I wish I could read books

[Rogue Princess]

@Gerald Wilgus you make it sound as though I'm using my autism as an excuse.

I mean, to be fair, at least you can read a book.

You were probably reading Lord of the Rings while I was stuck on The Magic Faraway Tree.

That's literally what happened. I was fine reading The Magic Faraway Tree then I was about 10 and it was "read Lord of the Rings for your book report"

First chapter was what the doorknob looked like!!! It was painful, it was torture, it was traumatic

 

[Misery]

First chapter was what the doorknob looked like!!! It was painful, it was torture, it was traumatic

This bit here stuck out to me.

I mean, here's the thing: I read a lot of books myself. Like, a LOT of them. A lot of favorite authors too... Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Jeffrey Deaver, and so on.

But if you put THAT in front of me... the sort of thing where, as you put it, it takes a whole chapter to describe something (or something where it feels like it does), where the pacing is just too slow, my eyes would glaze over.

Or, here's another example, something that is very heavy on symbolism and such. I remember reading The Great Gatsby for some school thing... or, trying to, anyway. I got just a few pages in and realized I'd entirely blanked out on it. Just could not do that one. To this day I have no idea what, if anything, it is about.

A book that is too "heavy" also (if that's the right word) is going to bounce off of me hard. Heck I went and looked up Homer's Odyssey, checked out a random snippet of it, and... yeah that just went right over my head pretty much immediately. Doesn't matter how many books I've gone through in my time (all of them full novels), I'd never get through this one. Even an audiobook of it would just fly right on past me. Wouldn't hear any of it. May as well just be a recording of cat snores for all the good it'd do me. I looked up Theogony as well, checked out an excerpt of that... same thing happened. Bounced right off of me immediately. But, just because I can't handle those, doesn't mean I can't handle books. It's just that those specific ones don't suit me (at all).

My point is: what sorts of books have you tried? Beyond just these super heavy ancient poem types, I mean. Maybe start smaller? Check out different authors, different subjects, different writing styles, different story lengths, and so on.

I dunno, that just occurred to me after noticing that you'd mentioned Odyssey and stuff like that. Going from "not reading" to "reading Odyssey (or things like it)" sounds to me like the equivalent of going from "lying in bed" to "outright flying around the world like Superman". A bit of a leap, to put it mildly.

I apologize if I've missed or misunderstood something you said, it is quite late here for me and I'm a bit mentally overloaded at the moment from today's activities.

 

[Rogue Princess]

@Misery I have read Steven King's Misery. I read that and Chinese Cinderella when I did correspondence school but I was on Concerta back then

I've read Neil Gaimans American Gods. I've managed to get through a few of his books. I started with his Sandman graphic novels, then got through his short story books: M is for Magic, Smoke and Mirrors, Fragile Things and then read Mirrormask, Neverwhere, Stardust. My mum bought me American Gods to read in hospital but it took 7 years and 3 attempts to finish it. Then I went on to Anansi Boys and Ocean at the end of the Lane and I only got through those three with the help of Concerta also.

Mirrormask was the only one that didn't sink in. When I finally got through American Gods it was my favourite book.

I seem to be confined to the one author. Perhaps it's the transition from starting with M is for Magic then his other short stories. I just find it easy to engage with his style.

Maybe I should get Trigger Warning to try get back into reading.

Neil Gaimans probably most well known for his movie Coraline. Stardust is my favourite movie of his.

I had two consecutive post traumatic brain injuries five years ago and since then the AuDHD stuff has gotten significantly worse. Can't even watch television anymore

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

@Gerald Wilgus you make it sound as though I'm using my autism as an excuse.

I mean, to be fair, at least you can read a bloody book.

You were probably reading lord of the rings while I was stuck on the magic faraway tree.

That's literally what happened. I was fine reading the magic faraway tree then I was about 10 and it was "read lord of the rings for your book report"

First chapter was what the bloody doorknob looked like!!! It was painful, it was torture, it was traumatic

That sounds horrible. I could read, but had dyscalcula resorting to having to count on my fingers. That made me feel stupid and only age improved that.

 

[Misery]

I seem to be confined to the one author.

