Welcome to Ask The Book Doctor, a recurring series about books and reading them.
It's natural to fall out of reading simply because of circumstance. Every time I am on vacation, I devour books—put me on a plane, any plane, and I'll finish a book. But plop me back in my normal life where the shelves are dusty and the groceries need to be bought and my friends are going to a bar after work, and the appeal of picking up a book diminishes. It is easy to allow yourself to build a world in your mind when you have space there. It is much harder to make the words on the page into pictures when your mind is far too busy with other obligations.
For me, it's often frustrating because I know (cognitively) that I love to read. I know that when I am in the middle of a good book, I am happier. I know that my brain slows down when I choose to read instead of scrolling on my phone. But sometimes, I'm tired! Sometimes, even though I know it's bad for me, I choose the beauty of the screen instead. Most often, though, this struggle happens when I don't have the right book for the period of my life that I'm in. Sometimes, you are just too busy and too distracted to read. That happens to all of us! But when you start to desire a book in that state, it can be hard to actually get back into the habit of reading.
The Case:
Today's patient is Jen, who is desperate to read but so tired that it feels impossible. She's a new mom to a baby who is, in her words, "a baby who doesn’t sleep. Not in the day, not at night. He hates slumber." That sounds so hard! I'm sorry, Jen!
She says that before her six-month-old baby, she read about two books a month (which is a lot of books) and that she focused mainly on adult literary fiction. Now that her beautiful always-awake baby demands her attention, though, the only thing that has kept her attention are magnificent action-movie franchises like Mission: Impossible or Fast & Furious.
Jen wants "something that isn’t too hard, because my mind—once capable of astute critical literary thought—is slurry." And, she notes, she wants something without the death of babies, which is so reasonable.
I am confident that we can help Jen with her problem, but I will need a little help!
The Prescription:
Congratulations on your baby!!! First off, I just want to reassure Jen and everyone else that it is absolutely fine to not read for a while. Reading is a form of entertainment. It is art we consume. It is not a moral good. Having periods of time where it's impossible to read for whatever reason may be frustrating, but it doesn't mean anything about you as a person. I promise. Having a baby is exciting and your whole life just got flipped upside down, so be nice to yourself.
That said, it's so annoying when you want to read but can't. And I do believe that I can help you! Because you are locked in on the Mission: Impossible franchise, I do think you want a strong protagonist who you can root for. Say what you want about Tom Cruise, but I would personally trust Ethan Hunt with my life. I also think you need plot, plot, plot. You need a story that will transport you and make you want more when you have to put it down to take care of your gorgeous, sleepless child. This is why I am prescribing you genre fiction for now.
But which genre? A romance is not a bad option, except that you have to not hate the characters, which is sometimes hard. I do not think that murder is the right option for Jen at this time, so no crime. There's always high-fantasy, but that often has a lot of world-building, and Jen wants the powerful engine of genre combined with the beautiful writing of literary fiction. I think the answer here is beautiful science-fiction.
I am prescribing Jen The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin.
This is not a deep-cut book to pick. Jemisin is beloved and quite famous in the science fiction community. She was the first black author to win the Hugo Award, which she earned for The Fifth Season. It's the first book in her Broken Earth trilogy, and the other two books also won the Hugo Award, making her the first author to win the Hugo in three consecutive years and the first author to ever win for all three books of a trilogy. She's a MacArthur Genius now, so she's basically the best we've got.
The Fifth Season follows three incredibly strong protagonists who are a delight to follow and are each powerful and difficult in their own ways. It has the brilliant, immersive world-building of fantasy and the character development of great literary fiction. I have a huge blind spot for science fiction and fantasy, and I blew through these books. They have so much action that there is never a good place to stop reading and forget to pick it back up. I think Jen is going to really, really like them!
Also, since Jen came to me for advice, and it is a doctor's job to try to help (hippocratic oath, etc), I thought she might also like some reading advice for new moms generally. As I am not a mother, I reached out to my friend Chrissy—who is one of the best readers I know, a high-school English teacher, and a mom of two—asking her for a consult.
Chrissy suggested joining a book club if you feel like you can, because it expands your interests and gives you some social interaction and a reading deadline. She also recommended the Instagram creator Beach Reads and Bubbly (ignore the name lol) for finding slump-breakers when you need them. I took a scan through this account, and all of the books I've read that she suggests, I endorse. I added a few to my list.
As a note of encouragement, Chrissy also says, "[I've] fallen back in love with reading post-kids in a way I haven’t done since I was a teen." I'm sure other parents will sound off in the comments as well.
So there is hope for you, Jen! Good luck, and please report back!
If you need a consult from the Book Doctor for any of your book dilemmas, please email bookdoctor@defector.com.
