGRATS YOU’RE IN A READING SLUMP 😭

idk what it is about reading slumps but they sneak up on you randomly. one day you’re devouring 500 pages in a sitting, and the next??? you just can’t get urself to sit down and read 50 pages without quitting.

and the worst part?? you STILL want to read. you still love books. you’re just sitting there, staring at your TBR like it personally betrayed you and expecting it to fix itself.

🧠 it’s giving: — “i want to read but nothing sounds good” — “i’ll read after this episode” (10 episodes later: still no reading) — “i just need to find the right book” but the right book is in another dimension apparently

and then there’s the guilt. the unread books judging you from the shelf. the unfinished series. the friend who lent you a book six months ago and keeps politely asking if you’ve “had a chance to start it yet” 🫠

🚨 but here’s the TRUTH: reading slumps are NORMAL. they don’t make you less of a reader. they don’t mean you “lost your love for books.” it’s just your brain hitting ✨ burnout ✨ and saying “let’s chill for a sec.”

🤍 WAYS TO GENTLY UN-SLUMP YOURSELF (WITHOUT PRESSURE):

📖 reread an old favorite — nostalgia is a powerful drug. find the book that made you feel unwell in the best way and revisit it. comfort reads are undefeated.

🎧 try an audiobook — especially if you’re in your ✨ i-have-no-attention-span ✨ era. listen while walking, cleaning, or laying in bed staring into the void. it counts.

📚 read something short — novellas. graphic novels. poetry. books under 300 pages. we’re rebuilding momentum, not running a marathon.

🛋️ romcoms will save you — zero braincell reads with ✨banter, chaos, and pining✨ are a CURE. you will read 200 pages in one sitting and feel ALIVE again.

💀 lean into the chaos — mood read something unhinged. messy main character? fake dating? one bed? whatever sparks a little serotonin.

🔁 accept the slump — sometimes you just gotta ride it out. watch a show. romanticize playlists. organize your bookshelves for no reason. it’ll come back. it always does.

📉 WHAT NOT TO DO: — force yourself to finish a book you’re not into — start five books at once hoping one will “stick” (you’ll just feel overwhelmed 😭) — guilt trip yourself like you’re failing at a hobby

YOU’RE NOT FAILING. you’re literally just a tired reader. take a break. your books will wait for you. and when that one scene or that one quote finally hits again?? oh we’re BACK. we’re READING. we’re OBSESSED.

📣 ROMCOMS THAT HAVE GOT ME OUT OF SLUMPS: (warning—these books may not work for some ppl so don’t get mad)

💘 The Love Hypothesis — fake dating, grumpy x sunshine, STEM girlies, and an emotionally constipated man who is secretly obsessed with her?? YES MA’AM

🎧 Better Than the Movies — childhood friends, romantic playlists, iconic YA energy, and a scene with a slow dance in the rain that lives in my head RENT FREE.

👟 The Cheat Sheet — best friends to lovers, football star with a secret crush, and fake dating (again bc it always works). SO CUTE IT WILL HEAL YOU.

📚 ANYTHING BY LYNN PAINTER — literally pick one. — Mr. Wrong Number? ✨chaotic texting & messy girl rep✨ — The Do-Over? ✨time loop romance and emotional growth✨ — Better Than the Movies (yes again)? ✨peak romcom nostalgia✨ — Love Wager? ✨pure banter, zero stress, full joy✨

Lynn Painter writes books that feel like your favorite comfort movie.

💬 drop your favorite slump buster books below — like the ones that made you feel giddy, unwell, and suddenly fluent in book quotes again. we’re building a ✨ healing list ✨

#ReadingSlumpSurvivor #BooksWillWait #RomcomsSaveLives #ZeroBraincellReads #BanteryAndBeautiful

How can you, how will you, lessen suffering where you are? There are times when I feel overwhelmed about what to do, where to start. The problems seem so big and so intractable. In those times, I ask myself a set of questions that serve as guideposts and help to ground me.

1. What resources exist so I can better educate myself? 2. Who's already doing work around this injustice? 3. Do I have the capacity to offer concrete support and help to them? 4. How can I be constructive?

. . . You are not needed everywhere, but we are all needed somewhere. . . . There are other things you can do as you answer the question of how you will lessen suffering today. The first step is refuse to accept that nothing can be done and nothing will or can change. Don't be cynical. Sincerity is a virtue. . . . Determine what the next right step is for you. There is always something worth doing. Find your lane and push ahead. Make connections with others. Refuse to acquiesce to despair. Imagine your way forward.

I love that we're provided with a set of concrete questions to ask ourselves in moments of overwhelm. I regularly find it difficult to know where to start, so starting with identifying what I know already and what I need to find out more about via such questions is beyond helpful when my mind is unprepared. This is such a helpful summary and conclusion to such a hopeful and helpful book.

How can you, how will you, lessen suffering where you are? There are times when I feel overwhelmed about what to do, where to start. The problems seem so big and so intractable. In those times, I ask myself a set of questions that serve as guideposts and help to ground me.

1. What resources exist so I can better educate myself? 2. Who's already doing work around this injustice? 3. Do I have the capacity to offer concrete support and help to them? 4. How can I be constructive?

. . . You are not needed everywhere, but we are all needed somewhere. . . . There are other things you can do as you answer the question of how you will lessen suffering today. The first step is refuse to accept that nothing can be done and nothing will or can change. Don't be cynical. Sincerity is a virtue. . . . Determine what the next right step is for you. There is always something worth doing. Find your lane and push ahead. Make connections with others. Refuse to acquiesce to despair. Imagine your way forward.

