So IDK if anyone can relate to this, but if you’re like me and you struggle with ADHD and you used to LOVE to read but now it seems like you can’t really get into it, let me just say
it’s absolutely okay to not finish a book
like, I found myself really wishing I could just finish a book, so I would start something and get like 10 pages in and just. Be so bored. I couldn’t focus, nothing about it would really pull me along, I would get distracted and put it down and then dread picking it up because it just wasn’t interesting
But I would keep trying to finish. Because I’d feel bad about “failing” to read it. Even though I’d be stuck and couldn’t get past another page. So I’d see other things I’d want to read, but I’d tell myself “you can read that when you finish XYZ first”, which would just make me feel guilty, so in the end I wouldn’t finish the first book but I also wouldn’t/couldn’t start the next one, meaning I just… never read anything.
But then in the last two months I decided to just say “fuck it, if I can’t finish something then I’m moving on to the next book” because I was tired of wasting time on books I just couldn’t get into
And since then in two months I’ve finished 8 books. That’s 8 more books than I’ve read in YEARS.
But here’s the thing. I started over 20 books.
Yes, you read that right. I started over 20 books (thank you, local library!). And of those 20, only 8 of them kept me interested enough to finish. But that’s 8 more books than I’ve read in like the last 5 years.
So if you find that you really want to do more reading but you’re really struggling to get through a book, and you feel like you can’t move on to the next until you finish this one, just give yourself permission to move on. Seriously, it’s so much easier to enjoy a book when you don’t feel like you’ll be obligated to finish it if your attention wanes. Doesn’t matter if it’s “supposed” to be a good book, doesn’t matter if your DNF list is longer than your read list, if it’s not keeping you interested just move on. Go to your library and just get an entire stack and see what sticks, it’s so much more rewarding than trying to force yourself through a novel you just can’t seem to care about
