As I noticed, after reading 2-8 thousand words a day, after a few days of reading like this, it becomes very difficult for me to read, and I started reading actively lately, before that I only watched TV shows and movies, and now I have a slight headache, the text is floating, I even confuse words. In fact, that’s why I used to read very little, and now I’m so tired of TV shows and movies that I’m willing to force myself to read, even if I have a headache, to become emotionally attached to books instead of just consuming like zombie like I used to.
Everyone is saying audiobooks which are read by voice actors. Have you tried TTS (Text to speech) apps?
I’ve been using @Voice for years and super happy with it.
I read WNs and LNs from Japan and Korea extremely often. I don’t really read them though. I listen while doing chores/driving.
You can share a website to it and it’ll load a few chapters using the <next> button.
If pre loading doesn’t work you can email the Dev and they’d fix it within 48 hours in my experience.
First off, great job for trying to read more books. Last year, I decided that reading books were a better use of my time than doom scrolling.
Maybe looking at screens is what’s giving you a headache? Why don’t you try to get a book from the library?
This is one of the things that has me reading less in the modern era. My eyes getting worse in old age combined with ubiquitus media that actually makes me more inclined to use downtime to try breathing meditation or just relax into not doing anything which I feel is just more important to do now than ever before. When your juggling mulitple things constantly it just seems good to not do anything.
If you wear glasses or contacts that are for seeing at a distance, it’s hard for your eyes to focus close-up for very long. Same for if you don’t wear glasses at all, if you are reading a lot. So depending on your situation you may just need to take your glasses off while reading, or pick up some cheap reading glasses at the drugstore–making sure to get the right type for easily focusing on the page, or even get bifocals. Best bet is to get an eye exam and tell the optometrist what you’ve said here, so they can figure out what your best options are.
Are you reading books because you want to, or because to think you HAVE to?
There’s no point in suffering through a leisure activity you don’t enjoy.
It’s not that I don’t like it, I like it, it’s just that I’m too used to TV shows and movies with music, which is a bit unusual, although interesting in its own way, it’s just that I find it difficult to enjoy the events in the text, there are no pictures, no character voices, and when I try to revive it in my fantasy, I get tired quickly.
Are you completely unable to see images or hear voices in your mind’s eye/ear? No matter what you read? And it’s always been like that?
Or do you just get fatigued after a while? But with effort can have a visual or audible imagination?
The former could be something called aphantasia, which is when someone is born without the ability to visualize things in their head
The latter might just a skill thing. When I was about 10, I had to train myself both to sharpen my imagination, but also not to fall asleep reading every time. I remember doing this distinctly, just constant practice with my imagination. It got a lot easier as I practiced.
have you seen this before? https://opendyslexic.org/
when your eyes get bugged, try this font. It’s magical for me
Web novels? Are you reading from a screen, e reader or an actual book?
If a real book makes you have headaches and the words are jumping, maybe go to a doctor or have your eyes tested.
If its a screen thats making your head ache, maybe try a e-reader or a real book instead of a device that beams light into your eyes.
I second the e-reader.
E-ink screens are so much nicer on your eyes for long reading.
Yup. I got a e-reader because I liked the idea of having a 100 books in my pocket/backbag. I already had a tablet, so I threw some books in there, I managed to read a couple of pages before giving up and ordering a proper reader.
I read from the screen because I’m used to it, sometimes I try to read paper books, it’s easier to read them, but the problem seems different, perhaps because I’m used to diving too deep into the story, imagining everything that happens on the go, including the smells and voices of the characters? I don’t know, maybe I’m trying to keep too much information in my head and can’t calmly enjoy the text?
3rd-ing the suggestion for an e-reader. On those you can change and enlarge the font, and the screen is much more comfortable to look at (even more comfortable than paper IMO). And remember you are reading for entertainment and pleasure. Stop reading when it stops feeling good! Go do something else.
No shame in taking a break once in a while. Especially if this is new to you. You have to give your brain and eye muscles time to adjust.
Do something else when you feel like it’s getting too much.
Audiobooks!
Shameless plug, mine is free right now on Spotify! https://lemmy.world/post/45753894
Please check it out if you have the inclination!
I started listening to audiobooks at the end of last summer, and I have gone through 30+ books, with a focus on classic sci fi
Sounds like some kind of medical condition, I’d look into that. Eyesight, dyslexia etc.
First thing first, check with an eye doctor if you don’t need glasses. I would not be surprised if you needed those.
I’m so tired of TV shows and movies that I’m willing to force myself to read,
Don’t force yourself to read. And I say that as an intensive reader. Reading should not feel like a chore or something someone has to do. It’s not homework. It needs to remain fun, engaging, and exciting.
