(English is not my first language so, sorry for any spelling mistakes.)
So, I’ve been reading for a long time. At first, I liked young adult books, and recently I fell in love with older titles and classics. While I finished reading all the books tagged “young adult”, when I started reading the classics, I read halfway through the books and then didn’t finish them. It’s not that they bore me, I actually love them, especially this fancy, “old-fashioned”, archaic language. But my attention span is somewhat smaller (too many distractions on the internet?), and about halfway through reading a book I stop and take a break (even at the climaxes!) with the intention of returning to reading later. And then it looks like this: I leave the “to be finished book”, I buy a new book, start reading it with excitement and then put it aside for later like previous one. My reading list is really long and it would be best if I could read everything at once, but that’s not possible. So I regularly buy books i really want to have, read halfway through them and then buy another ones, and then it repeats. This is a vicious circle that I cannot get out of. Idk if it has something to do with the sudden change of genre, or is it just that my brain got worse at reading. Whatever’s the reason, this is pretty annoying…
by raw_octopus
3 Comments
Have you tried reading short fiction? You can get single-author collections or multi-author anthologies, and it’s likely that at least some of the classic writers whose novels you’re enjoying also wrote short fiction (as well as tons of great modern authors). Then you can read a complete story in a sitting and it doesn’t matter if you jump between books, as each book has multiple complete stories.
Alternatively, you can look at novellas or shorter novels.
Sometimes getting into a current read feels harder than starting a new one. That’s the turning point. Force yourself to go back to that book you started, and either consciously decide not to finish it or finish it. Then you can start another book. It’s okay to have a couple of books going at once, but not more. Go through every book that’s in-progress and either decide to delete and restart later, or finish it. That’s the only sane solution.
Then, if you notice you’re frequently not finishing classics or having trouble staying focused on them, move onto other genres. It’s okay to like / feel engaged by some books more than others. Nobody else is impacted by your reading choices except you, so be honest with yourself. Those other books will be there when you’re done with the current ones.
I go through periods of depression, that make reading impossible for me because I can’t concentrate.This may or may not be what you’re talking about. If not, I apologize I criticized myself about this for a few years until I figured out what was going on now I just ride it out and when I *do* start reading again, I start with a children’s book. The last time I went through this I reread *Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens* to start up again.