Something to help me get back into reading ‘proper’ books

I would love to be able to read like I used to. To be so completely absorbed in a book that I am oblivious to anything else around me, utter bliss! I remember my mum having to actually touch my arm to get my attention, after I’d just not heard her talking to me.
I’ve recently decided I need to try harder and have made a start on The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly which I’m really enjoying. I’ve managed not to be distracted for an hour or so at a time, which is encouraging. Apparently she co-wrote Broadchurch, so if you enjoyed that you might enjoy this too.

Girl.goddess.queen

The maeve kerrighan books by claire casey

Achillies

Eileen by ottessa moshfegh did it for me

Kazu Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go

Literary but not a slog whatsoever. Excellent book. Not too long.

Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer. It’s just a very absorbing story.

Michael Connelly’s books. I’m mentioning these as you like detective books. His Bosch series (and the Lincoln lawyer series if you like court room type novels) is great.

@canihaveacoffeeplease yes to Janet Evanovich 😁 her Stephanie Plum books are brilliant, so hilarious and really engaging.

If you liked Claire Keegan you might like Carys Davies. Short and well written.

Or books by Elizabeth Strout.

Anything John Marrs,
try some audio books most libraries have BorrowBox or Libby.
Think of your favourite book from school and reread as often short with lots of action (To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, A Kestrel for a Knave, Animal Farm, 1984, Across the Baracades, Joby.

I did much the same thing - in 2021 I wrote that I'd read hardly any actual books in the last couple of years, only a title I don't remember while staying with family and Mansfield Park when Mumsnet started talking about it.

Mansfield Park reminded me how great writers can be with language. I kept declaiming bits to myself as I went

I decided to get back in to books, and for a while wrote reviews on the 50 books thread. Looking back at them here are some of my suggestions

Olivia Joules and the overactive imagination - Helen Fielding
Economix: how our economy works (and doesn't work) in words and pictures - Michael Goodwin, ill Dan E Burr
The Colour of Heaven - James Runcie
Unquiet Women - Max Adams
Other Minds: the Octopus the sea and the deep origins of consciousness - Peter Godfrey-Smith
The Madman's Library - Edward Brooke-Hitching

During the same period I also read
Frankenstein in Baghdad - Ahmed Saadawi tr Jonathan Wright
The book of Chocolate Saints - Jeet Thayil
but would not personally consider them gateway reading!

OMG I could have written your OP!! I was such a massive reader pre kids, new releases, classics, weighty times, anything and everything, and now I struggle so hard, to find time, to focus, to just have me time to be honest.

I have 3DDs, 10, 8 and 4. I struggle so hard to read ANYTHING actually decent. But I love reading, it is absolutely my wind down, I love falling asleep with a book, sitting by the fire with a book, on the beach with a book while the kids play, in the sun with a book...you get the idea!

My desperation books (must read something, have no brainpower to focus...) anything by Janet evanovich (awful but easy to follow story, great to read!), anything by Jilly Cooper, even though I've read all her books multiple times, anything Philip Pullman. So easy to get lost in and follow all of these.

We live in Australia and have an outstanding local independent bookshop (happy to link to their instagram, they're really prolific and make amazing recommendations) who really champion Australian authors (most of whom are published overseas too), and do regular 'meet the author' book chats. I often go to these with a friend regardless of who it is, $30 including the book, a glass of wine, and an author chat, great kid free night out! Some are outstanding (Marcus Zusack of the book thief was just incredible!), and I've found a few wonderful authors who I just love (Robbie Arnott, Hannah Kent, Catherine Kinnon), making it easy to go read their past works.

I've accepted that to enjoy reading, some of the time it just needs to be absolute shite. But not always.

Also wanted to say, if you'd like an overseas read-along book friend, no pressure, no time constraints, let me know. Like book club without the weekly stress and pressure!

I hope you get back to reading, back to you. It's just the best.

Whilst waiting for the next Strike I have devoured the Ruth Galloway series and the Maeve Kerrigan series.

