I'd love to let you know! Currently reading one of us is lying and it's kinda dragging so it's gonna take up quite some time but I'll def check the long way to a small angry planet out next :)

Actually, I am almost exactly like you. My problem is that I don't have the mental capacity to simply sit and read a book after a tiring day. However! I will let you in on a little secret. Books do not have to be digested in one specific method only.

Audiobooks! I know you mentioned that you listened to them while reading, but did you try to only listen to them? Personally, I use transportation a lot, I clean, cook, and do some chores. Simply putting in my headphones and playing an audiobook helped me finish more than 8 books in the past 4 months. That is more books than I read for the past 5 years - combined.

Also, try different genres. For me, I am focusing on non-fiction books. Once you realize that you are not meant to remember everything in the book, you will start to actually enjoy the experience. For the fun of it, I sometimes also open my note-taking app and type some interesting points that I listened to, and by the end of the book I have a good summary of the book that I can go back to anytime.

So basically:

1. Try different genres
2. Understand your daily schedule and if you have large periods when you cannot work or be productive, why not put headphones and listen to a book
3. Start with easy books (300-400 pages ~ 6 hours)

Try going back to the golden oldies like Tom Sawyer.

I’d also suggest starting with collections of short stories. You seem to have jumped right into the deep end with your first picks. I’m a lifelong reader and it took me a few attempts to get through LotR. If you find your attention drifting after a while, short stories are a good way to go. Especially until you get dialed into what peaks your interest.

I don't mind contemporary fantasy, but I do get irritated when a High Fantasy world is mixed with modernity. Like, if they discovered an iPhone in Mordor, I'd be done. But Anne Rice, Jonathan Stroud, and JKR have all done fantasy in 'contemporary' settings and it doesn't bother me because these ideas were all disclosed up-front (I guess you could say, they have stayed true to the pact they have made with the reader).

Because the Greek culture I was referring to is Classical Greece. Paul would've come about 500 years after that, who while born in the Mediterranean area, would've lived with Roman culture. Already within the Roman Empire there is subtle changes to same sex relationships, the Roman Empire is heavily steeped in tradition, much of what dictated what was socially acceptable was based on perceived honor, virtue, liberty, and family. As such male-on-male sexual relationships were fine within certain stipulations. A Freeborn man could have sex with another man if 1) The free-born man was penetrating and 2) the other man was of a "lower class", i.e a slave, a prostitute, etc. Any one else and it would be constitute a loss of status for the one taking, and in Roman society it can't be overstated how important status was. Of course this isn't to say all homosexual relations were purely based on power or that there couldn't be a romantic/sexual relationship between men of equal class, but most as perceived within the society followed traditional views.

With Paul again he's already several hundred years past the point I was intially talking about, and of course just because someone lives in a specific area/culture doesn't mean that they can't hold ideas of their own differing from said culture. However the empires stance on same sex relationships would of course change as it gradually became more Christian before being a Christian empire, with male prostitution being outlawed not long after Paul died, anal penetrating would result at being burned, etc but this is rambling from the point. The earliest times we see this change on same sex relationships is with the first Christian polemics (such as Paul) who preached on the vices of Rome decadence with a core critique being same sex relationships as a "sin". Christianity as a whole was considered radical for the time given the Roman culture so it's not really a surprise that Paul would similarly hold a different view of same sex relationships then what was then accepted.

Just to add to what others are saying, some books are written in a way that very much "speeds" you through the text, and the books you're mentioning are pretty intellectually dense. Reading for "fun" means different things to me depending on how I'm feeling. If I'm stressed or tired, but I still want to read, I need something that fits the bill. 1984 is something my brain will want to chew over, so it's more of a fit for when my brain is feeling frisky. I'm very much a person that needs to pick media that fits my mood, or I'll have a miserable experience when I might otherwise be reading my new favorite book. If I find I can't get into a book no matter how much I think I want to, I take it as a sign to just put the book away for now. I've had a lot of success just moving on to something else, and coming back to "problem" novels later.

Certainly. I found that Dune had excellent world building in regards to its 'magical' component. The Bene Gesserit Witches, while possessing incredible powers, are also essentially conditioned to be completely subservient and possess little to no ego unto themselves, preventing any individual member from a desire to exert direct control (yet even this isn't wholly true; as the group has their own ambitions and desires that they carefully keep hidden THROUGH this subservience, and because their abilities are too subtle to be effective in direct confrontation).

Vampire; The Masquerade (though a game) has good world building in regards to its secret vampire society, with the explanation as to the masquerade having little to do with humans and more to do with the fact that they're all too busy killing eachother to want to deal with *another* foe. Despite this, plenty of vampires DO inhabit high society and government positions, and keep themselves hidden more out of fear of other vampires than what humans would do.

Avatar, The Last Airbender (though a show) had great world-building where you can see the direct results of the magical system on the society within it. The Earth Kingdom's landscape/cities all function AROUND the ability to Earthbend and it has the most intricate transit system of all nations due to this reason. The Fire Nation has the most advanced technology of anyone, far surpassing all others, because they have a unique, portable, accessible heat source constantly at their disposal. Etc.

