Short story anthologies are what preserved my reading habit for years, I highly recommend them!

That's a great idea! I remember going through an anthology of detective stories last year, and it was a great ride. I'll look into more anthologies. Thank you!

and if you like Gaiman, Fragile Things is a great collection

Audiobooks are amazing! I used to be an avid reader of physical books when my life was less busy, but it’s much easier to start and stop an audiobook. I listen while driving, folding laundry, chopping vegetables, and sometimes working too if the task isn’t mentally taxing.

I read dense non-fiction for work purposes for a long time and it sucked the joy out of reading for many years. I turned to sci-fi and fantasy and found the escapism wonderful.

Also, audiobooks! Depending on your reading pace you may find you are able to consume more of a book in shorter time that way.

Thank you for the recommendation! I'll look into this.

That sounds like a great idea! I find myself "stealing" entertainment time while cooking and cleaning, so reintroducing audiobooks would be a good segue back into the world of fiction.

Sounds great! It sounds like we have similar experiences. I tend to lean more sci-fi, so I'll see what I can find there. Thank you!

One thing you could do is find books with very short chapters, the martian for example each chapter is a day log entry or world war z where each chapter is the pov of one of the survivors and they are quite short. Another thing I did was to stop needing to finish a chapter so I can stop, I just stop midway, so for instance while coding I might take a mini break of 10 minutes and read a few pages, half an hour later I read a few more pages. It's a little weird at first but you get used to it.

Thank you for your perspective! That's encouraging, especially since you seem to also have a tech-focused job like me. I think I need to let go of trying to finishing chapters if I can. I'll look into those suggestion.

I would suggest Martha Well's 'Murderbot' series, ⅚ of the books are novellas (about 130~ pages) and they keep you interested with interpreted action sequences. A lot to think about philosophically, the main character is a party between a clone and an AI, and while they're meant to be a tough murder weapon, all they want to do is watch dramas on tv.

💜

Some of my favorite short story collections if looking for recs:

Isaac Babel: Odessa Stories and Red Cavalry

Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories

Herman Melville: The Piazza Tales (specifically Bartleby and Benito Cereno)

Anton Checkhov: I mean take your pick, the man was a genius

James Joyce: Dubliners (much more accessible than the more famous Ulysses, but no less powerful)

Ambrose Bierce: Tales of Soldiers and Civilians

Italo Calvino: Cosmicomics

Ray Bradbury: Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine

Jorge Borges: Fictions and Labyrinths (although I love pretty much all of his work)

Ernest Hemingway: Complete Short Stories

Light or web novels

Hi there. This subject has been very popular in the past. Please use reddit search and/or check the /r/books/wiki/faq.

Understood. I didn't quite find what I was looking for through search, but maybe I wasn't using the right search terms. Thank you for the link!

Thank you!

I'll look into this. Thank you!

There is a section in our FAQ dedicated to getting into reading and staying focused while reading, that should offer the advice you are looking for. You can also search the specific title of that section to find newer threads that are not listed there.

Will do. Thank you!