Curing Reader's Block: Ideas To Help You Rejuvinate Your Summer Reading List

If you've made a goal to read more this year, it can be frustrating to pick up book after book and feel indifferent towards the subject matter. If you are looking for some new books to read this summer on vacation, you may want to try some of these tips.

Use a Genre or an Author as a Guide

While you may want to run the gamut of different genres and authors, you may just wear yourself out before any actual reading occurs. To get back into reading, dip your toes in waters that you are familiar with first. If you know which kind of author or genre you like, there are sites like "What Should I Read Next," that will analyse a database of favorite books and spit out ideas that are similar to your favorite genre or author. For instance, if you type "J.K. Rowling" into the search bar, some of the recommended results would be Cornelia Funke, Robert Jordan, and C.S. Lewis. You can also see how these recommendations are grouped (e.g. "magic," "adventure stories," "juvenile fiction" etc.).

Let Yourself Enjoy a Guilty Pleasure

Because reading can become an intense intellectual exercise, blogger Ginni Chen says that your reader's block can be related to confidence. If you are trying to conquer classics, textbooks, and other heavy subject matter, you're going to burn out or feel like you can't handle the material. It may help to have a few books that you can rotate between. If you have a dense book—either in pages or content—be sure to pick up shorter books or magazines so that your brain has a break.

Let Someone Else Read to You

If you find that you don't have a ton of time to read or that the physical act of scanning a page is putting you to sleep, why not try audio-books? Sites like Librivox.org have tons of free recordings in the public domain. And, if you feel so inclined, you may want to volunteer and create a recording. Not only will you get to conquer your summer reading list, but you could provide a free audio recording for others.

Re-read a Book From Your Childhood or Adolescence

If you have children of your own, you may want to read the books on your son or daughter's summer reading list. If they have to annotate the books for their classes, you can work right along with them. This is not only a fun way to connect with your children, but it's a fun way to see if your opinions of required school readings have changed.

If you don't have kids, why not choose a beloved book from your childhood or young adult years? You may break your reader's block with the nostalgia factor. Not sure where to start? Some good authors you may want to try include:

• Roald Dahl

• E.B. White

• Louisa May Alcott

• L. M. Montgomery

• and Wilson Rawls

Take the Leap and Branch Out

While going with a book genre that you like is a safe way to start, you may be more excited if you read something that you'd never usually pick up. Sites like Goodreads are a great way to start building a catalog of "to-read" books. Because you can connect with your friends and other social media through Goodreads, you'll be able to get lots of fiction recommendations and read reviews.

Join a Book Club

A book club is a great way to maintain your reading goals because you can look forward to a lively literary discussion and a gathering of friends each month. If you are in a book group and it has become stagnant, you could try reviving it with a yearly theme. For instance, you could look at all the books you've read that year through a "Book-to-Movie" lens. After your group finishes reading the book, you could all have a movie night and see how the material stacks up in a different medium. Books like "No Country for Old Men," "The Secret Life of Bees," and "To Kill a Mockingbird" are good places to start, since their movie adaptations have generally received favorable reviews.

For more book recommendations, see a site like http://booktrib.com/.