Thanks, from the comments I’ve read I think I’ll buy hardbacks from now on, and I’ll start to replace my back catalogue over time

Completely agree with the second part, just wanted to clarify that I don’t just want super fancy hardbacks for show only

One time when SparkNotes is more than justified: Dostoyevsky

Ok, it's the second fucking time I have see this in the past few weeks in that subreddit and it irks me to no end. It's called "Les Miserables", not "Les Mis" or whatever, you fucking savages.

Can you give me the TLDR? Cuz i feel like 100 pages is more than i’d give most books.

Edit: lol at the fanboys downvoting this because they can’t articulate a defense that doesn’t sound cliche’d and ridiculous

Maybe you need a better translation?

You need to include more details about the books. Why did you enjoy them? Was there something you disliked about them? etc. Use spoiler markup if you need to.

Dostoevsky's writing style is very tedious and does not flow well at all.

That’s awesome , books are the best escape imo because they fully immerse your mind like nothing else. You got this, keep that head up you’ll beat this

If you read more Russian literature you’ll eventually get used to it. Some books have a character list with their name and patronymic which is super useful.

I enjoy expanding my vocabulary, it’s one of the great things about reading, but it definitely takes patience because I never remember what a word means after looking it up only once.

And I highly recommend rereading the great books. Your patience will be rewarded.

Sorry!! I fixed it now!

This is such a hard question. When I was recovering from my third brain surgery I reread the entire Red Rising series by Pierce Brown and I loved it. I also read The Name of the Wind and loved that, too. The Fifth Season was absolutely incredible too, I read the Broken Earth series after my first brain surgery… Way too many to name! What are your favorites?

Hi! I am terribly sorry to hear what you are going through. We ask users to make their posts about books they are reading or have read to get a discussion going. You can edit your post to include thoughts on your favorite books or make a new post. Let us know if you have questions or have made an edit. Wishing you all the best!

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I have been doing the same thing! Except I struggle through the chapter first and then I go to spark notes... maybe I should try your method for my next chapter. The only issue I have with spark notes is that sometimes they are very brief whereas someone on here could maybe explain things in more depth

JVJ had to admit it was him to keep with the idea that he was a good person who did the right thing. Even when he lies to Cosette, he is only trying to protect her.

Keep reading. Keep fighting.

I've never read this book, but when I started reading Dickens I had a hard time following completely, so I would first read the chapter summary on SparkNotes, then the chapter. You woudl think it woudl take away the enjoyment of the book to know what was going to happen, but it actually helped me enjoy the book because I would catch the puns and things. I read on my kindle, so swapping between book and Sparknotes was easier.

Lol, I get this way. I just want to know what happens at the end of the story. I skim books with a ton of inner monologue for this reason.

My attention span was far better than that of most of my peers all through school. It’s been totally destroyed lol

Sometimes it does feel like a task but when I finish a book or even a chapter that I liked I feel happy and satisfied for what I just did

Definitely, this new entertaining system is highly incompatible with traditional reading habits (at least for people whose attention is not great)

You’re not alone OP. I’m an elder millennial. Elder enough to remember a mostly analog world. In my childhood and teen years, even my early 20s, I could get lost in a book for hours. I would be fully absorbed in it. I got my first smartphone at age 26, and after a year or two that definitely changed, and now in my late 30s it’s worse than ever. Just like you, it doesn’t matter if I’m reading a dry Victorian novel or a fast paced modern thriller or horror novel, I cannot stay focused on it. Even if I love it. I do a lot of the same things. Checking to see how many pages are left in a chapter, etc. I’ve tried doing “digital detox” before but I can’t seem to stick with it very long. I used to read 20 or more books a year. Now I’m lucky if I get through 4. It’s somewhat embarrassing and also makes me kinda sad. At the end of the day we’re just monkeys chasing dopamine hits. I don’t think our brains were “built” to contend with unlimited high speed internet access at our fingertips 24 hours a day.

Why do you read? To me this sounds like a sort of emptiness in the intention to read, where the only goal is simply to 'consume' or 'achieve' the book, and the only counterbalancing force is ecstasy or enjoyment. This reduces reading to a mere task and you attend to it like other tasks- always looking beyond it as a burden to release.

I'm on the board for my rural library. Digital books don't really benefit us, it does cost money when people use it, but we still want people to use it. We are never going to get our funding increased so it doesn't matter for that. We just want people to read.