Judging by your president, I think 40% fewer Americans read. For fun or otherwise.
Yeah, we can tell…
Unfortunately it’s not just a US problem. It’s more of a general issue. People ‘read’ a lot, but generally the wrong things. Like social media. And it’s causing people to lose their ‘reading muscles’ so to speak.
When I first got online in 1995, forum posts were much longer and more insightful. These days you see a lot of ‘tl;dr’ attitudes.
In my opinion, reading is a fundamental part of the human experience and important in people’s general development. Reading needs to be encouraged if possible, enforced if necessary. But there’s a lot of resistance to that.
I started working sixty hours a week to make ends meet. Hard to spare the time.
I read because it’s nice to be in a differently reality for a bit. I generally do fantasy, because the world’s immersive and it’s fun to get lost in. My buddy said he’s reading The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy, and I had it in the list, and it’s definitely not the escape that The Stormlight Archive was.
As with others here, I also do the audiobook thing. Reading is reserved for the time before bed, 15-30m or so, and audiobooks are for when you’re engaged in something that doesn’t require your full attention, like operating heavy machinery or power tools.
when you’re engaged in something that doesn’t require your full attention, like operating heavy machinery or power tools.
Jesus that sounds horrible. I mean, yeah, me too, but still…
I “read” on “the internet” to “make myself miserable”
It’s a doom-page-turner!
I discovered AO3 2 years ago and have over 400 bookmakers that I’m actively reading when they update. Don’t worry everyone I’ll binge read for the rest of you
I read AoE3, and was curious how that had nothing to do with books. And AoE2 was the best.
How do you even track over 400 completely different storylines & ships? This is an amazing feat.
By being interested.
Don’t ask about my 漫画 list. I have more WNs to read.
Maybe it’s just me but I lack the free time to get meaningful progress, if I’m lucky maybe 2-3 chapters a week by the time works and housekeeping is done. It often feels unrewarding to need to look back and remember the plot by the time I get back to the book
I loathe sluggish pace reading where I lose the plot inbetween sessions.
I love binge reading a book but rarely can.
I already read a gazillion emails, documents, specs, and whatnot and the same braincells are often cooked.Similarly, I just can’t deal with physical jigsaw anymore. Same braincells used in work-related pattern recognition in troubleshooting, that I find it unsatisfying.
Try audio books. I used to not enjoy them but I’ve come around for similar reasons as you described.
Yes my issue is by the time i have time to read its nearly time to go to bed, and i find having the light on and staying in a comfortable reading position delays my sleep too much unless its something really dense, in which case i don’t end up retaining any of it.
Get yourself a kobo and both of those issues disappear. Also, you get free books if you are willing to sail the high seas, which is nice.
A decade ago I used to go through 3 books a week. Now I might read 3 a year. The world’s gone to such shit that fiction almost feels too quaint to be enjoyable. I know that’s not logical, but it’s how it feels…and it’s awful.
I “read” a lot. Just audio books. I don’t usually get time to sit down and read, but I do a lot of driving and other mind numbing chores. For that, I “read”
Same. Audiobooks are so wonderful for doubling up mindless activities like walking or driving or mowing. I sometimes remember where part of a book was by where I was walking when I listened to it.
Even so, I try to make an effort to read physical, paper books regularly. I’m pretty tsundoku though, or was until I realized it and stopped accumulating books.
I used to burn through books, one Christmas my mum complained that she could’ve got a refund on a book I got if I hadn’t folded a page to keep track of where I was because I finished it by the time we were having dinner. Then school told me I was only allowed to read books from a certain reading level they’d given me for English class, and I had to complete an evaluation test to make sure I’d understood it before I could move up to the next level. I can barely get through 3 pages at a time now because that school program killing my love of reading.
School also really killed my love of reading
I always had a book, sometimes several books, that I was reading on my own, and I read well above my grade level. But my high school went on a really big reading kick while I was there. Basically every class had books assigned to read at one point or another, I think even some of the math classes did. One homeroom period a week was dedicated to SSR (sustained silent reading) where you had to be reading something, you weren’t allowed to do homework, be on the computer, etc.
So they did a really great job of turning reading from something I genuinely really enjoyed to something that was a dreaded chore.
I still read occasionally, but nothing like I used to. Some of that’s being an adult with a busy schedule
But I definitely see plenty of space in my schedule where I could read and just don’t. It’s harder to get myself into the headspace where I want to read anymore.
I almost got myself back on track a few years ago, unfortunately it was just as COVID hit and I had just started reading The Road, which I was really enjoying, but with all of the shortages from supply lines being disrupted it was hitting a little too close to home.
I’m almost back on track now, but I doubt I’ll ever get back to where I was before high school murdered my love of reading.
If you’re a SciFi fan, read the expanse series. It’ll reinvigorate your love of reading again. At least, it did for me.
Unless you’re like my friend who read it with me, in which case you’ll finish it. Love it. And then mope about because you can’t find any books quite like it and is even less likely to pick up a book now because it’s not The Expanse.
You can try the Old Man’s War series, The Three-Body Problem series, Children of Time. Lots of great sci-fi out there.
They jist released the first book in a new series. Mercy of Gods.
They’ve got a novella in the same universe too!
Livesuit
There are a lot of other good options. While they are not as engaging as the Expanse (in my opinion, YMMV) tell them to check out and the Bobiverse books (starts with We Are Legion) and Murderbot Diaries (starts with All Systems Red). I found both of those very entertaining.
I’m realizing in my adulthood just how much school has hurt my impression of reading.
Throughout most of my life, I was so used to reading something and then having someone else explain it to me, that I never had the confidence to go off and read things on my own.
School sucks. We need a radical redesign
I don’t have the mental bandwidth to read Mich. I’m always exausted
More other types of entertainment existing now.
Audiobooks and a speaker headband got me back into reading.
If I have problems sleeping at least I get a story out of it. If I’m constantly replaying the same chapter it’s because I’m sleeping well. I’ll do a couple books/month this way.
I do a ton of recreational reading, but it’s mostly articles and comments here instead of books.
Weird, I’ve been reading a lot more this year. But I do go through phases:
Binge Watch TV/Movies
Binge Reading
Binge GamingI’m in the middle piece right now. Probably 6 or 7 books in the past couple of months? Started my first read of Roadside Picnic last night, should finish it tonight.