Sticking to a very small number of whatever (or just being super picky) seems pretty common for those on the spectrum. Probably. At least from my experience and observations.

but had dyscalculia resorting to having to count on my fingers

Yeah I got this too. I try not to let anyone see me do that. Just a bit embarrassing...

 

[Outdated]

I seem to be confined to the one author. Perhaps it's the transition from starting with M is for Magic then his other short stories. I just find it easy to engage with his style.

You write very well, you certainly don't seem to have any learning difficulties. Perhaps it's just a matter of interest and not retaining things that don't interest you very much. I have this problem with most people's names.

 

[Rogue Princess]

You write very well, you certainly don't seem to have any learning difficulties. Perhaps it's just a matter of interest and not retaining things that don't interest you very much. I have this problem with most people's names.

Well, I'm not dyslexic if that's what you mean

 

[Outdated]

Well, I'm not dyslexic if that's what you mean

I was referring to comments you made in another thread where you said you feel like you're a dummy or an airhead. You don't seem so to me.

 

[Rodafina]

You write very well, you certainly don't seem to have any learning difficulties.

I think there can be a big difference between expressive communication and receptive communication. Learning disabilities are often invisible, and many people learn to compensate somehow if they have been dealing with it since they were young.

My understanding is that it is quite common for it to be much more difficult for someone to take in information than to express themselves in written form. That is the case for me, anyway.

 

[Rogue Princess]

I think there can be a big difference between expressive communication and receptive communication. Learning disabilities are often invisible, and many people learn to compensate somehow if they have been dealing with it since they were young.

My understanding is that it is quite common for it to be much more difficult for someone to take in information than to express themselves in written form. That is the case for me, anyway.

Thank you, that's it exactly.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Yeah I got this too. I try not to let anyone see me do that. Just a bit embarrassing...

Certainly. But what puzzles me is that at the age of 45 I found that I had a facility with statistics and Statistical Design of Experiments.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Yeah I got this too. I try not to let anyone see me do that. Just a bit embarrassing...

Certainly. But what puzzles me is that at the age of 45 I found that I had a facility with statistics and Statistical Design of Experiments.

 

[Ken]

I suppose I may have selective AuDHD?

I can read anything that interests me, but nothing I'm not interested in. I had extreme difficulty in school where I had to read text books, etc. I was lucky to get a D- grade.

If the subject of what I'm reading is something I'm interested in, I can't put it down. However, I still have to re-read it several time to finally get it, but at least I can do that. It usually takes a few months to read a book, but I'm ok with that.

I also love movies, but even movies I am very interested in has to be watched several times before I finally get it. If I see a movie at a theater that I like, I will try to buy a DVD so I can watch it over and over. I really like that because I get to enjoy it over and over and I get more and new meaning every time.

I also cannot read faster than I can speak or listen to anyone speaking and think or do anything else at the same time, thus I could never take notes with anyone speaking. A real problem in school. Also can't understand anyone talking fast.

That's just the way I am. I don't really think of it as an issue or disorder, except, like in school situations. Having to watch movies or read books multiple times just feels natural to me and I enjoy it with each read or watch, so in a way, it's a plus.

 

[Slime_Punk]

Wow, I didn't make the connection between AuDHD and having trouble reading until now, but that makes a lot of sense to me as well.

For the longest time, the only way for me to get through a book has been to flip through it and read the parts that interest me the most (this can literally just be diagrams or illustrations of something I want to know) and then backtrack later once I've actually gained a little bit of an understanding of what it is I'm trying to learn. This whole process of reading an entire book by selectively jumping around can take an extremely long time, ranging from weeks to months, and possibly even up to a year. Usually I can't even finish a book at all, even if something important depends on it.

If I try to read something (no matter how dense) the traditional way, I start feeling like my brain is melting. Tension headaches and getting all squirmy are pretty common, although I might be alone in that department. I also start tripping over everything as time goes on, like my ADHD symptoms get worse and worse over time.

Thank god for audiobooks, lectures, pictures, diagrams, and everything else that isn't strictly just words on a page. Some of us do better with a combination of things rather than just sitting down and staring at letters.

 

[Kalinychta]

You seem to be reading and understanding the responses on this thread just fine. What’s the difference between here and books? Also you write well.