How To Start Reading Again

[SteveDave]

Yesterday I totted up the number of books I've bought, found or been given in the last 2 years versus how many I've read and it's shocking. 35 v 7.

Some of them are big coffee table Beatle books that aren't meant for "reading" but my mind seems to be too loud to enjoy reading. If you know what I mean? I'll read a paragraph but my brain isn't taking it in and thinking about something else. All the books I have read have been either short or about a subject I'm heavily invested in. Fiction seems to be the hardest thing for me to take. I read "A Confederate General From Big Sur" by Richard Brautigan as I thought it was a sort of memoir but realised halfway through that it wasn't and that I was a dickhead.

How can I train my brain to stop thinking and just process the words in front of my eyes?

I know a lot of it is to do with time but I work from 8 til 4:30 and have a 5 year old who I'm in charge of due to my wife being a pub manager so I'm struggling to find time where I'm not either working, cooking, cleaning up or collapsing.

Are there any hints and tips you big readers have that could help? 

[JaDanketies]

Thread title would be a great title for a self-help book.

I could also do with reading a little bit more and am in a similar personal situation as you, i.e. busy. What has helped me the few times I've managed to read, is remembering the times when I used to read, and then reading then.

There's nothing I want to watch? Nobody I want to spend time with? Don't look at the phone screen and read instead.  Even reading a couple of times has made me feel better about time with the phone screen.

Oh another idea that might be helpful is "less social media, more wikipedia". So when you are on your phone, you're reading something cool, interesting and relatively in-depth.

[Mr Vegetables]

I've found reading essays really useful this year while I've had a similar thing, as they are short enough that they don't overtax my degraded executive function.

Also, weirdly, Gravity's Rainbow has been good. Any connections between all its shifting characters and scenes would have been lost on me anyway, so I don't mind letting it wash over me like a fever dream.

[Kankurette]

Thread title would be a great title for a self-help book.

I could also do with reading a little bit more and am in a similar personal situation as you, i.e. busy. What has helped me the few times I've managed to read, is remembering the times when I used to read, and then reading then.

There's nothing I want to watch? Nobody I want to spend time with? Don't look at the phone screen and read instead.  Even reading a couple of times has made me feel better about time with the phone screen.

Oh another idea that might be helpful is "less social media, more wikipedia". So when you are on your phone, you're reading something cool, interesting and relatively in-depth.

I ended up doing that last night. I went down the rabbit hole of reading about the Bolsheviks' execution of the Romanovs, and how the princesses and Alexei survived the first shooting and the executioners tried to bayonet the crap out of them but couldn't, because they'd sewn loads of jewels into their clothes, so they just shot them in the head instead. And then they smashed the corpses' faces in with rifles and poured sulphuric acid over the bodies to make them unrecognisable, and a couple of guards got dismissed for fingering the Tsaritsa's corpse. I can't remember how the whole rumour about Anastasia surviving got started though.

[bgmnts]

I have similar numbers totted up. God knows how to start.

[JaDanketies]

I ended up doing that last night. I went down the rabbit hole of reading about the Bolsheviks' execution of the Romanovs

The doomed Scott's expedition to the South Pole was a good one that stuck with me for a while, and plenty of meat to it too. (or in the explorer's case, too little meat). Was reading about the Birmingham IRA pub bombings the other day too - plenty of interesting avenues to read about there, miscarriages of justice, Guildford 4, the Balcombe Street Gang, etc

[Famous Mortimer]

I've found reading essays really useful this year while I've had a similar thing, as they are short enough that they don't overtax my degraded executive function.

Also, weirdly, Gravity's Rainbow has been good. Any connections between all its shifting characters and scenes would have been lost on me anyway, so I don't mind letting it wash over me like a fever dream.

I'm about 80 pages into it at the moment, and thought - after it was so useful with "The Recognitions" - that I'd keep a browser tab open with the page-by-page guide. Not quite as handy, but there's the odd bit. I might have to let it wash over me and not try and understand it all, at least on a first read.

[Mr Vegetables]

I'm about 80 pages into it at the moment, and thought - after it was so useful with "The Recognitions" - that I'd keep a browser tab open with the page-by-page guide. Not quite as handy, but there's the odd bit. I might have to let it wash over me and not try and understand it all, at least on a first read.

That was kind of what I liked, the freeing realisation that I was going to have to let it wash over me. And I could, because there wouldn't be a test at the end! That kind of anxiety keeps me from reading a lot of these books that someone might have to show They're Very Smart

e: actually there better not be a test at the end, that's the sort of thing books like this do

[Johnboy]

I'm in a similar position, keep gathering books and I don't read them.

I've started again and I've been googling it for tips.

It's recommended to read daily even if it's just a few pages.

And don't feel you have to finish something if you're not enjoying it, read what you want.

I'm consciously watching less screens now that I realise how little time is left for the books.

[Sex Wax]

phenibut

[Glebe]

Been reading Dune this past while and it's very much a stop/start process.

I used to love plowing through a really good book but my anxiety has been quite bad these last few years and I find it hard to relax and concentrate like I used to. I have a funny obsessive-compulsive thing were I have to visualise everything.

[SteveDave]

I think in my case it might be an anxiety thing. Like my brain is telling me reading isn't important and I should making or doing something.

[Fambo Number Mive]

I'm having a similar issue, I used to read all the time but I barely do it now, I'm ok with books that don't require too much concentration (read and enjoyed the novelisation of some Are You Being Served scripts recently) but most novels and non fiction books are just no good. My attention span has got a lot worse as well, even when I watch a TV programme I'll start browsing my phone. Maybe it's because I'm so used to watching short Youtube videos.

