Help me get back into reading!

[poppymango]

I used to read often and I loved it. Over the past couple of years I've got out of the habit, and every time I try and pick up a book my mind just wanders off and I can't get into it.

I need a book to remind me why I enjoy reading, so that I'll get back in the habit and keep it in my routine every day. Once I've finished a book I enjoy, I think it'll be easier to focus on the next one. So - suggestions please! Something well written but on the lighter side, maybe Marian Keyes or similar. I tried reading Normal People by Sally Rooney and it was just too gloomy and I couldn't concentrate 😆

Oh the new David nicholls 'You are here' dug me out of a recent reading rut. It was lovely and light and well written

I saw the title and was going to suggest you just need one book to get you going.

the book that worked for me after a dry spell was not what I would call a great novel. It was pulp that bordered on smut, but it was a compelling, quick read. Verity by Colleen Hoover. Not my normal thing at all, but I wanted to see what the hype was about. It broke my dry spell so it was definitely a win. I read the whole thing in a day.

The Museum of Ordinary People by Mike Gayle helped me break a 3-year reading dry spell post-DC.

Anything by Lucy Diamond

Ooh I haven't heard of her... I feel an after work trip to Waterstones coming on!

After a long dry spell I’ve just finished Shari Low’s One Day With You. I finished it in two days.

There are three or four in this style, she sets out chapters on each character that interlink. Easy on the brain!

Frieda McFadden, Lisa Jewell and Lucy foley helped me out of a reading rut

Anything by Ruth Jones of Gavin & Stacey fame. I haven’t been able to read for so long. Find it so hard to even follow a page. Yes anything of hers I’m hooked and can’t put it down. Just finished ‘Us Three’ in a week! I heard of for me.

A book by Elin Hilderbrand ? Very much holiday reading.
The Perfect Couple is light and entertaining.

I can definitely vouch for this, three of my favourite authors!

dawn O Porter is also brilliant, and I am currently half way through “the strange Sally Diamond” by Liz Nugent, and it’s excellent!

Perimenopause kicked the stuffing out of me reading wise. I used to be reading 3 books at a time, all sorts, up to then.

But I'm getting my reading mojo back.

https://www.waterstones.com/book/still-life/sarah-winman/9780008283391
Loved this - easy to read but I really liked the characters.

Slow Horses series.

Richard Osman - it's not great literature but it's cosy and got me actually reading more than a chapter at a time.

Tale of Two Cities - it's a romp.

Ooh I read one by Dawn O’Porter a few years back and I haaaated it. I felt like I was the only person who didn’t love it!! But the others - I will check them out 🙂

The Dawn ones are a bit more unusual so I can totally get that!

It looks like you have some great recommendations on this thread, I definitely think you’ll find something to enjoy! Lisa Jewell is amazing- None of This is True, and The House We Grew Up In are personal favourites of mine 😊 happy reading!

Helen Dunmore.

But I agree with gloomy ass books.
Picked one up to read in cafe just now

Bloody depressing- about a mother with post partum psychosis who murdered her children.

Awful subject and I need brain bleach.

Talking at Night by Claire Daverley?

@poppymango the giver of stars by jo jo Moyes is absolutely beautiful. Or anything by her lol. I love the ship of brides

Charlotte Butterfield books are 'funny and uplifting' according to Amazon. I have read a couple of the more recent ones and enjoyed them.

I enjoyed Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Lisa Jewell is very unputdownable

Not light reading as such but I've just finished the Serial Killer series by Alice Hunter. There are 3 and I've read them in 3 days. Not as gruesome as they sound but don't take a lot of thinking about to read.

Sophie Kinsella books are easy reads too.

John Marrs. Easy to read but not particularly light and fluffy!

I ❤️ New York by Lindsey Kelk. It's the first in a series so if you like it you've got your next few books sorted!

Fiona Collins is my go to for a good story, easy reading and bittersweet not hearts and flowers romance.
I loved You, Me & the Movies and have just finished Summer in the City which was also great.