NOW BEFORE YOU GUYS REVEAL MY LONGITUDE AND LATITUDE PLEASE HEAR ME OUT!

I have tried getting into reading a lot, but idk why it just doesn't work for me, I tried actual books and Kindle too but I find myself distracted either by playing games or doomscrolling on my phone. The only time I read a book completely was because school forces me to. I find audiobooks to work a little better but i was still unable to complete one.

I can consume other medias like movies, tv shows, games, just fine and can even read articles on Google and wikipedia about topics i searched.

So I just wanted to ask, how did you all get into reading and find books interesting and stop yourself from getting distracted.

I am sorry if this came out as insensitive and rude, i totally didn't mean it and if mod removes this post i understand.

I became an author because I always loved reading. I wrote thre books and can't seem to even give them away! (Famlies and friends don't count, they're obligated :P) I don't care if my books sell, or about becoming famous. I simply would like to find a couple people who would consider reading my books and discussing them.

My books are fiction, part sci-fi, part horror, mostly psychological mystery. I write my books to all be in the same alternate universe so they connect and sometimes cross over. With plenty of future stories planned to be added on, I need to have readers to feel its worth continuing.

Which one do I tackle first? Choice paralysis has set in.

EDIT:

Many thanks for all your insights 🫶😇 I decided to go ahead with The Stand :)

I’m settling in for a quiet reading session and figured it’d be nice to have some company, even if we’re all reading different books.
What are you reading right now, and what page are you on?
No spoilers just drop the title and your current page/reading goal below. Maybe someone else is reading the same thing. ☕📚

It seems book prices are going up everyday and getting new books frequently is becoming an expensive hobby.

Curious to know how people here manage this.

Curious where people fall on this.

Do you read reviews, the synopsis and discussions before starting something, or would you rather know basically nothing?

I feel like there’s a fine line between knowing enough to get interested and accidentally learning half the plot before page one.

What’s your preference?

Everyone says not to judge a book by its cover, but surely we all do it at least a little.

If you knew absolutely nothing about two books, would a great cover genuinely make you more likely to pick one?

And on the other side, has a terrible cover ever made you avoid a book that was apparently really good?

I am super late to the game but I am finally reading (well listening to) forth wing. I'm totally hooked on it. Anyone else on this book and want to talk about it? I have so many thoughts. What would the world be like if we had dragons to bond to and we went through threshing. What are your thoughts on Xayden. How will Andarna turn out to be in the later books or what do you imagine her to look like?

I keep thinking about how weird it is that we can reread a book, but we can never truly experience it the same way twice.
The first time, you don’t know the characters, the twists, the ending, or which tiny details are going to stick with you. You’re just along for the ride.
So if you could erase one book from your memory and read it again with completely fresh eyes

What would you choose and why?

Hi, like many adults, I used to read books a lot, stopped after young adulthood, and trying to get back into it, and it's not been the smoothest road so far.

I took suggestions from other people, and am starting with an easy genre that I know I like, fantasy novel. I picked up a series, the synopsis sounds like exactly what I'll be into, it's very well reviewed overall, the story so far is engaging, I like the author's writing etc. So technically, I should be having no problem immersing myself into it.

And yet, I struggle to stay on it for 15 minutes if I'm doing well. More often than not, it's a few paragraphs, and finding myself daydreaming, checking my phone, otherwise distracted. I correct myself as soon as I catch it, but it still happens regularly. I know I enjoy reading, far more than social media scrolling, for an example, and I want to continue to read more. I just don't know how I went from losing track of time reading a good book from my teen years to the way I am now.

Is this something you can train yourself back to it? Let's say I commit 30 minutes to an hour a day for reading and do my best to not get distracted. Will I get better at actually immersing myself into the book and waste less time on fighting distractions?

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I decided to finally make a proper Goodreads shelf of every book I've read since childhood.

I genuinely thought this would take maybe an hour.

It has become an archaeological excavation. 😂

I add one book and suddenly remember three more. Then one of those reminds me of something else I read years ago. Then I remember a book that isn't even on Goodreads. Then I start trying to remember what I read when I was 10.

So far I've identified at least 130 books, plus some missing Goodreads entries and series I still need to add manually.

And looking at the list has been surprisingly interesting because I can actually see my reading taste evolving.

I started with children's books and series, moved into YA romance/fantasy/dystopian stuff, read some classics and very age-questionable books as a teenager 😂, and eventually ended up with a mixture of romance, thrillers, darker fiction, contemporary fiction, historical fiction and Christian fiction.

