I have lost the ability to sit and read....

[whaaaatishappening]

I was/am an avid reader. Love nothing more than getting anew book and settling down for a few hours to read.

Last year has been hectic, marriage break up, setting up new business so i have not had the mind space or time to really get involved with a book.

Treated my self to trilogy - massive book and I've found the moment i start reading I want to fall asleep. I am not even managing a page, just cant get in to it. Its not the book as normally would really enjoy this kind of book and style its written in.

Has this happened to any one else. Ive lost my reading skills!

I go through phases like this.
It’s helped to join a very relaxed book club so that I have a kind of aim with my reading. Some months there’s only one or two of us that complete the book but that’s fine.
I also take my book with me to some places eg daughters swimming lesson. I find it a bit depressing to see every parent sat there glued to scrolling. It does feel good when I’ve accomplished 30 minutes straight reading at the end of the lesson.
I’ve had lots of conversations with my students recently about concentrating (or lack of) when studying. I suggest the pomodoro technique which is basically a 25 minute timer (on your phone, in another room if needs be). It’s exactly the right amount of time to become engaged and absorbed in something but it’s not an overwhelming amount of time to face when you’re starting out.

I find myself getting annoyed by the waffling in books. Great long paragraphs about what the sky and trees look like instead of getting on with the story.

I feel like fiction is the equivalent of someone telling me about a dream they had last night, it's just someone's thoughts.

I feel very sad about this, as books have fulfilled me my whole life.

@LadyCampanulaTottington

I firmly believe that social media/apps/the internet have killed my attention span. I’m constantly distracted.

^This

I worry about my kids' generation. I see young babies in the pram watching some shit on their mums' phone.

I've read 51 books this year...would normally read at least 70.
Yesterday I put my phone upstairs and read a whole book in 4 hours...no distractions, no radio/music.
I'm going to make a concerted effort to focus more on reading...there are 50 by my bed and over a hundred unread on kindle

I too lost the ability to read. I’ve started again by reading very trashy page turners to get me in the habit. But at least when I’m reading one of those I’m not scrolling. Hopefully I’ll feel the urge to read something more highbrow at some point.

My iPhone has done me in for reading... and having kids... and general exhaustion. Hope I get it back one day. I miss it.

Yes, when I had my child. I always read in bed but found I was so tired (obviously) I was just going to sleep or I couldn't keep track of tricky storylines. It took 2 years to start reading again. I started off with quick page turners.

I also think these things can be lost after trauma/ life changes. I used to love reading and also laying awake for hours in my own thoughts which would be like fun adventures (if I woke up too early for example or as I fall asleep). Since the death of my sister, anything which requires me to stop and think about life has been unappealing, almost like I try to keep myself distracted constantly. I know it can't go in forever but it has been 14 years so far and I still can't sit and relax without a distraction.

I hear you, mine was after my DD was born, she didn't sleep for basically 4 years so I was constantly knackered but since then struggled to get back into the routine. What's helped me a little is audible so I spend a lot of time listening to books as I can do this whilst driving, cooking exercising etc. I then also buy the book on Kindle so I can read a chapter or two.

I joined a book club for this very reason. I find the discipline of reading one book a month has helped me get back into it, plus listening to audiobooks while out walking has helped with my concentration.

Like many pps I lost my ability to read after a bereavement - my adult daughter committed suicide. The only thing that could distract me from some terrible thoughts and feelings was watching stuff on netflix and prime, preferably long running series. Anything to be living somebody else's life. The two years since then have also been filled with loss and trauma - but today I finished the first book since her death. I got bored with streaming, picked up a book by a favourite author without much hope and gradually got into it. Normally it would have taken me a couple of days - it's been three weeks.

Losing a love of reading is a major loss - good luck to everyone who is trying to regain it. New Year's resolutions?
Losing

Of course Audiobooks are reading. You are consuming the words of a novel. It enters your head, you think about the story, the characters, the plot, I just the same way as if you were reading with your eyes. I'm vision impaired now, and rely a lot on audio books and always count them as having been read.

You might be consuming the books but it's not reading, it's listening. To read a book you need to be sitting down, you are not doing anything else, you can go back and forth on one page. It's a completely different activity than listening to an audio book.

@BlueHotel

Like many pps I lost my ability to read after a bereavement - my adult daughter committed suicide. The only thing that could distract me from some terrible thoughts and feelings was watching stuff on netflix and prime, preferably long running series. Anything to be living somebody else's life. The two years since then have also been filled with loss and trauma - but today I finished the first book since her death. I got bored with streaming, picked up a book by a favourite author without much hope and gradually got into it. Normally it would have taken me a couple of days - it's been three weeks.

Losing a love of reading is a major loss - good luck to everyone who is trying to regain it. New Year's resolutions?
Losing

I'm so so sorry about your daughter

Well we will just have to agree to differ on this point. You do you, and I'll keep counting audiobooks as books. This is not the thread for disagreeing on this point and derailing it.
All reading is good reading.

Social media and screens might have something to do with it but my mother told me she hadn’t read a book after I was born in 1953. Too much to do, too tired and later no concentration.
She read magazines instead - Woman’s Own and so on.

You can train yourself back up, though. Try some really short stories.