I also lost my reading habit after having kids, and now think am going through peri menopause so get brain fog and lack of concentration. Lack of sleep and scrolling on phone also doesn't help - have to put aside 30mins or so to read. I enjoyed American Dirt, Lessons in Chemistry, Remarkably Bright Creatures, The Hearts Invisible Furies (bit of a long one), the first Strike book and Project Hail Mary over the last 12 months. Also joined a book 5 months ago which has meant at least starting the book to discuss a little. Although it is mainly a social catch up in the pub!
So hoping to have got a bit of my reading mojo back. Currently reading The Women by Kristen Hannah - about 80 pages in and good so far!

Another vote for the Slow Horses series and The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. It’s a tome (for me anyway) but I was gripped.

Children's / YA books can be very well written without being dense or overlong. I'm a bit behind the times, but how about:
Robert Westall: Falling into glory
Anything by Jan Mark, but try especially Heathrow nights, Turbulence or Dream house.
Mary Hooper: Two sides of the story

You will likely have to get these second hand now. Try abebooks.co.uk

I loved that whole series but the second one did almost make me stop at times.
I was very glad I carried on as it was well worth it - but I think MBF is a great stand alone book in its own right.

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart got me out of my reading intertia a couple of years back. It was different to the sort of books I'd read before but I absolutely adored it and promptly went on to read Young Mungo straight after. Absolutely not light-hearted fluff but just absolutely brilliant reads.

I like balancing out the literary fiction with something light-hearted and easy to read - Lesley Lokko is my goto for that. Her books are brilliant and hard to describe the genre - a sort of upscale, less cheesy or predictable chick lit.

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennet was also very good.

Anything by Kate Atkinson

Amor Towles - I’m not sure if I loved ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’ or ‘Rules of Civility’ more.
Erin Morgenstern - ‘Night Circus’

I too was not a fan of Eleanor Oliphant.

All the colours of the dark
American dirt

That Bonesetter Woman by Frances Quinn is brilliant. I have already re-read it twice!

I read Pachinko recently and couldn't put it down. Not a particularly short (or light) book, but the chapters are short and very absorbing, so it's easy to pick up whenever you have a spare 5 minutes. The person I passed it on to raced through it in a few days as well

I feel your pain. I love reading and when I’m enjoying a book/ finishing one I wonder why I don’t read all the time. Doom scrolling is my number one reason for not reading, just too many distractions. I’ve recently really enjoyed My Brilliant Friend. Couldn’t put that down but unfortunately haven’t quite got in to the second book in the series.

Omg I hated Elinor Oliphant so, so, so much! I'm glad someone else did.

Sometimes when I'm struggling to get back into reading something short that I can see the end of really helps - a book called Universality by Natasha Brown which came out recently is sort of a thriller, so might fit the bill.

How To Kill Your Family is a bit silly but so, so compelling - I think I read that in one go.

I absolutely devoured Flesh by David Szalay recently, too.

Audio books helped me after a spell in the covid lockdowns where I found I just couldn't settle to read anything. I ended up listening to quite a few long classics like Barchester Towers and Bleak House because the narrators on Audible were just so good and did all the voices.

What about something like John le Carre? They're much better written than the average spy novel, but they're still spy novels and very plot driven.

I've had sevear hypothyroidism for the last 5 years despite various treatments. One of the side effects is major brain fog and attention span issues.

I found reading YA books helped me get back into reading again. They had fun and complex plots while having quite simple prose. Not bad writing, just simple.

Audio books also helped a lot - though I have to be physically doing something in order to pay attention. I often play a game like power washing simulator while listening.

I'm now back up to finishing 52 books a year, split roughly 50/50 between kindle and audio and I've been slowly adding in more adult reading too. I still read some YA when the brain fog is worse and usually have two books on the go. A harder one and a more simple one and I swap depending on how symptomatic I am.

I'm currently devouring the Dungeon Crawler Carl series and I'm on book 7 after just three weeks (and they are not short!).