Published on 12, July, 2020
Afternoon,
Thank you for the continued support in my journey of understanding me as opposed to the expected autism diagnosis some time in the future.
I did a search on reading and the first few pages were all topics about what books is being read, enjoyment, support to help read better etc.. but...
I have a sever dislike of reading, anxiety kicks in, can't follow the text and often have to repeat pages and often going back a couple of nights so I gave up many years ago and have never tried... I can list the books I have read 1990-2023 as:
6no. Dargonlance books.
Eartquake (my aged 16 English Literature choice. It had 84 pages as opposed to other pupils reading One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, Pride and Prejudice and so on.
Charles Bronson autobiography.
I enjoy comics (still) and read books with illustrations and punchy points of info.
I wonder if it is a me thing, ADHD (didn;t realise it was in connection with autism) or autism or perhaps something completely different.
Around 8no. books in 32 years always has friends and people rise an eyebrow and open mouthed when I say I hate reading.
Thanks.
Valdez said:I have a sever dislike of reading, anxiety kicks in, can't follow the text and often have to repeat pages
There is a technique I use for books I find really boring but have to read for whatever reason:
1 - speed read the book. I can normally do a page in 20-30 seconds for a novel or a minute for a textbook. This gives you about 80% of the content in one hit of extreme concentration.
2 - re-read more normally and make notes, especially aound character names and places. Normally it adds about 30 seconds a page.
I did find that the writing style is a huge part in how involved I get in the book, so maybe you need to try a few different authors to see what works for you.
I would suggest trying Terry Pratchett as he has a wonderfully humerous take on fantasy with shortish sentences and lots of character continuity through the books.
Thank you Iain,
1. Excellent idea and that's how I kind of functioned in my exam preparation. History was easier with dates that I could easily remember and Geography with illustrations and bullet points... No long winded texts to scan over which as you say, you could fly through and digest.
2. Yeah... That would work really well, but wouldnt that distract away from reading a book being relaxing and fun?
I agree on text style... That makes huge sense why I used an 84 large text book for my final year study and also comics... I don;t know if I can count it as a book but do like the Far Side Galleries.
Sorry but I couldn;t get away with Pratchett... I tried after Dragonlance but I preferred the more serious story with some comedy in characters over Pratchett's style... Discworld was the one I tried.
Thank you for the ideas which I agree with.