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!

@PlanktonsComputerWife

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.

Because you aren't reading. Just like watching a film, even if faithful to the book, isn't the same as reading, audio provides a lot of different data - intonation and timing, for instance, sometimes music and other sounds - and is processed by a different part of your brain.

And it's something you can do while doing other things. Which isn't the case with reading a story. Since this thread is largely about the attention span for reading being lost, that in itself makes it a very different activity in this context.

I read 75 books in 2020. I would be surprised if I have read 75 pages this year. But I have scrolled absolute miles. Can't read anything but listicles these days. Even give up on long posts on MN!

I'm very surprised to be accused of ableism.

I don't attach any more value to reading books that I do to listening on audio. They are completely different though. I just think that in the context of this thread reading demands more concentration, because you cannot do anything else while you read, at at least not anything that requires concentration. You can listen to a an audio book and clean, do exercise or iron, walk, cook, to mention just a few.

I don't think I'm derailing the thread by this observation. If anything the unfounded accusations are a derailment.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

I'm very surprised to be accused of ableism.

I don't attach any more value to reading books that I do to listening on audio. They are completely different though. I just think that in the context of this thread reading demands more concentration, because you cannot do anything else while you read, at at least not anything that requires concentration. You can listen to a an audio book and clean, do exercise or iron, walk, cook, to mention just a few.

I don't think I'm derailing the thread by this observation. If anything the unfounded accusations are a derailment.

Ableism is the slur du jour on MN. Ignore.

People making that accusation on this thread are revealing their own intellectual snobbery, by implying that listening is somehow less worthy than reading. Both are valid ways of enjoying a book, but they are not the same.

I can't drive a lot of the time, due to a medical condition. I can cycle. Saying that reading is different from listening is no more ableism than saying that driving is different from cycling. People who insist that one word (reading) must mean another (listening) might need to download some Orwell.

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

No, listening to a book is not the same as reading a book.
The former uses your ears, the latter uses your eyes.
This is a fact.

I have not seen any hint of ableism on this thread.
The thread is about reading, so of course posters are going to talk about that. The peripheral discussion about audio books is interesting.

I’m going to set myself a challenge to read 50 books this year. I did okay last year, probably around 30ish but I know how much more time I could spend reading. I do actually have the time aswell, I just seem to do what many others do and scroll and scroll totally mindlessly. I’m quite shocked at how my memory seems to have dwindled too, it’s a bit of a resolution for me to spend less time on my phone.
I don’t watch telly much, I used to read 2 books a week, sometimes 3.

To me they are the same activity- but then to me, "reading" in the context of fiction connotes literary appreciation, not merely decoding symbols with one's eyes. I listened to Christopher Lee reading The Cask of Amontillado earlier. I was as transfixed as I would have been by the printed word, speculated on the word "immolation," wondered how reliable the narrator was, speculated as to what the victim might have done (if anything) to incur his enmity, and relished certain phrases with which Poe built the horror of the story. Is this not the essence of reading as a pastime?

And who says you can't read printed matter and do other things at the same time? I have a book-holder propped up on a shelf above my oven, so I can read a novel while cooking.

I'm not saying I never burn the tea, mind.

Is this not the essence of reading as a pastime?

I'm not sure - you could be as equally engrossed in a film, radio play or podcast and none of those are reading. Anyway interesting points of view on this thread - ignoring the ridiculous ableist accusations, I'm glad they didn't shut the discussion down as intended!

For the audio book snobs, it is actually possible to read AND listen to the same book. Yes, listening and reading are different processes but with some books I find it really enhances the experience and doing both got me back into reading (actual reading) as I said in my post.

With some books I can hardly put them down and at some point the dog needs walking and so I can continue with the book while walking. I also like listening to books and radio drama while in the gym, prefering it to listening to music a lot of the time.

Interesting as well about bereavement having an effect on reading. I had years dealing with family illness, with both inlaws and my father passing away in a 4 year period. Definitely struggled to concentrate on books, then the pandemic happened....

Audio books are enjoyable for many people and have a place. Know someone who has multiple sclerosis who finds it difficult to read books but loves listening to audio books.

For the audio book snobs I have seen no audio book snobbery on this thread, just a nod to it being different to reading.

But if someone asked you whether you had ever read Silas Marner, would you answer in the negative just because you hadn't read the physical book, but had listened assiduously to the unabridged audiobook (which takes about seven hours), and therefore you did know the characters, were familiar with the intricacies of the plot and had bathed in George Eliot's language? Isn't that what the question is actually about?

