Think Twice Before Judging People Who Don’t Read Books
Why some of us just can’t keep the focus for long enough to finish a book
ADHD CHRONICLES
Why some of us just can’t keep the focus for long enough to finish a book
Confession time… I struggle with finishing books I start reading, regardless of what they are about. Recently I finally realized why: I have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
Even though I have always been one of the best students and completed a PhD degree, I was never a good reader. Sure I could read scientific papers during my PhD, but only if they were directly relevant to my research, and many of them I just skimmed for relevant information.
I always felt ashamed in academic circles when the topic of reading came up and everyone was joyously reporting what they were reading for fun. Many of my academic colleagues are always in the process of reading a book that is not required for their research. These are usually novels or popular science books.
Turns out I am much better at reading comics and picture books and that makes me feel like a child. Imagine how it is to tell someone: “Yes, I like reading, but I prefer children’s books and everything with pictures because it makes it more interesting and easier to focus on.”
For a long time, I thought something was terribly wrong with me and that maybe I don’t belong in academia because I can’t focus on long stretches of text without any additional media. I was a textbook example of what many parents called “a new generation that only watches videos and doesn’t read anymore”.
You can imagine my relief when I found out that none of this is because I am lazy or uninterested, but simply because my ADHD brain needs more stimulation to stay focused. And once it does get that stimulation, it can go into the hyperfocus mode. Hyperfocus is a state in which you are so absorbed by the task at hand that you find it difficult to stop and do something else that might require your attention and ultimately be more important.
The best way I can describe ADHD in general is that your brain just physically doesn’t let you do something even slightly boring, even when you really have to do it. So, it clings to those stimulating tasks by hyperfocusing you and doesn’t let you go back to the boring ones, like cleaning your desk, making a doctor’s appointment, or correcting the 100th version of that article that you need to submit.
When it comes to reading, I experienced hyperfocus as a child* only with one book — Harry Potter. And I wasn’t alone in this. My brother and many of my friends wouldn’t mind spending hours reading Harry Potter, even when they weren’t that much into other books.
*Who am I kidding, that’s the case even now! I recently read the first two books in German without any effort and my German is not excellent by any means. I often try to read books in different languages to make it more interesting for my ADHD brain.
What is so special about Harry Potter? I was always puzzled by how easy it was for me to read it (in any language), although I never really considered it great literature. It is a pretty basic story after all. Just to give you an idea of what I mean, I think The Lord of the Rings is far superior storytelling,* but I never finished reading the third book (heresy!). After watching the movies, I had enough impetus and motivation to read the first two and then I just lost focus and could never get back to the third one. I watched the movies countless times though.
*I’m only comparing these two stories because I am a fan of both and since they are both so popular, everyone will know what I am talking about.
The biggest enemy of people with ADHD is boredom. If we sense that something boring is creeping in, we run far far away from it. In the book world, this means descriptions — I’m talking scenery, interior details, people’s looks, all that stuff. My brain immediately starts thinking about something else and there is nothing I can do about it.
The opposite of descriptions for me are dialogs. Dialogs are dynamic, exciting, and suspenseful. What are they going to say next? What’s going to happen? I want to know. Easy-to-digest, in-your-face, dialog. That’s exactly what Harry Potter has plenty of — just enough descriptions to get by and plenty of dialogs — a perfect recipe for an ADHD brain.
I do need to mention, however, that dialog also cannot be bad or unconvincing. If the story is bad and unrelatable, I will also get bored because I’m not invested in it. So, there is really a sweet spot for fiction in my brain that is not easily filled.
Another interesting reading habit I have is to carry around scientific books with me, often grammars of unknown languages. To other people this looks super geeky and committed to reading, but what happens, in reality, is that I am just browsing around, reading one page here, one paragraph there — I’m just looking for some inspiration for my research or something interesting I might have missed before. I have never read an entire grammar, I am human after all.
After exposing all these reading struggles I have, I have to admit I am proud of myself for coming a long way. I am not ashamed anymore to admit that I am not a great reader. And that’s ok. Now that I know I have ADHD, I am learning different strategies to deal with it better and use it to my advantage.
For instance, writing this post instead of reading a text of equivalent length is so much more exciting to me. Writing can also get me into the hyperfocus mode so much more easily than reading. So, I get to produce more content than I consume and that is usually seen as a good balance in our society. If I can pair that up with sticking for long enough to become successful with that content, without getting bored like I usually do, the sky is the limit.
Coming back to my title, please don’t judge people who don’t read regularly! And please don’t ask me if I read the book you gave me as a present. The answer is probably going to be no and it will be awkward. But it is not for a lack of trying. I started reading every single book I got, I just never finished it. Often times I tried to get back to reading these books, so I reread their beginnings many times.
Small tip: if you want to make sure I read the whole book, get me a picture book next time :)
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