I can't read a book - HELP!! !

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I've never completed any book. And it annoys me that I can't read a book from page 1 to page 300.

I can't even finish a page. Why? WHY? I have to repeat the sentences again and again and again and again!

It is really annoying, and it has become worse within this year.

Why?

For some reason though, I have no difficulties reading on a discussion-forum or news, as long as they are not too large. But pages in a book contains too many words for some reason...

It could be a reading comprehension problem, or maybe OCD.

What I notice is that I often get my worries. I am worrying about my life from the second I wake up in the morning to the very last nano-second before I sleep.

I worry a lot too. And I read the same sentence over and over again too. (Verified by a high-tech eye-gaze tracking device at the eye doctor's. I "failed" their reading test. I took too long.)

I have read a bunch of books in my life though but I haven't really been able to read any for about 5 years now. I've read maybe three actual books in that time.

I really think it's an executive functioning problem. I don't know why but I either used to have way better executive function or a good cover mechanism. That I no longer have for some reason. I have the sense I could get it back if only I got my whole life "together" somehow.

Last edited by purchase on 26 Mar 2011, 2:59 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Have you determined the threshold for "too many words at a time"?

I wonder how well an e-book would work for you. With an e-book, you could adjust the settings such that each "page" is under the threshold. You could adjust the margins and font size until you got a comfortable number of words on each page.

Have you tried reading books in PDF form? Project Gutenberg has a ton of interesting titles, and you may find it much easier to read when able to break the text up the way you wish.

ZeroGravitas: (I know you were talking to Galilei but I have the same problem so what you said is relevant to me also) I've actually been magnifying stuff on my screen for a few years now. When I read and type. A regular screen looks weird to me now. And it's too little for me to read if my eyes are tired. I don't know where I'm going with this. There is some conclusion to be drawn here but I don't know what.

Okay! Wait! Here's the conclusion! Worrying all the time = being in a hyper-alert state = having very dilated pupils all the time so you can be vigilant = not being able to focus your gaze on tiny things. Unless my understanding is wrong.

Purchase: try the Readability addon in Firefox/Chrome. It allows you to strip pages of sidebars and ads, and adjust fontsize and margins to comfortable levels. It doesn't work well on forums, however.

There is also a Firefox addon called Lowbrowse which may help. It has features like a magnification frame at the top of the browser, easy image enlargement, and text restyling. You can find it in the Firefox gallery here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo ... lowbrowse/

Last edited by ZeroGravitas on 26 Mar 2011, 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Ah great! Thank you so much!

I used to read full books all the time, it was my favorite activity.....but I ended up getting PTSD after something pretty horrible happened at my highschool. And the first sign of that was I could not focus on a book long enough to read it anymore.......I think its some sort of trigger for the PTSD so that's why. And I can't say for certain but if worrying about things distracts you it could be related to some type of anxiety.

Well no wonder you can't focus, you are preoccupied with stress. The reason it's harder to follow a book than say a forum or news is cuz you gotta read a book word for word whereas a forum or news doesn't demand as much attention spam since the information tends to be more random. What exactly are you stressed out about?

I'm reading Das Perfume at the moment. I've found a Kindle most enjoyable because it lacks the off-color pages and slightly crumpled pages. Also that sound the book makes as your skin brushes up against the side of the page, or that annoying feeling trying to keep it open while in a good position.... Even thinking of the bookmark and getting it just right...

Have you tried listening to audio books? Do you have the same problem with them?

Maybe you should try something more visual like a graphic novel.

You're not alone.

I think the last time I fully read a book was in 4th grade, and I'm a sophomore in college now.

I have the same problem, just as mentioned above.

Reading comprehension problems.

I can re-read a single page 40 times and not understand it sometimes, or I'll forget what I just read.

i have a hard time completing books, I'm very easily distracted. If I find a book that I really want to read, I'll read a few pages at a time when I know I can really sit quietly and focus without external distractions, like before everyone else gets up, or after everyone else has gone to bed, or in the bathtub, etc.

I also have decided that completing a book isn't really necessary...I'll read a reference book to get the info I need, bookmark the spot and then try to read the book later if necessary.

When reading fiction I find I skip words or even whole paragraphs, but it's fiction, so I don't worry much