Try this one: www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/06/26/the-lottery

Failing that, celebrity memoir.

Come to think of it born to bequiet, my mum used to be a huge reader when she was younger- the house is full of book from the 60s and 70s- but when she had us she mostly read the paper and magazines out of the Sunday papers during the day. I never saw her read books during the day. She only read them at night in bed.

Very interesting post, I feel the same. Stressed out wiith everything, working in a busy area having to wear PPE etc. Also agree too much time spent on phone. I used to read books all the time, now takes me ages to finish one.

I know this feeling. When I was younger (pre child) I was an avid reader. I think work & families then totally stopped my ability to focus /concentrate on reading. I agree that te Internet & social media has trained us to only cope with snippets of information & we rely heavily on visual stimulus too. Interestingly, Johann Hari has a book out soon called "Stolen Focus. Why you can't pay attention."

Strangely, in the first lock down I picked up my Kindle and started reading again. From June 2020, I had read 50 books by the end of the year and now I've read 128 books this year! I have totally stopped watching TV now and favour reading instead. I tend to find easy to read novels hold my attention the most 🙄 but I also aim to read a proper book alongside the novels. I like self development books so I set a target of 10 pages a day of those types or a small section a day if it's something like The Daily Stoics by Ryan Holiday.

I also follow Ed Cunningham on Instagram too. His page is called @aneed2read and he covers all things books.

In a strange way, the lockdowns have given me many positives that I didn't expect- I've found my love of reading & swimming again.

I hope you get your thirst for reading back again soon OP.

I used to read 3-4 books per week pre-children, but totally lost the motivation over the past few years. We moved house in the summer and have a room we are using as a dedicated library/study, and I only take my laptop in there when I am actually working, otherwise it is a place to read or do crafts and that has made a huge difference. There are floor to ceiling bookshelves and I've put up this wallpaper so it feels really cosy, and I have managed to re-ignite my love of reading. So I think making the right environment and keeping electronics (apart from a kindle) is key.

I have to agree with @ChardonnaysPetDragon listening to audiobooks isn't reading - I've never lost my love of listening to audiobooks, but I can do other things at the same time - laundry, cooking, working etc, but reading itself is specifically uncoding symbols and understanding and interpreting what they say in person not via a narrator, this is done visually or by touch and hooks into different cognitive processes compared to those accessed by listening to an audiobook or play. It's not just a question of semantics, reading is a totally different thing to listening. I don't think saying this is a thread derail, talking about listening to audiobooks is though - you can't self-identify listening as reading, they are just not the same thing. I love audio books, but this thread is about the act of reading as opposed to consuming/absorbing stories aurally.

But to say that listening to audiobooks is not reading is ableist. It discriminates against those of us who have difficulties with reading actual books. I am fortunate that my eyesight was saved this year. Had my optician not spotted a serious problem I could have gone suddenly and permanently blind, without warning. I have only partial sight left in one eye, and cannot focus on printed pages for long without my eyes becoming very sore. That's how it is for me, for the future. So to dismiss audiobooks as not reading means to me that I may never "read" many more books in my life. I am weary of casual ableism from people. I shan't comment on here again. This thread started off pleasantly but it has become elitist and discriminatory and has upset me.

Of course audio books are "reading." I don't know why anyone would insist it wasn't.

I suggest those struggling to read switch up genres. The short stories of Poe, light Austen nonsense, Eric Ambler thrillers, Stephen King fantasy horrors. Jot them down in a book/journal as you finish them and record any impressions and words you learnt. I find myself hurrying through Christies or rereading old favourites so I can fill in a page with titles (about 15)- reward, a new book.

@TeaspoonOfDoom

But to say that listening to audiobooks is not reading is ableist. It discriminates against those of us who have difficulties with reading actual books. I am fortunate that my eyesight was saved this year. Had my optician not spotted a serious problem I could have gone suddenly and permanently blind, without warning. I have only partial sight left in one eye, and cannot focus on printed pages for long without my eyes becoming very sore. That's how it is for me, for the future. So to dismiss audiobooks as not reading means to me that I may never "read" many more books in my life. I am weary of casual ableism from people. I shan't comment on here again. This thread started off pleasantly but it has become elitist and discriminatory and has upset me.

I’m sorry but that is in no way ableist. Throwing around unfounded accusations of ableism is actually very offensive - you have no idea of anything about me.

Look up the definition of reading in the dictionary it is not the same as listening. You can read via Braille if you are visually impaired and also listen to audiobooks but they are not the same thing. I’m sorry if you feel listening to audio books is being dismissed, but you aren’t reading if you are listening they are simply different things. And no offence is meant by pointing this out. If you think the meaning of words can be changed at will then that’s a whole other thread.

Of course audio books are "reading." I don't know why anyone would insist it wasn't.

Hello! I don't think listening to audio books is reading. At all.

I enjoy both, and they are very different things.

@TheYearOfSmallThings

Of course audio books are "reading." I don't know why anyone would insist it wasn't.

Hello! I don't think listening to audio books is reading. At all.

I enjoy both, and they are very different things.

Agree. I am slightly perplexed by the value judgements that seem to be being attributed to reading vs listening by PPs who insist that audiobooks are reading. They self-evidently are not. But that doesn't make them somehow less worthwhile than a book - they are just different.