I am in my early 30s and I feel like I accidentally trained my brain to be useless for reading. As a kid and teen I was the stereotypical book goblin, going through 2 or 3 novels a week, reading at the dinner table, in the bathtub, in the back of the car with a flashlight. Then somewhere in my mid 20s life turned into work-email-social media-repeat. I still *buy* books, I still love the idea of books, but actually finishing one feels impossible. I pick something up, read 6 pages, check my phone, suddenly it is an hour later and I am scrolling some random drama thread instead of paying attention to the story. I really, really miss the version of me who could disappear into a book for hours and come back kind of changed from it.
I am not looking for "how to focus" self help as much as I am looking for books that are almost sneaky about pulling you back in. Plotty enough that I want to know what happens next, but not pure thriller where somebody gets murdered every second page. Emotional without feeling like trauma porn. Bonus if there is some warmth or humor and characters who feel like actual people with jobs and messy kitchens. Books I loved back when I still had attention: The Night Circus, The Secret History, A Man Called Ove, Station Eleven, The House in the Cerulean Sea, The Martian, Never Let Me Go. Stuff that did *not* work for me recently: super dry literary fiction where nothing really happens, military sci fi with 40 pages of ship specs, anything that is trying very hard to be edgy. I am open to YA, fantasy, romance, whatever, as long as it is well written and not cruel. I also wouldnt mind some non fiction that reads like a story – narrative history, travel writing, weird niche topics told by someone obsessive in a good way. I just want that feeling again where you realise you forgot to check your phone for three hours because you were busy living inside someone elses head. If you have any recs that helped you get out of a reading slump or survive the doomscroll brain, I would be super grateful.
by MoontraceStudio