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Gahh, this topic has been in my head for awhile and I just feel like I need to get it out.
Ever since I've transferred from my community college into MSU, I've had so much homework and projects I haven't had a lot of time for reading leisure books. I would read sources on the internet, and a couple of psalms from the Bible every day. Then it got worse; when I had a lot more free time, I would spend it watching movies/youtube clips on the internet, and playing lots of video games. That is where the problem started...
Now when I try to read, it horrifies me to realize that I have a hard time remembering what I just read, so I have to read it over and over again until I fully understand it. I'm still good at skimming, but when I'm reading a good book I really want to get the full experience. I'm trying to read Shogun right now, and of course I'm having trouble! I can read the first few chapters of something, only to stop entirely because it tires me out when I try to read. I can never stay very focused for long, and I either become too tired or distracted. I really feel that this is because of my over-use of the internet and video games, as well as the BIG burnout I had in college over the past few years.
Ever since elementary school through community college, I would love to read. I remember one time I read Warriors Don't Cry in one day. I did this again another day. I've read Gone With the Wind five or six times. But since my burnout at MSU, I've almost quit reading altogether. Not because I don't want to, but because I can't make myself effortlessly read and retain the information like I used to. I'm worried because I've had a major burnout in college, and now I can't get back into reading no matter how hard I try. It's kind of scary. I can still skim through internet forums and online news articles, but anything "hard copy" is almost impossible. Any advice? Thanks!
Honestly? I don't think you should worry about it. Most readers go through times in their lives when they don't read much or at all, and they get into it later when the time is right. But perhaps you might try an e-ink e-reader (not a backlit tablet) and see if reading in that format is easier than with a hard copy. And if you really want to get back into reading and serious literature is proving difficult, maybe you could try reading some fun pulp that's not so cerebral.
Honestly, I have always been an avid reader but thinking back on it I don't remember reading a single "'cause I want to" book while in college except during the summers when I was not in school and didn't work.
OP, you are in a brain overload. College can do that to you. There is so much required reading that your brain does not want to read other things. The internet is fun. Watching TV is fun. Playing computer games is fun. That's what your brain needs: fun.
Don't worry about this. You will level out after you graduate.
Set aside a time and a place to read for a half hour or so, and get a real book from somewhere. Then tomorrow, do the same thing, same time, same place, same book.
After many years, I got back into reading when my doctor told me to take a walk every day. I walked to the mall, and went into Borders, and picked up a book off the shelf ("The Kite Runner", as a matter of fact) and sat down in one of their comfy chars and read for an hour, and made a mental note of the page I was on, and put it back on the shelf, and walked back the next day and continued. I have read every day since, but I've moved and now I use the library, not Borders.
Honestly, I have always been an avid reader but thinking back on it I don't remember reading a single "'cause I want to" book while in college except during the summers when I was not in school and didn't work.
OP, you are in a brain overload. College can do that to you. There is so much required reading that your brain does not want to read other things. The internet is fun. Watching TV is fun. Playing computer games is fun. That's what your brain needs: fun.
Don't worry about this. You will level out after you graduate.
This. Every young adult I've known, didn't get much extraneous reading done while in college. Their brains were on reading to learn, as opposed to reading for pleasure. My daughter only read in summer, when she was working part-time and had an hour or two to spend on pleasure reading in the evenings. She made a list of books that she definitely wanted to have for future reading, and now after graduation and working full-time and just getting married, is looking forward to picking up that list.
Forget it. When in college, all I read were college books. Now, I am many years from college, and back into recreational reading...this too shall pass...
Back when dinosaurs walked the earth I was in nursing school and there was NO absolutely NO time to read anything other than school books. Yet once I was out I developed a love of books and haven't looked back.
Set aside a time and a place to read for a half hour or so, and get a real book from somewhere. Then tomorrow, do the same thing, same time, same place, same book.
After many years, I got back into reading when my doctor told me to take a walk every day. I walked to the mall, and went into Borders, and picked up a book off the shelf ("The Kite Runner", as a matter of fact) and sat down in one of their comfy chars and read for an hour, and made a mental note of the page I was on, and put it back on the shelf, and walked back the next day and continued. I have read every day since, but I've moved and now I use the library, not Borders.
So, that's why Border's is out of business.
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