Getting back to reading - Am I in a Dry Spell?

[Barryb64]

Hello,

Has anyone here had experience with roadblocks or a dry season in their reading of books? I seem to be in the midst of one. Here are some extra information that you will need.

I am visually impaired. Suffice to say, I'd literally have my nose in a book. This has been the case since birth. My vision that is and not my reading. Magnifiers? I really couldn't make good use of them. It wasn't until the advent of the PC and software to magnify what I'm reading or writing that it really helped.

When I was a kid and right up, until college, I had a relatively active interest in reading. I would quite literally spend hours inside the pages of a book. I would also sit and listen to books on tapes back in the 70s and 80s. Reading was truely a source of joy for me.

My main interest was with science fiction and fantasy genre. I rarely touched classic literature and only read a few mystery novels. In the midst of all this, I would read portions of the Bible repeatedly over the years. Of the many sci-fi novels, I'd read Doris Lessing, the Gen/Sime series, Poul Anderson's Adept series and other such books that I now call junk.

Yes, I had also read various Star Trek novels, some HG Wells, CS Lewis and Tolkien. These books I have no regrets about.

Today, I have a hard time sitting down and reading a book, as I used to. I've no desire to read books in my old stomping ground. I am trying to be discerning about what I read, as not all of those books were good for me. I, also feel both burned out and turned off by many of the junks I had came across.

I am trying to get into classic literature and am having a tremendous struggle with it. If I sit down and read Charles Dickens' "Great Expectation", it is a major struggle. Yet, I can sit down and listen to the entire books on audio CD. The same holds true for Victor Hugo's "Notre Dame" and Betty Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn".

Have I sought to read the books on this and similar sites? Yes, I have done this with "Christmas Carol", "Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde" and portions of Bunyan's "Pilgrem Progress" and "Holy War". Perhaps it is because I'm 44 years old. I have to push myself, a bit when reading this way.

Note: I generally use a 5x magnification when reading and a 2x or 3x for general viewing.

I may well be answering my own question; however I'd invite feedback on this.

[Zee.]

I personally find it incredibly difficult to get back in to the habit of reading, if you've stopped for awhile. I don't know why really. It's quite odd when I think about it.

[Paulclem]

I subscribe to an e-mail srvice provided by

www.dailylit.com

They have a lot of classics and will e-mail you a 5 minute read each day that you specify. You can also get the next instalmnet whenever you want by clicking the link in the extract. You can set up a book, and change it if you don't like it. They have a lot of out of copywrite classics.

Good searching.

[kiki1982]

I don't know, maybe you are just tired of it for a while?

I had such a period. After university, in 2001, I had had to read so much that I really had a distaste for it. And I did not touch a book, or had a hard time actually touching it, until 2004... (2months at least for a book of not even 200 pages) Then I picked up Dumas and I found back the spark.

That said, since I discovered this forum, I have read a lot more. And I also have more time now. Also, I want to concentrate, in the evening, on reading. I have realised that work and being tired do not help in wanting to read. Reading requires concentration and if one does not have the mental capacity at that moment, one ends up reading the same sentence over and again or reading without understanding (pass one page without actually knowing what you have read). Being a housewife affords me time, but also the mental capacity to concentrate even in the evening. Where I did not think of doing anything except vegetating in front of the tv in the past, I now sometimes decide to read, or do what I am doing now (write meaningful stuff) in the evening.

Maybe you are going through a busy period wich eats up your concentration capacity away, maybe you have had enough of literature for a while (certainly if you cannot be arsed to listen either).

I somehow don't think it has to do with the visual problem, although being perfectly equipped does not really qualify me to say anything about that. Maybe someone with more experience or knowledge can help you there.

[Dr. Hill]

Try reading 20th century classic literature. It's much more relative to us and normally comes across easier and more enjoyable. I'd recommend Fitzgerald, Capote and Steinbeck. For heavier stuff, Faulkner is one of my favorite authors.

[LMK]

It sounds as if the difficulty is with the actual physical act of reading, which is hard on the eyes. Reading via computer is even harder, remember to blink a lot, put sticky notes or other reminders if you do not, eye drops if your eye doctor allows.

