“I’ve been in a reading slump.”

I’ve heard this before from various friends and acquaintances, but I’ll be honest, I’d never truly understood the term. There was always something new to read. And so many great genres! I read most fiction the way my kids would eat their favorite candy. I gobble through it, barely stopping for breath, until I reach that last delicious page. I have to remind myself to stop. Yes, I need to finish the next task. Or that I need sleep, because I do most of my reading near bedtime. (Then I wonder why I’m tired the next morning. Oops.) 

I love books in any form. Paperback and hard cover- my house is full of them. E-book- I always have a device to read on with me, and it has four reading apps on it. I even do audiobooks for when I’m driving. I love the covers. The smell of the pages. The feel of the device in my hand and the satisfaction of ending a chapter and beginning the next.

Pages Of My Life by Dana R. Lynn on @BRReaderConnect #Reading #Writing #BRRC Share on X

But something odd happened to me this year. Life became very stressful due to a loved one’s health issues and a work situation. I struggled to find something to read. I’d pick up a book, and no matter what genre, I’d get only a few pages in and realize I hadn’t found anything to attract my attention. 

At the same time, I realized I was spending too much time on social media. It was disturbing my peace of mind. When Lent came around, I decided to give up social media. Just for forty days. It helped. With less of that kind of information swimming around in my brain, it was easier to focus on book characters. I also started re-reading old favorites, rather than forcing myself to read new books. 

This was fun! I knew the stories, so I could anticipate favorite passages and lines. And when I didn’t have a lot of time, I could skim without feeling guilty because I’d already read the book, usually more than once. 

More importantly, I decided to spend more time in my bible. Every year, my husband and I read through the bible together. But I wanted to do more than read the bible. I wanted to be more intentional about how I read it. So I dug around and discovered the great satisfaction of annotating. Now, some of you are probably thinking you’ve been doing this for years, but for me, I do NOT like writing in books. The idea of marking up the pages was actually intimidating. But I wanted to try it. So I bought colorful tabs and sticky notes to mark and write notes instead of marking up the bible itself. 

I also discovered these really cool long sticky notes that act like highlighters. So I can highlight my bible without the color bleeding through to the next page. 

How did this help my reading slump? It helped because it gave me a break and a fresh perspective. I got through the issues life put in my path. I took time to just rest and reflect. 

And then I began to read again, with all the joy I’d feared I’d lost.

Meet Dana R. Lynn

Dana R. Lynn is a USA Today bestselling author who believes in the power of God to touch people through stories. She met her husband at a wedding and married him nineteen months later. Today, they live in rural Pennsylvania with their three teenaged children and enough pets to open a petting zoo. She is a teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing by day and writes stories of romance and danger at night. Dana is an avid reader, loves cats and thinks chocolate should be a food group. Dana is a Selah Award winner, a Holt Medallion Finalist, and a New England Reader’s Choice Award winner. She is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. She enjoys engaging with readers and can be found on social media or contacted via her website.