One that took me out of it? Harry Potter, just at the top of my head. A master wizard has enough power to wipe out dozens of battalions with a flick of a wand or assassinate select individuals with ease and you're telling me they all borderline-unanimously decided to keep to themselves out of every human conflict ever? Come on now.

I didn't mean to suggest that magic should cancel out medieval society, because even in fantasy worlds built from the ground up they go through a medieval period, all I meant was that said society would grow and develop *alongside* these magics and having them and their effects integrated into their society, rather than nothing being particularly different. If your world includes a group of superpowered humans who HAVEN'T followed the trend of literally every other powerful group to ever exist... why is that? There ARE reasons why people who have vast power wouldn't want to *exert* that power, but it has to be more believable than "We just didn't want to", and IF that's the explanation, then what is the CULTURAL reason that enforces that? Is it some kind of religious orientation that commands pacifism? If you try to deviate, do you lost your abilities? Etc.

Same with regular fantasy. If, within your fantasy world, there exists a group of people who are able to approach a noble and command them to give up all of their gold and this noble is magically bounded to obey, there HAS to be some legal recourse from that or military protection preventing it. There's no way a world would exist where such powers were learnable that a society would just let slip under the rug.

English does have compound nouns like grasshopper too! And I honestly dont really see the big difference between the constructs Wohnzimmer and its literal translation living room. Sure, you can create long new(ish) words like Kreuzworträtselleitfaden (crossword puzzle guide) but I guess thats not as exciting for a native speaker any longer. Sorry to disappoint

I was surprised by how great this book was. The title made me think it would be more light and fluffy but it had more weight than I expected.

A lawyer is probably responsible. It's the principal of CYA. When in doubt, it never hurts to cover your ass.

I bet it helps at least! It wasn't until a native French speaker pointed that out to me that I was finally able to remember once and for all.

it is such a practical book

Check out the good reads page the book. Sometimes there are quotes from the book .

If you want to truly investigate this, I would try short stories to see which authors have styles and characters you enjoy. You can find lists on r/suggestmeabook. I would also try narrative nonfiction to see if you like it better. Devil in the White City or Endurance by Lansing or into thin air tell compelling true stories. Or maybe you prefer books that explain something like the Man Who Mistook his wife for a hat for neurology or And the Band Played On by Shilts about the history of the AIDS crisis or Cadillac Desert about water issues in the Western United States or Flow by Csikzentmihalyi on the psychology of happiness.

However some people prefer podcasts or videos to books and that is ok. As long as someone is generally curious about life, I don't think there is a wrong way to learn or enjoy art. To my mind many video games today play a similar role and are just as artistic as opera was before television and radio. Bottom line, figure out how you enjoy your life.

Jacob de Zoet is his best, Cloud Atlas is pretty good, everything else is just okay, except for Utopia Avenue, which sucks. It's like cringey rock fan-fic.

I'm harsh on Utopia Avenue because the concept is interesting, but he really botches it. I was also rather put off by really fake-sounding cameos by real famous persons frequently intruding in the story.

Well is there a specific example here where it took you out and one where you think it works well? Because your post very generally suggests that fantasy as a genre often doesn't work because existence of magic should cancel out a medieval society.

I don’t think Frederick is the type to attend family events. On the other hand Catherine had a handful of younger sisters, maybe he shows up to spoil everyone’s fun in a few years.

How do you mean? There's no reason why magic cannot be integrated (whether in urban fantasy or regular fantasy), it just often isn't.

You know a lot more than I do, obviously, but I have the impression that in German writers actually can create words on a pretty regular basis, which I would think would make reading in it an incredibly interesting experience that isn’t comparable to English.

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DNFed the series at Tehanu. It wasn't great up to that point but took a dive right off a cliff.

I mean, that's not really a world building issue, you're basically questioning the basis of an entire genre. With that kind of approach, almost nothing should be working for you.

Truman Capote got into trouble when famous people claimed he based his characters on them

I'm 49 and have diagnosed ADHD and am medicated for it. I decided I wanted to become a "reader" so many times in my life-- bithe before and after my diagnosis.

Then, at the end of 2022, I decided to research "adults reading with ADHD.". There were so many suggestions, but the one that kept coming up was: don't try to read something that doesn't interest you! And that, although so simple and obvious, was a huge revelation to me.

I stopped trying to read Stephen King, the classics, and other popular books. Instead, I thought about the TV shows that I enjoy: crime shows like Criminal Minds, Blacklist, etc. So I found a book that I thought would be fitting to that genre. It's January 29th and I'm on my 10th book if the year (I have been laid up for the last few weeks after knee surgery, so that has to go into the number being so high.)

My point is, read something that interests you. Don't try to power through books that you think you should like because they're so popular.

If you have a Kindle, download samples and try those. If you don't have a Kindle, get the Kindle app and do the same. Or, go to your local library, get a library card (you can do this online with some libraries,) and get the Libby app. You can read samples there, borrow e-books, read the books on the app, or have them sent to your Kindle, Kindle app, or other e-reader. A great, no cost way to get started.

Also, be very, very careful with online ADHD self diagnosis. Most people have some symptoms of ADHD throughout the day or week. But ADHD goes beyond loosing your keys every now and then. Beyond not being able to concentrate at times. Etc.