I studied literature in school and used to absolutely love reading – both fiction and nonfiction.
However, Multiple Sclerosis has apparently eaten the part of my brain that processes literature, because I can’t seem to follow a plot or pay attention to a book for longer than five minutes.
I do listen to audiobooks, but it isn’t quite the same.
Can you recommend deeply interesting but not over complicated books? I enjoy both fiction and nonfiction.
by gowashanelephant
3 Comments
Different circumstances, but when my PTSD and meds fried my brain, I couldn’t read for almost a year. I stumbled onto *The Uninteresting and Completely Unadventurous Tales of Fred the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes* on this sub and it worked. The books are episodic, so each book has multiple stories that follow the same MC. They all work together, but it’s easier to follow a chunk of story at a time. Also, it’s a vampire in a sweater vest, which is worth the struggle. The Graphic Audio full cast audiobooks of the Fred series are wonderful as well.
The Discworld books (Terry Pratchett, fantasy/comedy) might work for you. They’re fun and engaging even if you’ve lost track of what’s happening.
The Anthropocene Reviewed (John Green, nonfiction) is a collection of short, interesting, and easy to read essays.
I have some memory and attention issues from ADHD and chronic illness brain fog, and what I’ve found most helpful is actually using an ereader, making the font huge, and using the within-book lookup function whenever I can’t remember a character or something. I’m not entirely sure why the increased font size helps, but it makes it easier for me to focus even when I’m not having any eyestrain or headache issues.
Check out The Hot Zone by Richard Preston for narrative nonfiction. Also, have you tried collections of super short stories? Unfortunately, I don’t have much to offer in that area, but maybe someone else will chime in.