Reading is so difficult for me! How do people read so much?

I am a book lover. Full stop. I love to buy real books in flesh and blood. Kindle doesn’t cut ice with me. Don’t get me wrong it gets the job done if reading is for the sake of reading. But reading for pleasure needs me to be holding a real paper book.

Over the years, I have bought books and books and books. I have a book buying fetish. I can’t remember a single time at the airport or a marketplace that I haven’t searched for a bookstore. If I see one, I have to go in. If I go in, I have to buy.

These bought books have become my small library of at least a 1000. We have moved 17 houses since marriage. I have moved 45 houses since I was born. So moving also means the books have moved with me. My wife loves her books too, and she believes a book you buy for life. I don’t share her sentiment. But this means we don’t discard our books. I don’t because I haven’t read them yet, she doesn’t because she wouldn’t give them away. She has about 500 books.

We don’t share reading tastes. She reads pure fiction or healing kind of books. I fancy pure non-fiction or autobiographical types. Our IKEA bookshelves are overflowing with book joy!

Guilt of buying but not reading is my constant companion. I don’t like the fact of not finishing a book I started. Sometimes, I read 3 to 4 books at a time. The topics I read at the same time are varied and not connected thematically.

Books connected thematically: The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger | Adolescent alienation To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee | Moral growth, racism Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi | Growing up under political oppression

These books are grouped “thematically” because they explore the same core subjects, even though they were written by different authors in different time periods.

ADHD is the culprit they tell me. Therapy is the mantra I believe. Centering, grounding and stillness. All things that fight distraction and induce synaptic coherence are the be calmly in control for focussed execution. Compose and conquer my voracious reading buddies tell me.

Nothing seems to work and there are days I will read a lot before the remaining page count starts to overwhelm me. Bored with a book is another symptom that manifests quite often while I am reading.

I have tried to ritualise (not sure if this is an actual word!) and gamify (not sure if this is an actual word either!) so that my ADHD brain can enjoy and have fun doing the thing I can’t otherwise seem to master. Nothing. No improvement.

I have then tried to give myself an incentive with purpose like reading to be an expert and the showing off to people or making a podcast about the stuff I have read. No tension here. No luck so far.

Reading is a pain that I can’t seem to deal with. There might be other mediums of learning that might work for me. I haven’t explored enough. I don’t know about other ways of learning.

Give me tips if anyone out there has succeeded in reading as much as they would like to.

Recently organized my books by color