I've bought loads of books I haven't read this year.

[JaDanketies]

I think in my case it might be an anxiety thing. Like my brain is telling me reading isn't important and I should making or doing something.

I struggle a lot more in allowing myself to relax. Not sure if I got fed up with standard household mess, or if it was becoming a dad, or a COVID-lockdown-induced madness. Could've quite happily sat down at the end of the day and done nothing in a messy house back in the past.

[Fabian Thomsett]

Start from the end and work backwards innit.

[SweetPomPom]

I have the same thing with the big lush coffee table books, whole house needs to be out or asleep before I can even think about looking at one. Which means the wee hours and tons of shitty electric light rather than lovely daylight so not ideal.

I'm mainly on music/cinema auto-bios at the mo. I kept putting them down and making no progress until I made a commitment to always pass the 50 page mark in the first sitting and at that point I'm sorted til the end.

Have mostly lost interest in fiction, no idea how to re-kindle that.

[ads82]

Not sure if this is cheating but I found audiobooks a bit of saviour in keeping up with my reading (listening) list. I'd never have managed to get through Dune without listening on audiobook!

[jamiefairlie]

I have the same thing with the big lush coffee table books, whole house needs to be out or asleep before I can even think about looking at one. Which means the wee hours and tons of shitty electric light rather than lovely daylight so not ideal.

I'm mainly on music/cinema auto-bios at the mo. I kept putting them down and making no progress until I made a commitment to always pass the 50 page mark in the first sitting and at that point I'm sorted til the end.

Have mostly lost interest in fiction, no idea how to re-kindle that.

Yeah me too. I have no interest in fiction any more. I put it down to my real life being too complex to understand so I didn't need to add anything more on top.

[Glebe]

Not sure if this is cheating but I found audiobooks a bit of saviour in keeping up with my reading (listening) list. I'd never have managed to get through Dune without listening on audiobook!

Doesn't matter if you enjoy it!

[SweetPomPom]

Yeah me too. I have no interest in fiction any more. I put it down to my real life being too complex to understand so I didn't need to add anything more on top.

I blame Alan Moore's Jerusalem. I loved what I managed but the commitment needed for the single volume is more than daunting.

[Twit 2]

My ability to read has been fucked by years of mental illness and stressful life experiences. Used to read so much when I was younger. It makes me sad. I mostly read short things: poems, essays, aphorisms. Alright cheers.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

Reeling a bit at the idea that Gravity's Rainbow would get a lapsed reader back into it if I'm honest

[Mister Six]

Forcing myself to plough through God Emperor of Dune absolutely knackered my interest in prose writing. Getting it back slowly though. I need to learn to just drop shitty books instead of plugging away at them. I ditched that one with about a third to go, and I should have dropped it long before.

[Pranet]

I think the idea of reading every day is a good one, even if only a page or two, gets dispiriting if you realise it is a week since you read anything and is tempting to give up.

I block out time for reading, an hour most days. I don't have a five year old though. But yeah, if you can try to block out some time as often as possible.

I get the anxiety thing stopping people- though for me it has been more watching tv, films and listening to music that anxiety makes hard for me.

[thenoise]

Try reading while your phone is charging.

[thenoise]

...becoming a dad...

I got into the habit of sitting with my baby as he falls asleep (he is 3 currently) and making it phone free time for me, while we listen to gentle lullabies in the semi-darkness. Time to fall asleep varies between 10 minutes and over an hour, and I finish a book every couple of weeks like I used to before the dreaded internet, and he gets the comfort of Daddy's company as he falls asleep.

I inherited a few boxes of books (my parents' fading eyesight meant a complete switch to Kindles), so I read a few oldies of varying quality, novels, non-fiction, poetry or even plays just to vary things up a bit.

I even joined goodreads to track my progress. Set yourself a yearly target if you think it will help. It'll become habit eventually, but you'll have to push yourself a bit until it does.

[JaDanketies]

Currently reading Malcolm X's autobiography and it's dead good, if anyone wants a recommendation. His life makes mine look positively boring by comparison, and I do SEO. I think I was inspired to get it by reading a couple of wikipedia articles about him.

When my son was just a teeny baby I remember I would read HP Lovecraft to him while he did his feedings. Can't do that nowadays, oh no. It's "Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus" night after night. In fairness I do fucking kill the reading of it every time.

[sardines]

Every year I set myself a target to read more and every year it dies on its arse. So I did something different this year and it is working.

Firstly I love the Backlisted podcast (something for another thread). One of the people on there reads shitloads and has written this article about reading shitloads.

The way he describes his reading process changed things for me. When I want to read, I need to get myself in a mindset of 'ooh I'm sitting down to read'. Whereas he is finding pockets during the day to read a few pages here and there with it ending up adding up to 50 pages a day (I don't think 50 pages is realistic to most people).

So I've been doing that with a target of 10 then 20 pages a day. Doesn't always work but while I keep with the mindset of a few pages here and there, I'd say on average I'm not far off especially as I only buy picture books.

TLDR: as everyone else has said, try to read everyday.

[Glebe]

Stephen Fry's The Fry Chronicles has been lying around the house for yonks so I read that over the last week or so during an enforced internet break (me phone was being repaired). Generally find biographies easier to read than novels and such.

[SweetPomPom]

How long do you persist with a book that isn't working for you?

I'm reading Adam Ant's autobio at the moment - the facts and the period detail are all there, all the characters you'd expect but his writing style is just so clinical.

There's no joy in it at all, it's just taking the shine off things I want to know more about.