35 years old. I dunno what to try to read anymore. Please help me out.
Perhaps it is just me, maybe since I never had the habit of reading much, that I find it so difficult to concentrate on a book, even with worldwide acclaimed classics. I’ve tried stuff like Lolita, To Kill a Mockingbird (didn’t finish it), Catcher in the Rye (finished it but took me so long), The Great Gatsby, etc. It is not my intent to say these books are boring, in fact I would never dare to, as they are timeless classics widely acclaimed, it’s just that for some reason I cannot appreciate their genius? I notice when a book isn’t “catching” me when I am reading them and my mind starts to wander off, think of other stuff, having to re-read the same paragraph 3 or 4 times because I was pretty much reading on automatic, etc. At that time I put them down, then try to read them in the future again, but the same thing happens.
There has been just a handful of books that have really trapped me and spent long sessions reading, and even less (couple maybe) that have trapped me so much that I finished in a single sitting, or at least in a single day. Some of them were:
Hyperion: I am frankly impressed that I managed to read this so quickly. The mystery of the shrike and the different stories of each pilgrim kept me interested and excited and the encounters with the shrike was something that really pulled me in.
Old man and the sea: This book was very calming for me. Have not tried anything else by Hemingway though.
Norwegian wood and South of the border, west of the sun. I finished Norwegian wood in an all nighter, from 10 PM to 7 AM, I remember it clearly. I could not put the book down. Same with SotB,WotS. Perhaps I should be looking at more from Murakami?
Las batallas en el desierto: Short one but trapped me in a similar way like Norwegian wood
I purchased a kindle oasis like 5 years ago, but have hardly used it. Starting to think that there’s sometihng wrong with me, how can I not appreciate any book? Not even the masterpiece classics? Maybe I have AD? Maybe I’m dumb/brain too fried from the era of digital entertainment/quick dopamine rushes? Maybe I need to read books that are easy to read, without multiple timelines/plot twists, or with very simple, “fast food” type of plots?
I really want to develop a reading habit but I find it so hard.
by Tirfing88
3 Comments
Is there a particular reason you’re only reading classics? What movies and TV shows do you like? Read books in those genres.
Sounds like you should try *not* acclaimed classics (I’ll say it: sometimes they very much are boring!) or maybe audiobooks.
If you like classics because the prose is good, try Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. They write clever, witty books with no extraneous verbiage. I would say Farewell My Lovely or Red Harvest are good books to start with. PLEASE NOTE: these books are from another era when misogyny and racism were casually bandied about. The stories are good. The characters are good. The worldviews…not so much.