Discussion Anyone else lose interest over time?

So I've developed a reading habit regarding my reading list, and I'm curious if this happens to anyone else. I'll do a search on the series finder for whatever I'm interested in at the time, or just go through the series ranking, and read a novel. Almost no matter what this novel is, I'll enjoy it very much, reading it continuously regardless of plot meandering or repetitiveness (looking at you, ATG/MGA/etcetera) and happy to go along. Then... I run out of chapters.

For the first couple weeks, I'll keep reading and enjoying every chapter as it comes out. Then I'll start feeling "Eh, I don't wanna spend the time on reading this one today" and let a couple/few chapters pile up, then read those. After a month or two of constantly reduced reading frequency, enough of it ends up backlogged I decide to just shelve it for a rainy day or the next time I want to read something. It goes into a second reading list titled "WaitingAwhile".

And there it rots.

There are now sixty five novels in this category for me, which is quite a few considering the one criteria I never drop before reading a novel is "Minimum 100 chapters released". My reading list that I actually keep up on? 13. This isn't a time issue, my job allows me to read constantly (security, yay) as does my home life. But after awhile of slowly reading chapters it just loses its magic for me and all the flaws I was happy to overlook become irredeemable and I lose interest. A couple have survived this purge to completion (Coiling Dragon, World of Cultivation, a few others) but very few make it that far.

The shitty thing is, there are a few in that list which I don't have any issue with, even after slowly losing interest. Cultivation Chat Group, abandoned at 232. Ze Tian Ji, 204. Chronicles of Primordial Wars, 161. The reason I don't pick these back up when I want something to read now, despite having hundred(s) of chapters? I don't remember them super well and don't want to reread, nor re-enter without fully remembering what's going on. So my poor retention habit basically killed off a few novels with no problems effecting my enjoyment other than... not being done. Bleh.

Mostly wanted to complain about my own brain fucking me over here, but also curious if anyone else has trouble "retaining" interest in a novel after you can't splurge it anymore. Any particular way to maintain interest? Or to pick a novel back up again?

 

Same issue. I usually wait a few years then re-read from scratch to where it is now. Cycle continues...

 

I keep a periodic quality check on novels i read, and awoken by real life is a good thing too once in a while

 

It's normal. In a binge, you read faster so the few good moments have more impact. But then you run out of chapters or pause, and it fades.

 

It's normal isn't it?

 

Happens all the time to me. My base reading list has 414 novels in it, and I cope with exactly what you're describing by doing arc-at-a-time re-reading. First, I mark the inter-arc stopping points as I read and will wait for a nice chunk of chapters to pile up, then re-binge the previous arc and all the new chapters, stopping early if I hit an arc end and more chapters remain. I find that keeps enough of a buffer and keeps the interest fresh enough to avoid getting bored with daily or weekly chapter releases.

Out of my entire reading list, I have about 60 novels I pay attention to about once every 2-3 months, and that keeps the chapter count high and sufficient interest going. The rest are either dropped by TL or have really slow translations, so I only bother checking them if I see them on the front page or get a brain worm (I'm looking at you, Legend of the Cultivation God).

 

The same yep yep...

 

(I'm the same boat with Cultivation Chat group so hahaha)

Yes, I have this a lot but it usually happens when I'm suddenly in a mood for a different type of novel, or whatever part I'm reading on isn't that great (like filler?), or I just forget about the novel, so usually I just come back waaaaaaay later when I'm bored out of my mind or when I find out it's completely translated >.<"

I usually get hyped though if I find spoilers that I end up liking and looking forward to, and end up reading until the spoilers. Like knowing things will get better helps me quite a bit LOL

 

I did the same with ZTJ but I finally picked up one day and I don't regrets it, do it !
CCG is different, the novel is mostly comedy gold, so go for it (I mean no real plot needed to remember, and character are so recurent for most of them that you will remember them easily)

 

Yes i sometimes forget to read a chapter and a few days go by and I am way behind so I just go to another novel and in some cases repeat the cycle

 

Happened to me with Rebirth of the Thief Who Roamed the World. Really liked the class the character used and how he used his skills/knowledge. Such as the time he fought this really strong beast so he climbed down onto a cliff with a rope and shot arrows at it for an hour or so.

Problem was that if felt like it was repeating itself. Mc knows where great treasure is. He goes there and sneaks past all the enemies and gets it. Repeat that with the occasional battle of him stealth dancing around enemies and it just felt like a chore to read it. Lost it magic.

 

This is so true...the one time i dont read for the first three days usually instead of daily is where the waiting list of novels go long back for atleast a year or until i gain a random interest of it .
Speaking of this I should restart konusoba since i put it off for a while.

 

Same, happens to me too
But my reading list is 160 Novels that includes novels am currently reading ( following every updates), novels that completed that I liked, novels that I searched that worth checking out and finally - the part that relates to you - novels that I liked, was reading but stoped to get a refreshing feeling when I get back to it
Moonlight sculptor
World of Cultivation
Overgeared
Cultivation Chat Group
Altina the Sword Princess
Chronicles of Primordial war
108 maidens
Starchild escapes arranged marriage
Forty Millennium of Cultivation
Monarch of Evernight
Night Ranger
God of Slaughter

 

This happens for me with web novels that bloat chapter counts. Do some of these stories really need 200+ chapters to get the point across? No they don't and as such they are filled with useless fluff that is boring to read. Yeah you probably don't notice it when binge reading it because you can speed read through it but 1 chapter at a time makes this fluff unbearable.

 

Happens all the time to me. Probably will never stop happening either.

 

Me too, i just pick it up again later, though

 

I'll jump on a novel and read 200+ chapters and enjoy it. But once I'm caught up, I lose interest fast and all the flaws glare.

 

Issue I find is that there are a lot of stories out there just good enough to be pleasurable if you binge them. But not quite good enough to wait for the next chapter to come out. You start seeing repetitive filler and wondering "why am I reading this? is it really worth following this story for another couple of years just for the same repetitive garbage?" I have dropped far too many stories because of that. I have gotten to where I am wary of stories that aren't finished yet, or stories that don't have a particularly fast translation cycle.

 

well i did drop ztj for a while......coz there was some drama around chp 190 i think ....... I so wanna pick it up back but that is not gonna happen anytime soon.

Try reading completed ones if you wanna binge without losing interest

 

Same with me. The slow updates after binge reading 500+ chapters usually ruins the novel's flow for me so I usually stop for a while and let it build up. Sometimes, I wait for it to end but that's a rare thing to happen because I doubt any of the Chinese novels I'm reading is ending soon. Whenever I run out of shit to read (I'm a very voracious reader) and I'm in the mood, I'll read the updates. But there are novels that I really couldn't stomach getting back again and they are the novels of I Eat Tomatoes and the Doulou Dalu series.