New books are a fun thing. They make a reader happy because it’s something completely new. And yet… Sometimes I suffer from this annoying thing called reader’s anxiety when about to open a new book.
First things first: I do suffer from an anxiety disorder, but it usually doesn’t happen with new books.
Does it happen with authors I’m familiar with? Never. Because I know them. I’m, as I said, familiar with them, with their style, so I’m simply having a lot of excitement and anticipation.
Where it does happen is when the author whose book I’m about to open is one I’d never read before. A new-to-me author. That is especially true when the person who recommended the book to me is… the author him/herself.
There start the questions. What if I don’t like it? What if it’s poorly written? What if I can’t get into the story? What if the blurb was misleading? The list goes on.
Simply writing this and my stomach is clenched, my palms sweaty.
It doesn’t help that I am, right now, suffering exactly from a case of reader’s anxiety. It will pass. I don’t know when, but it will pass. It could be in a few hours, a day or two, but it will pass.
What to do when it happens?
What to do when you have a case of reader’s anxiety? Everyone is different, so there is not one answer fits all, here.
What do I do? I read something from a go-to author, usually a reread. Like now. I need to calm down so I’ve simply picked up the second book of a series after rereading the first.
For me, personally, it is somewhat ironic, insofar as when I have an anxiety attack, I pick up a book to calm down. So having anxiety caused by the prospect of reading is as ironic as it is funny, if I stop to think about it.
But it will pass.
Caro's Reads 
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