How to get better at reading? A few years ago I opened up…
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How to get better at reading?
A few years ago I opened up a book for the first time in my life with personal intention (that is, without external pressures or obligations through school). I'm not illiterate by any means, nor am I entirely incapable of comprehension. But the type of reading that I was interested in was considerably higher than anything I've dealt with before. I don't want to bring politics into this, but essentially I was interested in Marx and authors who extended his work (obligatory 'I am not a fan of Stalin, Mao, or anyone of the like'). I was, and still am, also interested in a good bit of philosophy, primarily German Idealism (especially Hegel), as well as things like critical theory and social analyses in general.
My problem, though, is throughout this journey, I've struggle extensively with finishing works, as well as retaining what I've read and forming my thoughts in an organized fashion in a way that I can articulate them later on. I never developed good reading skills in school, but I developed a passion for certain topics a few years after graduating high school. I've gotten to a point where I have hundreds of books I would love to read (and that I have attempted to read), but I honestly just become paralyzed and can barely progress past 20-50 pages. Its like the words I read go in one ear and out the other, with no coherent argument forming, and I eventually just get bored despite the interest in the book. I just don't get it, how can I be so interested in something yet get bored immediately? It's so frustrating. It sort of feels what I would image ADHD would be like? I'm not diagnosed and I don't pretend I have ADHD, but I open a book, begin reading it, and like 5-10 pages in I get an indescribable feeling of boredom wash over me, reaching for my phone, social media or what have you. It's like reading isn't stimulating enough, but having other stimuli whilst reading doesn't help me. It's like the act of reading itself needs to be more stimulating, which seems impossible.
Like I said, combined with this, I also struggle with retention. I, for some reason, cannot for the life of me develop a high level of retention, even when I try all kinds of methods of note taking, highlighting, annotating, summarizing etc. etc. Nothing seems to work. The absolute most I can do is memorize parts of what's being said and reiterate them later, but that does nothing for my own process of developing my own understanding. Essentially, I struggle heavily with synthesizing knowledge. I don't know what to do. I feel as though I have tried *everything*; am I just doomed?
#entertainment
source
A few years ago I opened up a book for the first time in my life with personal intention (that is, without external pressures or obligations through school). I'm not illiterate by any means, nor am I entirely incapable of comprehension. But the type of reading that I was interested in was considerably higher than anything I've dealt with before. I don't want to bring politics into this, but essentially I was interested in Marx and authors who extended his work (obligatory 'I am not a fan of Stalin, Mao, or anyone of the like'). I was, and still am, also interested in a good bit of philosophy, primarily German Idealism (especially Hegel), as well as things like critical theory and social analyses in general.
My problem, though, is throughout this journey, I've struggle extensively with finishing works, as well as retaining what I've read and forming my thoughts in an organized fashion in a way that I can articulate them later on. I never developed good reading skills in school, but I developed a passion for certain topics a few years after graduating high school. I've gotten to a point where I have hundreds of books I would love to read (and that I have attempted to read), but I honestly just become paralyzed and can barely progress past 20-50 pages. Its like the words I read go in one ear and out the other, with no coherent argument forming, and I eventually just get bored despite the interest in the book. I just don't get it, how can I be so interested in something yet get bored immediately? It's so frustrating. It sort of feels what I would image ADHD would be like? I'm not diagnosed and I don't pretend I have ADHD, but I open a book, begin reading it, and like 5-10 pages in I get an indescribable feeling of boredom wash over me, reaching for my phone, social media or what have you. It's like reading isn't stimulating enough, but having other stimuli whilst reading doesn't help me. It's like the act of reading itself needs to be more stimulating, which seems impossible.
Like I said, combined with this, I also struggle with retention. I, for some reason, cannot for the life of me develop a high level of retention, even when I try all kinds of methods of note taking, highlighting, annotating, summarizing etc. etc. Nothing seems to work. The absolute most I can do is memorize parts of what's being said and reiterate them later, but that does nothing for my own process of developing my own understanding. Essentially, I struggle heavily with synthesizing knowledge. I don't know what to do. I feel as though I have tried *everything*; am I just doomed?
#entertainment
source
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