The dry spell

Desert I suffered a dry spell after our second child. A major one. One I imagine the Sahara Desert to be like. Long. Flat. Never ending.

I just didn't feel like it anymore. I was too tired. It didn't hold my attention. I would crawl into bed after a day of wiping drippy noses and picking cheerios off the floor and I would just stare at them. I finally put them away in a box. I didn't want to be reminded.

Apparently this is common to mothers of young children.

Now I can't get enough. I have all kinds at my bedside – historical, period, chic lit, classics. I read whatever I can get my hands on. Though I'm still not much of a fan of suspense.

Have you ever had a dry spell? 😉

Photo credit: Hamed

27 COMMENTS

  1. Padded nursing bras | 22nd Nov 09

    Hey, thanks for the post, it’s indeed a good read, keep posting here!
    Martina

  2. Perfectly Happy Mum | 21st May 09

    I am most definitely in the middle of the dry spell right now… no chance at all for me to read more than 2 pages of anything without being either interrupted or falling asleep!
    In the last year I probably started 15 books and finished none! I have them all lined up on my book shelves and sometimes I look at them thinking “Humm shall I try this one again?” but no, I quickly realise there is no chance. Hopefully this will soon change…

  3. Tricia | 20th May 09

    I too find dry spells. And I have to find a really good book to get my grove back on.

  4. working mum | 19th May 09

    Very amusing; you know what we were all thinking, don’t you?! Yep, couldn’t read more than one small article in a magazine for a while, graduated onto chick lit after two years, but still can’t read a whole book in three weeks before it’s due back at the library – fall asleep after two pages. Maybe working and being a mum isn’t conducive to reading?

  5. Lisa Houghton | 18th May 09

    I have to read every day – I find books, much more than television, represent a private space where it really is just me. Hope that doesn’t make me sound too mad!
    I’m almost finished reading the Swedish thriller Let the Right One In, which isn’t my usual genre but is beautifully written, incredibly atmospheric and totally gripping!
    Prior to that I read the Motley Crue autobiography, which was gripping and horrifying in a slightly different way!

  6. Kirsten Hesketh | 18th May 09

    Come join our book club Susanna

  7. Liz | 18th May 09

    God yes I miss books, but I’ve only really started reading again properly in the last 6 months. I have a holiday coming up and I’ve just ordered 6 books from Amazon to read round the pool – heaven!

  8. katherine | 17th May 09

    Ohhh yes; I wrote a post on books I’ve half read! When I had my third I found the only books I could read where the ones I read as a child (thanks to my Ma who kept them all) it was actually a fab exercise as I now have load of ideas for my 6 year old’s reading list 😉

  9. Rosie Scribble | 17th May 09

    I have to read, without that escapism I’d go mad. For the first year after IJ was born I read nothing though. I was just too tired. Buying so many parenting manuals was a mistake; they never got read until it was too late!

  10. Maternal Tales | 17th May 09

    Ha ha – yes I was wondering what you meant there!! I thought you couldn’t possibly be admitting to a dry spell of another kind… So books you say?!! Yes, am goign through a bit of a dry spell at the moment – annoyingly – because I love reading. It’s this silly blogging!!!! It’s taking over my life!!

  11. Experimental Mum | 17th May 09

    I’m still going through a dry spell, I joined a bookgroup thinking that would help. Almost every month I’m the only one in the room not finished the book! Not sure bookgroups is helping me, even when I’m enjoying the content, it feels a bit like homework – but I stay for the wine!

  12. Lisa | 16th May 09

    Definitely! I have a slew of books I’m reading. I guess I’m making up for lost time lol!

  13. Sparx | 15th May 09

    Ha! Very amusing. Yes, I went dry on reading after I finished breastfeeding my son and it lasted nearly a year. Breastfeeding is great, babie’s head in one hand, book in the other. I read The Satanic Verses in one-hour doses between 2am and 6am right after my son was born.

