I think a lot of us want to be able to read longer material, but our attention spans are fried for various reasons. For me, it was the fatal combo of doing a reading-intensive college degree that ate away at my time + social media brainrot + a high level of anxiety that makes me feel generally restless and unfocused. I used to be a huge reader, so I've tried jumping right back into reading long novels multiple times. This hasn't seemed to work in any lasting way. I've had more luck recently with starting small.
Even if you set your goal as: "I want to read something longer than tweets or social media posts," it's progress! Zines, articles, Substack posts, anything just a little bit longer that your brain can latch deeper into will help rebuild your attention. Short story collections and novellas have also been helpful for me, especially if you pick a topic or genre that you're really interested in. I'm still on some forms of social media, so I haven't gone cold-turkey. But I do feel like incorporating longer-form material again, even mixed in with scrolling, has helped my brain so much already. It's refreshing to hand-select what I want to read and give my attention to, instead of letting an algorithm serve me topics. I didn't realize how much depth I was missing in exchange for the breadth of the internet!
Jan 19, 2025
Related Recs
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if you're like me and got away from reading for a few years but are trying to get back into it, here are some things that have helped me in the last 6 ish months:
1) deleting some social media accounts / spending less time on them
2) replace my doom scrolling with reading either on my phone or with an e-reader (the more basic the better imo) (my kobo is on its way to me as we speak)
3) starting with shorter things like novellas and working my way back up to longer things (also if I feel overwhelmed by my lack of progress on something longer I read a short story)
4) remembering that reading is a skill and it will take time to get really good at it again like when I was younger and that's okay !
happy reading everyone!
Jan 13, 2025
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not an avid reader (~3-4 books / year, trying to get that number up) but the things that have really invigorated my reading when it feels like a chore to get started:
- reading books that aren’t challenging to start off. all about love and the will to change by bell hooks were the first books i was able to successfully finish in like, years bc her writing style is very colloquial despite the subject matter being very dense. similarly, finding a fun fantasy book (or other genre fiction) to get back in the practice of turning pages and “wanting to find out what comes next” is gonna be paramount to being able to do that for books that are gonna require a little more give from you down the line (haven’t read a physical book in over six months so personally going to start legends and lattes soon to try and trick my brain into not thinking books are time-consuming and scary)
- audiobooks; for me at least reading requires too much visual processing + “sitting still” time that i can’t multi-task and read, so i have to schedule when i’m gonna try and do it (unlike tv where you can have it on in the background as you do dishes or working from home or something and can look up periodically) - taking a chunk of podcast + music time and replacing it with audiobooks has been a game changer bc i now read at the gym, at the office, and in transit <30 min long bc i have to track what station i’m at or see where i’m going
Mar 28, 2024
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I used to be a huge reader as a kid. I'd devour book after book, carting home a whole tote bag of books from the library well into high school. Then comes the part many of my peers have related to: you get older, you go to school, you start working. You only read for school, which makes reading not fun, and then you get a job, or maybe you're doing both, and the last thing you want to do is use your brain after a long day. Then ohp! Now you're living on your own, and there's all this housework, and who has time to sit down with a book when you're running around all day. Besides, why read a book when you can doomscroll? That's reading, right? Add a few dopamine-inducing algorithm factories to your routine, and next thing you know, it's been years since you finished an actual book.
But last year, I downloaded Kindle Unlimited to access a book I'd heard good things about....and was surprised at how easy it was to get through a book. There were so many recommendations. Then I realized that, for example, when I was in the waiting room or had 15 minutes to spare, instead of logging into Instagram, I could just....tap a different app and read a chapter or two of a book.
In 2024, I read 24 books. That's more than I have in literal years!
I've fallen in love with romance novels, and signed up for a service that lets me know when there's good deals on some of my other favorite genres. It's taken a while for my reading muscle to recover, but I've moved on to meatier nonfiction titles, as well.
Now, I will be clear that I do not like Amazon, and do my best to divest myself from it when possible. But the way I see it, for now, what e-books have done for helping me rediscover my love of reading adds a lot to my life. And I figure that if it helps me get through more justice-oriented, anti-capitalist literature, then I'm using the system to work against it. ;)
I'm just so glad I've found a way back into reading again!
Jan 29, 2025
Top Recs from @gforce2001
I love doing collages, cuz all you really need are magazine cutouts and glue. There's a very low barrier to entry, skill-wise AND supply-wise, unlike painting. Digital collages are fun too, but I try to have less screentime by doing the paper ones. If I want to re-use pieces instead of gluing them down permanently, sometimes I'll just take a picture of the current arrangement to immortalize it, and then start over on a new composition. That way, I don't have to constantly buy new magazines to get new cutouts. This is one of my favorite ones I've done so far:
Aug 22, 2024
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This is the only thing that keeps me sane at work. It's so slow right now. If anyone is wondering why I've posted like 9 times today.
4d ago
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i always get stuck choosing which stuff to watch/read/get into next when i look at my huge former watchlists & TBR's. a lot of items are things i put on there years ago and never got around to, so usually by the time i check the list again, my tastes have totally changed. i realized it was hard to get myself excited or motivated about half the stuff i put on there anymore, but i felt indebted to knocking it out anyway just because it was on the list. i'd recommend letting your current feelings/impulses take the wheel, and trust that you'll come back around to any of the other options if they're right for you later on.
Apr 18, 2024