Let reading slowly become a habit, let it become progressively stronger in your activities. It’s a muscle one needs to exercise. Exactly like one would develop any new skill, progressively. No one ever learned to walk by running a marathon ;)
Edit: as suggested by others already: you may also want to consider reading print more than on screen as screens (even e-ink, but to a much lesser extent) can really become tiring for some readers.
I’m so tired of TV shows and movies that
My spouse and I have not owned a TV set since the early 00s, so you may imagine I understand how you feel about TV: we don’t miss any of it. But we also don’t force ourselves to read, ever.
I do read a lot more than my spouse, every single day (and often at night too), but we have other activities. Sketching, craft, writing (as important as reading, imho), listening to carefully selected music (by hand, not through an algorithm), spending time with one another and with people we appreciate, and so on. Edit: we also watch DVDs of carefully selected movies and series (we watch them on a computer, since we have no tv).
BTW, among those other activities there is one that should help rest your eyes a lot and rather quickly: going out for a walk. This forces your eyes to focus on a different focal point/distance than the one you usually hold a book at. It also give your eyes to get some quality light that should also help rest them (daylight is still the best light we have access to)
Try to make walking as much of a habit as reading. For me, it’s a great help to reflect more calmly on what I have just read. Thinking about the book you’re reading is at least as important as actually reading it and, sadly, is very often overlooked (books being binge read without much time left in-between to let our brain assimilate them what we just read. That part is so important in my own reading that, no matter the type of book I’m reading, I always read pen in hand to take notes and then re-read those notes/reflections to help me summarize the book and my impressions of it.
Don’t force yourself to read. And I say that as an intensive reader. Reading should not feel like a chore or something someone has to do. It’s not homework. It needs to remain fun, engaging, and exciting.
I found a pretty interesting web novel and I like to read without forcing myself, but I’m a little bit used to imagining how everything happens without sounds and pictures, which is probably one of the problems. I want to read, but fatigue makes itself felt.
Let reading slowly become a habit, let it become progressively stronger in your activities. It’s a muscle one needs to exercise. Exactly like one would develop any new skill, progressively. No one ever learned to walk by running a marathon ;)
I’ll take note, it’s just that I really liked the web novel that I’m reading now and I want to read more, but it doesn’t work, as I mentioned in the post.
Try to make walking as much of a habit as reading. For me, it’s a great help to reflect more calmly on what I have just read. Thinking about the book you’re reading is at least as important as actually reading it and, sadly, is very often overlooked (books being binge read without much time left in-between to let our brain assimilate them what we just read. That part is so important in my own reading that, no matter the type of book I’m reading, I always read pen in hand to take notes and then re-read those notes/reflections to help me summarize the book and my impressions of it.
I think you are right here, walking really helps, even if not always, for example, it has never saved me from depression, but still thanks to walking I feel a little better.
Let reading slowly become a habit, let it become progressively stronger in your activities. It’s a muscle one needs to exercise. Exactly like one would develop any new skill, progressively. No one ever learned to walk by running a marathon ;)
BTW, among those other activities there is one that should help rest your eyes a lot and rather quickly: going out for a walk.
This needs it’s own post. It’s a huge part of why we have so many more propensity vision problems, and statistics reflect this.
Our eyes need the whole range of motion, like any other muscular system - so looking in the distance needs to happen more often for most of us.
Reading is a skill. If you enjoy it, just start slow. Personally I do audiobooks but I’m in the cat a lot for work. A lot of my job has me doing something I can listen to them and work at the same time.
Are you reading physical books or screen text?
I find it much easier to read print on paper.
I read from the monitor screen, since the books that interest me cannot be bought in stores, except online, but I don’t have much extra money for purchases in 2026, and I am already used to it, sometimes I read paper books that I have at home, and yes, it is a little more convenient and pleasant to read, but it is still difficult for me to read more than two thousand words a day, Sometimes it seems to me that the problem is either that I’m too immersed in the story, or I’m trying too hard to keep the picture in my head through the text.
Instead of plowing on through, stop and let the story work on you.
It’s fine for you to sit and just think about the story.
If you want to let the world build in your mind slowly, that’s fine.
Isthere a local library you can get physical books from?
As someone who migrated from a story addiction in books to one in TV shows, I recommend you look inwards. For the medical issue I recommend a doctors visit.
Personally I don’t force myself. When I go to the library I walk out with a stack of books. I don’t always get through all of them, because if the content doesn’t draw me in (characters, writing, whatever) I put it down and try a different one.
