Comment by sarreph

Please give reading (especially fiction) another chance. I had a stretch of about a decade where I finished maybe two or three books total. Partly, I didn't think I "needed to read" because of how much time I spend reading HN and other non-fiction sources, especially on the internet: or that I was "too busy".

I was running my startup, and had a copy of Infinite Jest on my bedside table for nearly 2 years -- telling myself that I would finish it. It's an amazing book (the part I've read anyway), but it was such an intricate piece of work that I managed to convince myself I basically had reading-ADHD and there was no point in me trying to read other books.

Last year, I started reading (fiction!) books that were just interesting to me or that other people were talking about, instead of picking up "aspirational" fiction or non-fiction and reading the first chapter.

I've been getting through a book every month or two since and am absolutely loving it. I read a lot of fiction as a child and teenager and I'd forgotten just how visceral good fiction can be. Reading properly again also helped convince me to write stories, too.

If this sounds like you, I challenge you (with kindness) to pick up a piece of approachable fiction and see how much more you get out of it than you expected to!