Suffering From Readers' Block?

As a writer, I know all about the tortuous impairment of writers' block. The want to write. The need to write! The frustrating inability to write! The long walks through the neighborhood. The late nights at the kitchen table staring at a blank computer screen. The endless tapping of the pen on that painfully bright white paper. Nothing can fill up that empty void in the mind. The words stop, but even when the words flow there is a similar problem. Of course, not words from one's own pen, but the pen of others. I'm referring to readers' block.

While preparing for my annual vacation, I made several trips to the library. I had just finished reading a book and while still basking in the glow of getting through a book (I'm a horrifically slow reader) I was on the hunt for a new one. This is one of my favorite things in life ~ choosing a new book to read. The opportunities are endless and the possibilities are boundless. After perusing both my home and public libraries, I settled down with one of my three choices. Two chapters into it...nothing. I pick up another. One chapter into it...boring. I pick up another and read the back. Why did I check this one out? Vacation is coming quickly. What do I do? Myrtle Beach is a long drive especially in the backseat with an 11-year old girl glued to her cell phone, a motion sick dog and a guinea pig sitting in a dishpan on a puppy pad. I'm gonna need something to take me away! Three trips to the library result in four tightly packed bags of books. That's not including additional bags of book that I own. I simply have no excuse for not finding something. 

The night before we leave I go through my daily Kindle email and download a few freebies that look good. I can pack many more books on my Kindle so that's coming too. Morning finds me staking my small claim in the backseat. With my dog draped over one arm and her head hanging out of the window and looking like a gasping and sneezing seal, I have but one free hand so I reach for the Kindle. Hmmm. How about Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins? The first page grabbed me. I couldn't put it down. I could feel my eyes bulge and my breathing slow. Readers' block over! The Hunger Games was a twisted, but fantastic story, and the ironic part was that it was on my Kindle. The library can now have the other half of their book collection back now...untouched and unread.

The moral to my story is that readers' block, like writers' block, is temporary. You just need to find that one blissful trigger that shatters the block and opens the mind. Investigate different genres and different media. Ask friends for suggestions. Read a million first chapters! You'll make it through. I promise.