A Book and A Dream: An author’s adventure in writing, reading, and being an epic fangirl

Reader Fatigue: Why It's OK to Reread/Rewatch Your Favorites

September 14, 2020 Megan O'Russell Season 1 Episode 43
A Book and A Dream: An author’s adventure in writing, reading, and being an epic fangirl
Reader Fatigue: Why It's OK to Reread/Rewatch Your Favorites
Show Notes Transcript

Having trouble diving into a new book series? Don't feel up to watching that new movie everyone's talking about?

As someone who's suffering from a reading drought herself, Megan O'Russell promises you're not alone.

Check out this week's episode, because science says re-bingeing your favorite series can be healthy.

A Book and A Dream Episode 43

Megan: [00:00:02] None of us knows what's coming tomorrow anymore, who it could be, aliens, you know, the Loch Ness Monster could have bonded with Godzilla and they're going to come and kill us all. Who knows?

 

Announcement: [00:00:16] Welcome to A Book and a Dream with Megan O'Russell: An Author's Adventure in Writing, Reading, and Being an Epic Fangirl.

 

Megan: [00:00:28] Hello, my name is Megan O'Russell, and welcome to Episode 43 of A Book and a Dream. Have you ever suffered from reader's fatigue? That's the feeling when, you know, you just can't read anymore. It's kind of a weird thing to admit as an author who, you know, makes books for a living, that I am going through a reading drought. And I wanted to talk about this today because I wanted people to understand sort of what goes into a reader's drought and why that's really OK.

 

Megan: [00:01:00] So a reader's drought can be anything. Sometimes for me, it's I'm in the middle of a really long book and I just can't make myself finish it, but I'm too obstinate to give up. So it'll take me like six months to finish reading a book and I won't read anything else in the meantime. That's the super annoying kind of reader's drought where, like, you really would read something, but those chapters are just too long and you can't emotionally handle a 40-page chapter right now. So you just don't. Right now, the reader's drought is just I want to know what's happening on the next page. I don't want to dive into a book where I don't know what's coming next, which is really, that's such a weird thing for an author to say. That's like, you know, a musician being like, I never want to hear music again right now, which is unfortunate because that's what you do for a living, but that's just where I am.

 

Megan: [00:01:47] And I did a little research cause I was like, why? Like, what's going on? Why am I crazy? And it's a thing it's actually a social phenomenon. So because it feels like the world is on fire and in some cases, some places, literally the world is on fire right now. Our brains don't want to have to wonder how the story circle is going to complete, which is why there's a lot of like binge watching old favorites happening right now. Like if you've spent quarantine rewatching all of Friends six times, you're not alone, nor are you weird because your brain knows how the story is going to end and it's clinging to that sense of known closure. So you know how the story's going to end. You don't have to have any anxiety about it. You don't have to worry about it. And it makes a lot of sense with something like, you know, sitcoms or rom coms or whatever it is. For me, my standard binge is serial killer shows, which is sort of weird that I take comfort in it. But it's true. I find an odd amount of comfort in watching shows about serial killers and crime, not like actual documentaries. No no, those freak me out.

 

Megan: [00:02:56] But, like, Criminal Minds is my big go to binge, because no matter how bad my day is going, at least I'm not up on the board with Spencer Reid trying to solve my murder. So, like, really, I'm doing pretty good.

 

Megan: [00:03:09] And there is an extreme amount of comfort to me in sitting down when I'm tired and exhausted from writing, which thank you all for reading my books and not being on a reading drought. I really appreciate that you're super helpful, but there's something comforting to me and knowing how the episodes are going to end, because I I've seen all of them at least three times at this point.

 

Megan: [00:03:27] It's kind of a problem, but not a problem, because apparently this is a real phenomenon that people have studied. When you're anxious, you want something that you know, and it's gotten to the point with me where I will watch the beginning of the next episode in my Netflix binge before I go to bed so I know how something ends the next day.

 

Megan: [00:03:47] Because, you know, it's 2020, none of us knows what's coming tomorrow anymore, who? It could be aliens, you know. The Loch Ness Monster could have bonded with Godzilla and they're going to come and kill us all. Who knows?

 

Megan: [00:04:01] So there is that sense of finality, normality, peace in knowing what's coming next.

 

Megan: [00:04:09] So, if you're feeling like "I just...I can't read. I don't want to watch any new TV shows," know that you're not alone. If you're having problems picking up a book and sticking to it. It may not be that you don't want to read. Maybe. I mean, for me, a lot of it's, like, I just I don't want to look at any more words. I wrote so many words today, and no more words. But maybe go back to a childhood favorite. And I think that that could be a very good idea for most people that I know personally right now is go back to something that you know, something that comforts you, something how you know, how the story line. And so maybe you're going to reread The Chronicles of Narnia or maybe you're like, I really want to reread The Hunger Games because at least I'm not as bad off as Katniss.

 

Megan: [00:04:53] Like, we're all doing pretty good compared to her. So find something that brings you comfort and you're not weird in how you find that comfort in your entertainment and, you know, we'll make it out of this eventually. Unless, of course, my Godzilla theory is[n't] weird.

 

Megan: [00:05:10] In which case, it's been a pleasure writing for all of you, because if we all get squashed by a monster, then I guess e-books and printing books aren't going to be a thing anymore. But, you know, a lot of my books are already in paperback all over the world. So there will be some remnants of my work for whoever survives, you know, the stomping by Godzilla, but it will end eventually. So if you need to go back into your comfort mode at this stage of 2020, wherever we are in the cycle, hopefully nearing the end, then go for it. And know that you are not alone in needing to know how the story is going to end, because that is something you can control and that's great.

 

[00:05:48] Take control of what you are using for your entertainment and hold on to that valuable asset that you can give your brain a break. Now, I'm going to go give my brain a break, because you know what? I know how the next episode of Criminal Minds ends, so I'm golden.