Reading Issue Question

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Does anyone else have trouble reading books besides myself? Because when I read a book I'll go back and reread a word or lines if I didn't read it exactly word for word in my head so it takes me a really long time to finish books if I even start reading one. And I have the hardest time visualing the pictures of the books in my head when I'm reading the books. So, my counselor had suggested maybe audiobooks instead of regular paperback books but I'm just wondering if anyone else with autism has this issue and whether or not i'm the only one and if you have what are your suggestions or solutions to help with it. Because i would like to read i just don't know if i'm reading the wrong way for someone with my conditions and I need to do it a different way because i feel like a complete idiot not reading books compared to my siblings.

I used to get that during my later school years. I couldn't keep up the effort of turning the words of a novel into thoughts, and I'd have to keep going back every time I realised my mind had wandered. It got a lot better but I don't know how. Possibly linked to my being more free to choose the books I'm naturally interested in now.

I have trouble learning the characters' names so I soon lose the plot if there are many of them. That was happening with a novel - but when I deliberately found and wrote down each character's name and relationship to the story, and then made a bit of effort to memorise them, I was able to read the book fine.

Have you ever tried an audiobook before? Im just wondering if an audiobook might work for me because I also have OCD as well and I think rereading the lines if I don't get every single word correct might be an ocd issue to. So I m wondering if having an audiobook might help because then I can't go back and reread the lines because I can't see it.

Some people probably think I read more than I actually do, because I have to absorb and visualise everything and it is a slow process. It is as if I can't focus my attention like (I assume) most people do. I'm just the audience for whatever it wants to pick up on. I wonder if using audiobooks instead of hard copy has affected my concentration . . . If so then it's probably compensated by convenience.

I've usually got an audiobook on the go, and they're great, in that I can read as I walk or whatever. I also find them frustrating as chapter headings are often just numbers. It can be difficult to go back and find something if you didn't bookmark it at the time. And I just don't absorb the details in the same way that i do from the printed page. Some books I've listened to more than once AND then bought the print copy. But I like the audio option.