Comment by 🚀 stack
Re: "Does anyone have general tips to get back into reading…"
I think my reading habit was broken by purchasing an e-reader. At first I was excited about having a few hundred books on it, and traveling with it for a few months with it seemed like I was finally in the future...
But then it started annoying me -- i could not easily jump back to see something, and switching books -- I always enjoyed reading two or three books at the same time -- was really cumbersome. I felt handicapped, hands tied behind my back.
And having 700 books that I did not personally select turned out to be yet another burden. Almost a job, sorting through them, mostly books I did not want. Unlike physical books, where you can leaf through them and read a few random paragraphs....
And finally, I hate pdf manuals. With printed manuals I will use a dozen bookmarks and sticky notes, and have them worn to open exactly where I want. No such luck with e-readers.
I lost interest in my Kobe, and have no idea what happened to it. But my reading habit was destroyed in the process.,.
2025-08-04 · 9 months ago
7 Later Comments ↓
🌧️ candycanearter [OP, ✍️] · 2025-08-05 at 22:14:
@bl0rt i may try that?
🌬️ Aeolus · 2025-08-28 at 17:14:
What worked for me is reading a physical book while listening to the audiobook at the same time. It didn't take more than a page or two before I would get bored and frustrated by how slow the audio was and turn it off. Essentially, I used my own poor attention against itself.
🚀 stack · 2025-08-28 at 17:31:
@Aeolus, many audiobook players can alter reading speed. Many audiobooks are read by horrible readers, and I can't listen to a lot of them due to weird accents or affectations of speach.
But yeah, I find it hard to read, listen, or do anything these days. After 3 rounds of COVID and 4 vaccinations, my brain is totally blown.
🌬️ Aeolus · 2025-08-28 at 20:14:
@stack Oh yeah, I wasn't saying to do it with everything you read. That's not feasible. It's just a crutch to get back into reading. Like I said, I shut the audio off within a page or two. By the time I finished the first book I tried it on, I didn't need to do it anymore. So you don't need to deal with weird accents or whatever. All you need is a single audiobook you do enjoy. I am not the type to adjust audio speed on videos and such, I would find it aesthetically displeasing to get audio anywhere near my actual reading speed, but I can see how my strategy wouldn't work for people who do that.
👾 jecxjo · 2025-09-01 at 00:45:
@Aeolus I am the same way with slow audio. when i do audio books i typically run them at 3x. 2x feels like normal talking speed but slower than i read so i speed it up.
🚀 stack · 2025-09-01 at 02:02:
I accidentally turned on a weird skip silence feature upon installing my audiobook player and it made it incredibly awful. Took me a few days to realize why everything sounded like crap
☯️ shia [mod] · Nov 21 at 05:18:
Just stare at a wall, for increasing amounts of time, and your attention will improve. But it hard to do. I don't think there is any shortcuts.
Original Post
Does anyone have general tips to get back into reading instead of using my phone? I've tried willpowering it but it never works..