  14. Myrna L | 15th May 09

    I’m assuming you mean reading but I was thinking of something else….Just passing through to give you a goofy award. The “Splash Award”. A small thanks for supporting my blog. Check out the other blogs I tapped, you might see one you like. And, I look forward to seeing YOUR list.

  15. Felicia - I Complete Me | 15th May 09

    I have had a dry spell and blogging has helped me get back believe it or not. Because I want to offer some more resources to my readers I decided to find and read books that can help them.

  16. A Modern Mother | 15th May 09

    2TooMany — mine was years too.

  17. A Modern Mother | 15th May 09

    Laura — he’s a faster reader?
    Coding — hopefully it won’t.
    Part Mummy– fooled you! BTW — I still have one of your books we need to catch up over a coffee.
    Suprised — you are very lucky.
    Potty — thanks
    SPD — I need to get that one from the Library to add to my collection…
    Deb — youngest is nearly three is eason enough…
    Rebel — not telling
    Misbehaving — Nice to see you here!

  18. TooManyHats | 15th May 09

    My dry spell was literally years long. I read MUST things like books about the special needs my middle child exhibited and was eventually dx’ed with, books about homeschooling, spiritual books for church, and of course lots of Dr. Seuss. I only this year came back to reading. I LOVE IT! I actually have found listening to audiobooks on my MP3 player to be the most convenient, but I do read real books too.

  19. MissBehaving | 15th May 09

    I did, I couldn’t manage to concentrate for long enough to read anything other than a shirt magazine piece.
    Now I read again but usually the same page three nights in a row. My kids aren’t small but the going is slower most of the time.
    What’s changed is I put down a book that doesn’t ‘grab’ me straightaway, I used to force myself to finish what I’d started.

  20. Rebel Mother | 15th May 09

    Crikey! What dry spell are you talking about? Tiffin, reading or both?
    You know that after a dry spell, it never rains but it pours – that’s why you cant get enough!
    Oh dear, I’ve been possessed by a ‘rude mood’.
    Apologies x

  21. Deb | 15th May 09

    Am currently in dry spell. No idea what’s brought it on as youngest is nearly 3!
    But I think excessive blog reading has had an impact on my reading habits/style. Am also into non-fiction (gardening, homes, crafty, parenting) which I love.
    So have joined a book group (1st one last night) and started Atonement today. I feel seriously under-read and not entirely sure what I’ve been doing with my time!

  22. SingleParentDad | 15th May 09

    Yup.
    I got excited by The Damned United very recently. It felt like an age since I had read a book, because it was. I thought I might pick up more, but as of yet. Nadda.

  23. Potty Mummy | 15th May 09

    Clever, Modern, very clever… (and I’m not telling you what I read in bed; that’s just too private! Sx, on the other hand…)

  24. Surprised Mum | 15th May 09

    I did the opposite, all I wanted to do was read.
    And when PD left me I would look forward to it being bedtime so I could loose myself in a book.
    When I was depressed and couldn’t even speak to anyone, again I lost myself in fiction.
    Books, for me, are a life saver!

  25. Part Mummy Part Me | 15th May 09

    I am sure that was intentional, but I really thought you were referring to – um – marital relations!!
    I have dry (reading) spells all the time followed by voracious devouring of anything and everything – fact and fiction, quality lit and chick lit – often having 3 or 4 books on the go at the same time.

  26. Coding Mamma (Tasha) | 15th May 09

    I didn’t not read, but the only thing I could read for about 9 months after Rosemary was born was momlit, particularly with plenty of babies! I was very annoyed at not being able to read my usual gory thrillers. I’m back to normal for the moment, though, and hoping it won’t happen again with Number 2.

  27. Laura Driver | 15th May 09

    Oh yes. I have only recently got back into regular reading … albeit 4 pages at bedtime before I start snoozing. It takes me forever to read a whole book, but I love it.
    Husband reads three to my one. What does that tell me?

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