Here I am, another victim of instagram, infinite scrolling and the short term rewards. I have been feeling the pain of not being able to concentrate, poor sleep, anxiety and depression for some time now, due to the high amount of screen time I consume. My job is making websites and I spend a lot of time online both at work and in my free time.
Because of all this, I would like to get back to my old habit of reading physical books, especially at least an hour before bedtime.
However, I seem to be unable to get hooked on any book – maybe it’s too late and I’m already broken?
Here’s a list of the most memorable books I’ve read throughout my life, not that I’ve ever been an avid reader to be honest:
-Myst books
-The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
-All of Game of Thrones
-All of Harry Potter
-The Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear
-A few Dan Brown and John Verdon, the typical ones
-The Tales of Edgar Allan Poe
-A few books about the Holocaust, including the typical ones: The Diary of Anne Frank (I hated it), The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Man’s Search For Meaning, etc…
-Stephen King’s IT and the mist (not a big King fan).
I can’t remember many more, maybe a few Spanish books, I tried to read Coelho and Chuck Palahniuk without much success.
I think it’s obvious that I have a tendency for mainstream bestsellers, particularly it seems in the fantasy genre. Maybe something good in that style? I used to like crime novels but I’m unable to get hooked on anything in the genre anymore. I think if there’s a good fantasy story or one based on medieval times or feudal era samurai, I also really like the Victorian era, idk. Let’s see if you can help me. Thanks.
by imahh17
4 Comments
Are you open to middle grade fantasy? My favorite series is [Nevermoor](https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/6a6d5ca1-b2f5-47be-828c-018144d3bbc7) by Jessica Townsend! It has great worldbuilding, and really fun characters.
On the one hand, you might try short story or non-fiction essay collections, because you can read them in smaller bites. An added bonus to NF is that you can look for collections centered on subjects that interest you.
On the other hand, since you mentioned medieval-based and fantasy, I suggest The Lions of al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay. It’s set in an alternate universe version of medieval Spain during the period of the Reconquista. If you like that one, Kay has several other books set in the same larger universe that also reimagine certain periods in (mostly European) history.
Maybe try Matthew Reilly novels. They’re not dissimilar to Dan Brown, very fast paced and action packed, so they’ll probably be easier to concentrate on. His most popular character is Shane Schofield, I’d suggest checking out Ice Station to see if you like Reilly’s writing style.
V E Schwab’s “Shades of Magic” helped get me out of my slump of not reading. And quickly. Read all three in days because I couldn’t put them down after a while without reading a physical book. I hope you find your doorway back!