I used to be an avid reader, but years of high school and depression completely ruined that. I haven’t been able to complete a novel since senior year six years ago. It’s frustrating to me and I want to know how I can overcome my lack of focus and anxiety. I’ve heard I’m not alone when it comes to this sort of thing at least.
E: I wasn’t expecting so many replies. Thank you, all of you, for the ideas.
This was sort of me. I couldn’t use my eyes to read a book after college. Something about college took that from me. Maybe that’s when I really dove into social media, maybe I never had quiet space to just read. Either way, undiagnosed adhd and some degree of dyslexia went a ways towards breaking my looong time visual reading habit.
But, I never stopped reading audiobooks. Almost a decade out and I’m still recovering my visual reading, but I downed 13 books and novellas this month via audiobook. (And finally finished an ebook I started in February!) Reading is now an inevitability rather than a goal.
I read almost exclusively sci-fi and fantasy, but slip in non-fiction or classic fiction every so often.
So, for me, it’s read what you like and read how you like.
Side note: books that I really want to ready that aren’t at my library as audiobooks are the sole driver of me getting back into visual reading. Being audio-only locked me out of a LOT of books that I really want to read. So, unless that matches you, I have no idea how to reincentivize visual reading other than that.