Good point about films, @Ceibatree, but the media are too different. A film is usually never more than edited highlights of a story to be more fully fleshed out in the viewer's imagination (and no worse for it- I appreciate the snappy, even breathless pace of a film like Goodfellas, which can't be rivalled by many books, although something like "Candide" perhaps... OK, enough derails, or this will turn into books vs. films, yawn, sorry ).

Whereas audiobooks are the texts of the books, for many people unfolded at a slightly slower pace than if you read them with your eyes. Yes, sound effects are sometimes used, but then in books, capital letters, italics, pictures etc. may likewise be used to help the writer convey her message- I don't think it changes the essence of the book.

@ElftonWednesday

For the audio book snobs, it is actually possible to read AND listen to the same book. Yes, listening and reading are different processes but with some books I find it really enhances the experience and doing both got me back into reading (actual reading) as I said in my post.

With some books I can hardly put them down and at some point the dog needs walking and so I can continue with the book while walking. I also like listening to books and radio drama while in the gym, prefering it to listening to music a lot of the time.

The only snobbery is the internalised snobbery of the PPs desperately trying to argue that reading and listening are the same. Why bother to argue this? It only matters if you think that one is inherently more worthy than the other. And it's a bizarre argument to make on a thread that is specifically about struggling to read. No one has reported being unable to listen to audiobooks (could this possibly suggest that the two activities are different)?

But if someone asked you whether you had ever read Silas Marner, would you answer in the negative just because you hadn't read the physical book, but had listened assiduously to the unabridged audiobook (which takes about seven hours), and therefore you did know the characters, were familiar with the intricacies of the plot and had bathed in George Eliot's language? Isn't that what the question is actually about?

DD1 had all Jane Austen unabridged audio books and did say she'd read them and she knew the stories and characters.

However I do think there an extra layer between you and author and sometimes that's more noticable for example Tony Robinson audio books of the disc world are great but there not the same as me reading the books both good but different - with other readers it's less noticabale.

However I found motherhood meant I got out of reading - three kids very close in age - and the way back for me was kindle - and I've been told and even read a BBC artcile suggeting that wasn't proper reading as it was on a screen.

I find reading paper books now harder - I like Kindle as don't get endless question about why I'm reading that and I can flip between very different books or even with fire internet and reading.

I keep looking at audible - as I could then get more sewing done plus get through more non-fiction which I still find harder than it once was.

I do worry that my kids have read much fewer classics than I had at their age. My secondary school libary full of carefully chosen books but DC secondary school library has barely any books and past two years my kids haven't been allowed in only Y11 + can accesses due to covid. Classics they know they know through auido cds I've bought and they listen to while on computers or sewing or crafting.

I'd say try kindle or audio books for a while see if that's easier or if it's just a time in your life when reading doesn't fit in well and that may change in future.

On MN I feel connected to people

Exactly this, reading is lovely but it can be isolating if that makes sense. Being on here or other SM makes you feel connected.

I lament my loss of reading massively, I have a dozen beautiful books lying around the house, none of which I have managed to get past about page 10. Makes me really sad. Bloody phones, they are so useful and yet so damaging

Audio books are not the same as reading

I’ve listened to hundreds of audio books over a decade - most of them fact, science etc

I read (or used to) fiction. The only time I read now is on a plane or by the pool. And even then my attention span is crap. And I’m the kid whose parents got me an adult library card when I was 11 because I’d read everything in the kids section .

Social media and t’internet have a lot to answer for. I work in IT so the previous are a lot of my bread and butter but I still struggle to read a book

@LiterallyKnowsBest

I agree about contemporary poetry!

But also agree it’s not a suggestion that garners much enthusiasm!

@LiterallyKnowsBest I always say finding good poetry is like looking for good shells on a beach. Looks like we have the entire beach to ourselves!

@TheWildHunt I agree about the classics, and my heart sinks every time DD returns home with another vapid sub-Jacqueline Wilson tweenie sparkly shitefest as her obligatory school reading book. I am this close to insisting that DD ignore those books, and reading Little Women or Treasure Island or Black Beauty with her in our precious reading time instead, but she gets grief from her teacher if she goes off-piste. 😨

I would recommend the free librivox website over audible. Audible have been known to steal and charge for content uploaded and made available free of charge on librivox.

I also get lots of free books from Project Gutenberg. Practically all of Agatha Christie is on there in epub format, easy as anything to dip in and out of on an ereader like supreader on your phone.