Great Expectations is a fabulous starter into classical lit, for me (and I read it the first time with the sad ending, then years later decided to reread it and didn't know there were two endings so was very confused).

How about something that is not as thick so it won't take as long with the magnification you require? Maybe something like Snow Falling on Cedars, East of Eden, The Great Gatsby or The Stranger by Sartre?

Audio books as you know are great, too, but the reader can make or break it for me and I'm forced into their character's voices and inflections.

I hope some suggestions posted here will help.

Let us know how you are doing and if there is some other specific information we can offer.

~L

[TheFifthElement]

Well, maybe you're trying to hard to read literature which you think you should like, instead of something which piques your interest. Maybe you're trying to jump in at the deep end when you're still learning to swim?

If you like science fiction, you could try Asimov or Clarke, neither of which are space opera writers. If you're looking for something a bit quirky why not try J G Ballard or Kurt Vonnegut. You might enjoy Cats Cradle or Slaughterhouse 5 or The Drowned World or The Crystal World. You might want to try the fantasy and science fiction 'masterworks' series as a guide: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SF_Masterworks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_Masterworks

I'd recommend Grendel, it's brilliantly written and quite short (woefully so, in my view )

Maybe you want to start with short stories and work from there? There are plenty of good short story collections which will give you a 'taste' of a writer before plunging in at the deep end. Through short stories I discovered a liking for Ballard, who I've mentioned, but also Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jose Saramago, Haruki Murakami.

Audio books, as LMK mentioned, are a great idea if you're struggling with the reading because of your eyesight.

[prendrelemick]

Go back to one of your favourites, one that you really enjoyed, thats what I do when I get readers block.

[Voivod30]

I think The Fifth Element brought up an interesting point. Perhaps you are over thinking the process. I'd suggest going to your local library (or if possible bookstore) and picking up half a dozen or so classic novels. Try reading just a tiny bit from each one and eventually you should find some thing that clicks. Keep in mind that even the most prolific readers haven't read even close to every classic novel ever written. It's easy to get overwhelmed if you are a neophyte, however; you shouldn't look at reading as a competition. I have OCD so I'm definitely one to over think just about every time I go to find a reading project. I'm trying to lessen this at the moment. The amount of time I spend worrying about what I haven't read (or what I have read but didn't understand entirely) is time that I could have devoted to my hobbies.

[crusoe]

Try "The Futurological Congress" by Stanislaw Lem. It's a very funny SF-Satire that
helped me once to overcome a "Reading-Block". Good luck

[papayahed]

Well, maybe you're trying to hard to read literature which you think you should like, instead of something which piques your interest. Maybe you're trying to jump in at the deep end when you're still learning to swim?

Agreed. When I'm in a slump I always turn to the fun, page-turner type of reads. After one or two of those I usually feel I can take on a Russin. Some of my favorites are:

Sewer, Gas and Electric: The Public Works Trilogy by Matt Ruff
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Any Stephanie Plum


(For the record I found Great Expectations very dense and hard to get through)

[TurquoiseSunset]

Sometimes I go through dry spells too. Sometimes it's, like Kiki mentioned, it's just because I'm exhausted or some similar thing. Sometimes too, I find I need a while in between books (not sure why that is).

How to fix it? I do what some of the others here have recommended, mainly reread an old favourite or try some "fun, page-turner type of reads". I also go onto Amazon (for example) and check out what's happening and what's recommended and follow the 'Customers who bought this also bought' links. Read the reviews - even of the books you already own/know about, but have skipped over because you didn't 'feel' like reading them at the time. Works like a charm for me. But really, don't put pressure on yourself. If you don't feel like reading just now, don't.

I agree with what Papayahed said about Great Expectations. It doesn't provide the get-up-and-go you need at this time.

All of this made me think of this nice quote I found the other day:
“All morning I struggled with the sensation of stray wisps of one world seeping through the cracks of another. Do you know the feeling when you start reading a new book before the membrane of the last one has had time to close behind you? You leave the previous book with ideas and themes -- characters even -- caught in the fibers of your clothes, and when you open the new book, they are still with you.” ― Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale.

And thanks Paul for the awesome link!!

[MANICHAEAN]

Dry spells in reading are not my problem, but from time to time I dry up with the writing and find that frustrating.