Reading is such a fun past time for both adults and children. You can travel to other places. You can learn about new interests. You can read about people you admire. You can commiserate with characters. Books can be friends when you are lonely.
So books are great. . . Right?
Mostly, reading works for me. I find a book that interests me, I read it. Hopefully it gives me what I need.
But if you are like me, perhaps sometimes you go through periods where you want to read, maybe you have good intensions regarding reading, but you just can’t make it happen
I was trained as a librarian to never answer a reference question without consulting a source. It hard for me to give any advice without citing it first. However, that’s what I am going to do. This, what I am about to give you, is not a researcher’s advice. It is not the advice of a textbook author. I am simply someone with a librarian’s education who is mostly giving advice that I learned as a reader through trial and error.
I write this from the the position of a reader who has at times struggled with reluctant reading, attention issues, reader’s block, and other things that have kept me away from reading.
In library school and in professional development sessions, I have been trained on how to engage reluctant child readers.
However, I have also never seen or been part of any formal discourse on how to help adults with their reading “hang-ups” so to speak, and I think adults do have reading hang-ups. I have had them in life as a reader.
My hope for this post is that possibly there is something here that will help you if you are seeking your own reading solutions.
On With the Questions:
Hey Katie,
I have a child who has learned to read in school but is still sort of struggling. My child seems to have zero interest in reading the things that I pick out for them. They only want to read comics, graphic novels, and series fiction like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. This to me seems to have little value. How can I help my child to read more fluidly?
-Struggling in Sacramento
Dear Struggling,
I am sorry that you and your child are struggling. It is hard to see your child having a hard time and I applaud you for working with your child to find books. Study after study shows that practice is the key to becoming a better reader. Readers become better readers by practicing and readers are more motivated to read when they are reading something that they like. If your reader likes series fiction, graphic novels, and comics, it might be a good move to encourage reading those items. Perhaps when they have gained some reading fluency, they will move on to more complex works. The most important way to get better at reading is to put in the time with something enjoyable.
I was a bit of a late reader and bit of a tenative reader at first. The Pee-Wee Scout books by Judy Delton, Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sacher, and the Babysitter’s Club series by Ann M. Martin helped me to love reading later on. Two of those three authors went on to write Newbery Medal or Newbery Honor books later in their careers. Sometimes what is labeled as “junk” is written by authors eventually recognized for “the most distinguished contributions to American literature for children”.
Also listening to audiobooks still counts as reading. Perhaps if your child does not like to read “the classics” or more complex stories, you could try listening to audiobooks in the car or house together. Most public libraries have audiobooks to lend out and many also have free e-audiobook servies that you can listen to on your phone or an app on your computer.
Many classic stories are also available in comic or graphic novel form. You can check out this list or this one. Great American Classics right be available at your local library. You could also read aloud to your child. Just because your child can read on their own, does not mean you have to stop reading out loud. It can be another avenue to explore classic books.
Hi Katie,
Long-time fan of the blog. First-time writer here. I don’t have any children with reading issues, but I have seemed to have developed my own reading block. Last year, I couldn’t get enough of reading and decided to read all the Wheel of Time books as fast as I could, now I can’t seem to get myself to read anything. Do you have any suggestions?
-Stalled in San Jose
Dear Stalled,
Thanks for being a loyal reader. Wow, reading the entire Wheel of Time series. That is quite an undertaking. I looked it up, and in total that series run 11,898 pages in paperback and 10,173 in hardcover. No wonder you are tired.
I have experienced reading droughts like this myself. At point, just after finishing my library degree, I had trouble willing myself to read very much at all. My problem lasted for maybe a year, which is a long time when you are expected to try to know about books and recommend books for your livelihood.
I learned a few things from this experience:
1) there are ways to fake it if you are having a reading block and extracurricular reading is part of your job
2) Audiobooks can be a way to enjoy books if you are having trouble focusing on text and they can be enjoyed while you are driving or doing things around your house. They can be very enjoyable
3) Short books can be a reluctant reader’s best friend. When you are ready to try reading again. Try something short and something that appeals to you.
I very much enjoyed reading humorous memoirs when I was trapped in reader’s block.
Also acknowledging that reader’s block is a real thing might help you to overcome it. Here is an article by Stuart Jeffries who coined the term “Reader’s Block” in The Guardian in 2008. When I had the first bout of reader’s block in 2006, I did not know that other people experienced similar reading droughts. I thought that I was alone in experiencing it. I tried to bully myself into getting over it by trying read things that I thought that I was supposed to read. This strategy did not work though. What worked was taking my time to work it out. It worked itself out eventually. It just takes time. I got through my readers block by listening to the Harry Potter series on audiobook while reading it in print when I was away from a CD player. I also mostly read graphic novels, short books, and humor books for a while.
Consequently since then, I have found that I am more likely to have this problem when I am forcing myself to read. Reading, for me, has to come from a place of interest. I find if I force myself to read something to read, I won’t really do it.
Perhaps, dear Reader, if you can find something to read that makes you happy to read, the joy will come back. Good luck. You have my sympathies.
Howdy Katie,
I have some attention issues that cause me to have problems focusing on reading. I would like to read more though. There are lot of things I would like to read. Books stores and libraries are so inviting to me, but I have problems finishing anything. What should I do?
Unfocused in Uniopolis (Ohio in case you were wondering)
I hear you Unfocused. I can be rather unfocused at times, and it can affect my reading habits. I have several things to say to you: First and foremost, all reading is reading. If you are worried that you are not reading Proust, do not despair. Reading magazines counts as reading so do comics, newspapers, and the interest.
Secondly, that if you have trouble reading books, listening to audiobooks also is good method to absorb the information of books. Lots of books are on audio and if your local library does not own what you are looking for you can ask a reference librarian and they can look to see if it is available on interlibrary loan. I order items everyday through Interlibrary Loan for customers. It is a service we provide, and we do not judge you for wanting it.
Another strategy that I alluded to before is that sometimes when I am reading a large book, I like to check out both the physical book and the audiobook. I listen to the audiobook while I am doing things around the house, and I read the book in my bed at night. I believe that audiobooks and physical books engage your brain in different ways and it helps me to stay interested in focused because I can picture what is happening more clearly this way. Also it helps me get through dull parts of long books.
I have done this with all the Harry Potter books, the Game of Thrones books, the His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman, and I am doing it now with the Outlander series. I think it is a great strategy.
I only recently, in the last six months, started reading on my Kindle and I have found that reading this way keeps my attention better than I could ever have imagined. My Kindle Paperwhite enables me to enlarge text size and it give me added information on every page like how much of the book I have read so far. When reading a physical copy of a fiction book, I sometimes cheat to find out what happens at the end. It is much harder for me to do this on my Kindle and this makes me more likely to stick with a book. While writing this post, I found an interesting article on the internet called Why Reading on a Kindle is Great for ADHDers. (Adult ADHD’ers might also find this article about reading while having ADHD fascinating).
I also like that the Kindle app tracks books that I have finished and I can unlock achievements on my app. I actually get really excited about Digital Achievements that I unlock when I take time to read consistently.
I am not paid by Amazon or Kindle to talk up their products but I need to mention my Kindle because I have found that I am much more interested in reading since I got my Kindle in May.
Hopefully, some of my suggestions will help you stay focused Unfocused.
That’s all for today. If you have any questions or comments about reading, I would love to respond.
Be well,
Katie