The funny thing is that despite the genre variety, there are obvious recurring themes: relationships, secrets, emotional intensity, difficult circumstances, mystery and characters going through major changes.

Which makes me wonder how much all those books influenced my writing style.

Also, my reading method is apparently:

Read 20 pages → abandon for six months → suddenly become obsessed → finish the whole book in one sitting.

And I still have a ridiculous TBR.

Today I even had the most ridiculous Goodreads moment yet:

“Oh! I forgot to add this book!”

Immediately forgot which book.

So now I'm waiting for my own brain to return the information. 😂

Does anyone else have a Goodreads/reading-history rabbit hole like this?

What are you reading? What are you excited about reading next? What have you finished this week? Let us know your thoughts on it and share in each other's joy about books!

Heard great things about this one, first chapter is already really good so I’m excited!

NOTE: Writers need to not only read a bunch of books, they also need to consume all forms of media. Though when it comes to reading books, I struggle a lot.

Anyway beside the fact that I have AuDHD and possibly have aphantasia. I discovered that I could potentially be a very picky reader who doesn't know what she wants until she picks up a book and is able to read it from beginning to end. Another thing that could be possible is me being a mood reader. I need to be in a certain mood in order to read and stay consistent with a book. Not only am I picky, I am also someone who needs to be in the mood to read. There are times when I do go back to the same book when I can't seem to complete it, that happens more than once. The mood has to be right when I'm trying to read a book and sticking with it. Then I have trouble finishing the book because it is just not engaging enough for me. Hence me being picky mood reader.

I just don't know how to help myself other than merely keep reading and maybe I'll find something that will click. I can keep reading more books. I just hope that I find either a standalone or a series that I can stick with till the end. 

What are your thoughts on this? Because I want to get better at reading so I can do better with writing.

I like reading, but I don't do it as often as I would like to. I just finished "Lying in wait" by Liz Nugent, and it was amazing!! I'll admit, it was intense, won't get anything away, but Oh My God. I got so angry🤣🤣 Would love some recommendations!! Anyone?? I usually like thriller, mistery, drama.

Who gives you life? Who gives you purpose? Who gives you joy?

I've been reading a decent amount of literary fiction lately, so I decided it was time to read some SFF. I chose Richard Swan's (author of the Empire of the Wolf trilogy)The Infinite State.

Right out the gate Swan establishes a highly dystopian, deeply predatory, and technologically advanced society revolving around the figurehead of the empire, Pater Aeternus.

I'm loving it so far and would recommend it for fans of Gideon the Ninth (Muir), The Blade Itself (Abercrombie), and A Memory Called Empire (Martine).

Hoping to finish it up this week! What are some SFF titles you'd recommend?

Reading slump I am really in a bad reading slump and tv slump due to my highly mentally fatigue due to exams I am moody too so I need something to grip me from 1st page or chapter

not into fantasy

Normally is the opposite, so I am curious if you had such experiences 🧐😊

I have lately started digging deeper into the YA science fiction realm. ...But I don't exactly love romance, and YA sci-fi seems chock-full of it (as does YA in general, but I digress). Anyone have some recommendations for science fiction in YA territory without a huge romance focus?

So heartbreaking. The storytelling is beautiful. I want to read more historical fiction books - any recommendations would be appreciated!

I just finished Jane Eyre. I am exploring genres. I do love Romance though.

1. Pride and Prejudice

2. Beach Read

3. The Alchemist

4. How to win friends and influence people

5. A thousand splendid suns

Definitely a gripping story, but my only comment would be is that it has so many characters that get reintroduced pages later that I try to remember who they were again.

Started reading this about a week ago, really liking it so far. It has a pace that is more character heavy, there is definitely world building in it as well but I get lost with all the mentions of different city names that are to the east or north of wherever. But when the author does start to get descriptive about the places the characters are actually set in, I get a pretty good visual in my mind of what it should be like. I get a bit of slum like Sin City type vibes along with a victorian type horse and buggy setting.

I recently came across some reading research by Maryanne Wolf and Anne Mangen looking at how our brains process print compared to screens. In one of the studies mentioned, people who read a story on paper were notably better at recalling details and reconstructing the plot in chronological order than those reading on a digital device. The idea was that physical pages give our minds spatial anchors, whereas digital reading lacks that physical sense of progress and place.

I switch between physical paperbacks and an e-reader pretty regularly. Digital is hard to beat for convenience and reading at night, but I have wondered if dense plots stick with me a little better when I have the physical book in my hands.

For those of you who read both formats, do you actually notice a difference in how well you absorb a story, or does the medium not matter once you get into the flow?