I love that we're provided with a set of concrete questions to ask ourselves in moments of overwhelm. I regularly find it difficult to know where to start, so starting with identifying what I know already and what I need to find out more about via such questions is beyond helpful when my mind is unprepared. This is such a helpful summary and conclusion to such a hopeful and helpful book.

The present looks different from inside of it. So my invitation as you emerge from reading this book is that you try to look at the current moment from outside of it. That you try for a little distance from the daily slog. Yes, there is bad news, but it's not the only news. . . . As bad as this is, it's not the only thing. . . . Despair is a thief. It saps your energy, depletes your time, and robs you of your ability to dream, and we need lots of dreamers and doers right now.

The way the authors return to hope as a central theme, as the foundation for action is truly so helpful. There are so many hard things that are put in front of us either because of their proximity or by algorithms and the news, but they're not the only things. I was speaking with my mother about feminism and the leaps and bounds that the US has taken since she was young yesterday and I was reminded of how the days and months feel so long and difficult, but the years and decades pass by in the blink of an eye and bring so much change. Putting some distance between the present and myself makes me hopeful that when I'm my mother's age, I'll be able to tell young people about the leaps and bounds of change we've made now. One day, everything will be different, and my hope is that it will be a wonderful change.

I think this is my neurodivergence speaking but the section about having a group that you ask questions you'd be too nervous to ask publicly was very shocking to me. I always viewed this as a moral failing. Like if I wouldn't ask it publicly, I shouldn't ask it at all because clearly it's too controversial. But this is how you learn and grow! You simply cannot know everything and that means that you won't always say the right things. Having a small group that you can go to who will answer in a compassionate but honest way is so so important in activist spaces and I hope each and every person adopts this practice.

”A skilled organizer should be able to work with people who aren’t of their own choosing, including people they don’t like. It’s really as simple as being attacked by fascist police in the streets. Once the attack begins, there are two sides: armed police inflicting violence and everyone else. We need to be able to see each other in those terms.”

”…refusing to do that work in this historical moment is an abdication of responsibility.”

This is one of the most forceful statements in the book, in contrast to the mostly gentle messaging beforehand, and it provides good and needed perspective. When it comes down to it, any minor ideological disagreements disappear behind the barrel of a gun. A quote that grew popular in the first years of the pandemic says, “Inconvenience is the cost we pay for community,” which includes working with people we don’t like. This takes it one step further by arguing that it’s a price we must pay, one we have a responsibility to pay.

I’ll be honest though, it’s really hard sometimes. I’ve definitely iced some people out of my life following the last US election, and after the events of 10/7. Sometimes it’s too much to bear to keep allowing certain people in your life. I’m not an organizer, but I deeply admire those who are and the fact that they take on the burden of doing the hard work of building bridges, one by one. I’ll definitely keep this perspective in mind to be less willing to leave people behind in my personal relationships so as to not make their work harder than it has to be.

Okay Kelly Hayes thanks for inspiring a (hopefully) last batch of tears to really wrap this thing up! But in all seriousness what a stunning love letter the last few pages of this conclusion are. The list of hopes for a better future are so moving, and the picture drawn is so beautiful, all the moreso knowing that these are active hopes, hopes for a future that the authors and interviewees and even readers are all working towards creating. It is at once inspiring and empowering and grounding to hear how much faith Hayes has in all of us and in the work being done. I genuinely want to print it out as a reminder of what it looks and feels like to reject cynicism and choose to believe.

Really incredible seasonality metaphor being presented here as a framework for understanding the rhythms of movement work and it ties so beautifully into the discussion of burnout.

I was initially uncomfortable with the suggestion that burnout was in a way a personal failure, almost egotistically self-sacrificial. But thinking about it more and reading through the chapter I can agree that it is kind of a choice, a choice to see yourself as irreplaceable and choose not to set up safeguards for your absence should you need one, and in doing so put the larger movement at risk. It isn't something unavoidable and par for the course. I like the framing of periods where you need to reduce your effort as a winter season because it is essential and it is natural and it is is morally neutral, unlike pushing endlessly and waiting for burnout to hit and then struggling to recuperate. Your winter season isn't just a not-summer but carries its own key function as a time for introspection and processing and return to baseline before the next period of growth. It's kind of like sleeping every night. I love that.

I think it's also really compelling to embrace the winter season purely in pettiness and rejection of the capitalist forces that demand otherwise.

"I believe one of the main reasons why it's so difficult for us to be in a rhythm of seasons nowadays is because of the nature of the global system that we're in, that is highly, extremely productivist, which is capitalism." Saavedra explained that capitalism "creates this expectation of what we call the eternal summer and this expectation that everyone should be in the eternal summer all the time."

I just finished reading A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking which I've seen recommended a lot as a cozy fantasy book, but which to me didn't personally feel like it classified based on some of the content and themes which were on the heavier side. From what I've read there's no unanimous definition of the genre, but some common attributes I've heard are: magical/fantastical elements, slice-of-life stories, kind characters and positive relationships, hopeful/happy ending, lower stakes, non-triggering, etc. Personally, I want a cozy fantasy to broadly just provide an escape into a somewhat better world, and I want to feel generally happy while reading it.

What do y'all think - what do you consider "cozy fantasy," and are any of the above attributes some that you think are particularly important (or on the contrary, any that you disagree with)?