I read Tugba Kibar's post about never sticking to one book at a time. She's got four going at once, a book club pick, a novel, a classic, something non-fiction. She said she doesn't even like doing it. She just can't stop.
I felt that. A few years back, that was me too. Three or four books going at once. Switch whenever I felt like it. Never thought twice about it. I loved it, one book after another, always something keeping me entertained.
But lately I can't seem to get into a book, no matter how much I want to. I've got plenty of spare time to read. Books stacked on my shelf, waiting. And I just don't pick them up.
By the time I sit down with a book, my eyes are already done. Email. RSS. Social media. All day long. My eyes are tired before I even open the cover.
Turns out I'm not the only one dealing with this. BookClub points out that all that screen time before you even reach a book leaves you worn out, so you end up reaching for something passive instead, like TV, rather than actually opening a book.
Busy with Books put it in a way that made me feel better about the whole thing: "You're not lazy. You're just a normal human in the 21st century." Their fix isn't forcing a full hour of reading right out of the gate. It's leaving the phone in another room and building the habit back slowly, a little at a time.
Nook gets into why it happens. "Ads, pop-ups, cookie banners, newsletter prompts, floating share buttons," your brain processes all of that noise even when you're trying to tune it out, and that background static wears you down before you've even read a word that matters. Their fix: cut the noise first. A cleaner reading view, fewer tabs open, fewer things competing for your eyes.
I already wrote about this same thing, dickovers, the walls that block a page before you can read a word of it. Same noise, just aimed at blogs instead of reading in general.
And Mark Manson's take, via Upworthy, is close to something I was already circling: build actual digital detox blocks into the day, and give your brain a real break instead of trading one screen for another.
So maybe it's not about attention span. Maybe it's about how I spend my day before I even get to the book.
I've been thinking about splitting my day. A few hours analog, no screens. Then digital time after. But I don't know when the switch should happen. Morning first, screens later? Or screens first, then earn the analog hours?
I miss reading like I used to. I hope I find the right time to read, before I get pulled into digital.
I downloaded Bookly and Basmo to test out, see if a daily reminder gets me reading at least 30 minutes a day. Maybe a few pages a day is enough to finally finish the book that's been sitting half-read for months.