Sick of fiction - can't read any more. Any fellow sufferers?

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Just back from holiday where I managed not to finish 1 book. Last year I read the Ferrante books - all 4 of them, and holiday reading normally involves 3-5 paperbacks. I was a bookworm child, and have a BA in English Literature. But I am just sick of fiction. I've stopped believing in the made-up people. I hate the feeling of manipulation. And strongly plot-driven narratives leave me feeling ultimately dissatisfied. But I don't want to plunder my husband's non-fiction/biographies either. I'm having a serious falling-out with literature. Any fellow sufferers, or remedies to bring me back to books?

But IMVH and jaded O, The Essex Serpent is only all right. It's not great. It's got an annoying structure, where, if I recall, the first chapter of every section is told in the present tense and then every other chapter in the past. Why? Gratuitous showboating. It's got Victorians behaving like 21st century people. It's got characters who could never have existed outside the pages of a book ie misunderstood but saintly surgeons, and mad but all-sacrificing consumptive wives. It's got a daft plot. It's got an epistolary element which seeks to explain elements of the plot and is wholly unconvincing. And so on. I didn't mind it. I enjoyed it to some extent. But reading a book like this is like looking at an oil painting and seeing all the paint by numbers outlines beneath it.

This is interesting- I've been feeling like this for ages about fiction. I'm the same with pop music too. Just don't believe in it any more. Have managed some very frothy historical fiction but can only do classical music. I haven't met anyone else in real life- people tend to look pityingly or disinterested if I mention it.

Yes, been like that for a while. Try:

The Shock Doctrine - Naomi Klein. (few years old but very relevant)
Dark Money - financing democracy in the US, Koch brothers etc. Chilling
Currently reading 'The Road to Wigan Pier', George Orwell. It's fascinating

Each to their own! I agree with much of what you say about The Essex Serpent Ontopofthesunset. Parts of it are deeply irritating. But I chose it because the subject matter seemed vaguely original, and frankly, any contemporary novel that doesn't allude to secret child abuse or life in exile is refreshing imho.

Well, I thought The Essex Serpent was a breath of fresh air. Beautiful writing, sensitive and pared back characterisation and not trying to be too bloody clever for its own good. I liked that it was quiet and spare and wasn't trying to do too much.

Agree with Remus Essex Serpent one of few recent fiction books I really enjoyed. Beautifully written and didn't find it at all showboaty. I think she focused on the similarities between Victorian culture and our own; closing the gap in this way made it feel almost timeless and was cleverly done I thought. She acknowledges the usual tropes and characters of Victorian fiction and subverted them, and made friendship a prominent theme which is unusual. I loved it.

I wouldn't touch a Little Life with a barge pole though, sounds too mawkish. The good stuff is out there but there is just so much published these days, you have to kiss a lot of frogs.

I suppose that's what I mean by feeling jaded about what I read. I thought that The Essex Serpent was one of the better (contemporary) books I've read this year, but still so unsatisfying. I think I feel rather like the character in Perfume who's tired of all normal scents but is on a hopeless quest.

I'm managing to read more now that ds is older but still struggle with fiction more than nonfiction. I thoroughly recommend browsing for nonfiction at the library, thereby avoiding over enthusiastic reviews which don't help.

Just reading The Divide by Jason Hickel which is good though a bit black and white.

A nonfiction book I read some time ago but absolutely loved was Paris After the Liberation by Artemis Cooper and her husband.

I agree with Ontopofthesunset about The Essex Serpent. I didn't dislike it, in fact I quite enjoyed it, but it was disappointing after the hype. I hadn't really analysed why, but "Victorians behaving like 21st century people. It's got characters who could never have existed outside the pages of a book ie misunderstood but saintly surgeons, and mad but all-sacrificing consumptive wives. It's got a daft plot" pretty much crystallises it for me.

Yes!! I've abandoned so many books recently. Then I read The Vegetarian by Han Kang and it was so different to anything else I've ever read it has got me going again. It's a totally bonkers horror/love story.

My book of last summer was His Bloody Project by Graeme McCrae which I was glued to and nothing compared for ages.

I've just bought The Fact of a Body - non-fiction for a change. I like anything that's a bit discomfiting.

So I am normal (ish). Phew. Like many of you I'm discomforted by my jadedness and really wish I could recover the total absorption I felt in my earlier reading days. I'm sure that novel over-exposure, the cynicism of age, derivative modern fiction and the internet-driven attention deficit disorder all play a part.

Thanks for all of the suggested remedies, particularly non-fiction, and returning to the classics. I've never read Trollope so will give it a go. And I've remembered I like reading about food - e.g. have enjoyed 'The Rituals of Dinner', Elizabeth David, Michael Pollan etc, so will do more of that and maybe improve my cooking at the same time.

Can I join in? Also an ex-bookworm with an MA in Eng Lit, now incapable of reading anything.

I blame young kids - I don't have a guaranteed uninterrupted time that I can lose myself in a book, and am often knackered and don't feel I have the brainpower. Then I try a book and it's rubbish. But I miss feeling like "me" and reading.

This thread has been reallly useful for inspiration. We're going on holiday for a couple of weeks and hopefully I will find the time to get stuck in.

I feel a bit like this. I am re-reading Alan Bennett's most recent diaries ( and other bits) - 'Keeping On Keeping On.' I like his droll grumblings.

Perhaps it's because I've just finished a particularly dry piece of non-fiction, but am currently really enjoying the novel I'm reading, which is Maggie O'Farrell's This Must be the Place.

I recently started reading non-fiction books on the dark ages(i find no one really wants to know much about that time in history) the history of australia and about north koreas POW camps and the whole north korean regime. All i have found really interesting and gripping. I have always really hated fiction... 😒

I've found listening to fiction on Audible has conquered this for me.
I have an uninterrupted hour long commute when I listen and it's become the highlight of my day (sad).
The Audible version of Bring Up the Bodies was absolutely fantastic, and I struggled to get through Wolf Hall. The immediacy of audio really suits the narrative.
I've also listened to Anna Karenina, War and Peace, I'm getting through the classics I always meant to read by having someone read them to me.

Oh I so get this. I review books and can read up to 4 or 5 a week. I used to love what I did but in the last few months I've reached burnout - there are only so many thrillers touted as 'the new Gone Girl' one can stomach.

So, lately, I've returned to non-fiction for relief. My pet subjects are the Wars of the Roses, history of London and the Victorians. Magnificent Obsession, about Victoria's love and grief for Albert, was mesmerising. I also loved all Jerry White's London books - plenty to get your teeth into there.

And if all else fails, I head for Hardy or Ken Collette's Kingsbridge books.

I'm getting my mojo back, albeit slowly.

Try sapiens ? Really good non fiction x

Or spread out from your usual s .. try some high fantasy, some sci-fi?
Brandon Sanderson is incredible x

I've managed both fiction and non-fiction over the summer. I am enjoying Do No Harm, but a chapter or two at a time, and I liked Admissions. I read several volumes of essays by Theodore Dalrymple for a counterbalance to all the leftwing polemics. He's good on literature and art too, and writes beautifully.

From the fiction shelf, a friend in publishing recommended one of her titles, The Dragonfly. Our tastes are generally quite different, but I liked it very much for a tender family story with a twist of whodunit.

And since reading the new John Le Carré (A Legacy of Spies) last week, which was a birthday present, I have plunged back into the Cold War and the machinations of Mr George Smiley and the Circus. The Spy who came in from the Cold is chilling reading, all over again, especially with the US/NKorea/China standoff.

It's social media. Phones and laptops. Fucking things