how do you get over reader's block?

I have since, in the two intervening years after graduation, picked up a handful of books for recreational pleasure, though none have achieved said aim and in fact planted seeds of resentment for Literature. Only in the past two months did I manage to get genuinely interested and into a book (Satanic Verses) and read it with something approaching ease and earnestness.

Meaning: give yourself time; and, you need the right book.

Maybe that's actually a self-generated solution to Reader's Block. If you just finished a Great Novel (or a really Crappy Novel) and can't start another, just shift to that biography of Alexander Hamilton or that Bridge column in the local paper.

Quite. In my case, it is much like the sheer amount of movies/music/etc. out there that, by implication, one is theoretically supposed to know about, old and new, in order to function culturally (it's an old bugbear of mine from ILE, I'm sure few there will be surprised at me saying it here!). Also, considering that I'm actually working on getting an agent and wanting to get some fiction published, I know very little about current fiction writers' work, but honestly don't have too much of an interest -- I really prefer nonfiction as such these days, tend to find it more creative in respects, though I also lack the patience to write nonfiction work beyond essays.

For me the block is often cured thanks to happenstance -- working at a library as I do means that books come to your attention by sheer chance. Got a pile of about ten here waiting to be read that I only noticed over the past couple of weeks.

(To Casuistry -- see, I'm here now? So none of your complaints. ;-))

Yay books!

That might not quite be considered a reading-block though, since I could still enjoyed those short stories.

Near the end of the year I got some serious reader's block and I haven't gotten over it yet. I've started a couple things and not gotten into them, nothing seems that tantalizing. I've been reading some comics (and you know, like, watching movies, making music, cooking, and living life), but what should I read to get me out of this rut????

I'm thinking maybe some Kafka, for some reason?

How about reading How to Talk about Books You Haven't Read?

Get yourself a library card, take out a lot of books, and hopefully as the due date approaches you will feel guilty enough to read one of them through to the end. Also learn how to use the online library reserve system- the day your chosen titles arrive you may feel an echo of the same nerdy thrill you got when you saw that cardboard shipping box of Scholastic books on your teacher's desk.

Start reading crime/mystery fiction: if you find an author or a series or a publisher (HardCaseCrime) you like, reading books will be like eating potato chips, one will automatically follow the other.

In other words, get over reader's block by reading Lawrence Block.

Ha, alright. I had a big crime/noir/espionage phase last year, but I didn't read any of the stuff talked about on that other thread (just a lot of Hammett, Highsmith, LeCarre, etc...I always check for Richard Stark books when I'm in used stores but never see any).

Get yourself a library card, take out a lot of books, and hopefully as the due date approaches you will feel guilty enough to read one of them through to the end

Oh no way dude, the guilt/pressure is too much for me. I don't even like having too many unread books that I've purchased at home.

It's a totally different kind of guilt/pressure that's more tolerable and productive than the other kind.

Alternatively, start reading to someone in bed.

that's a whole 'nother issue

I knew I was going to regret my super-nerdy response.