Too distracted, too busy. I think reading a book requires that we feel we can turn the world off for a while and safely ignore it. As you get older this is harder to do because you have so much stuff you're responsible for, you feel you can't just ignore it, even for a little while. I've also noticed, that as i get older, I'm a lot more selective about everything. Really good books aren't easy to come by.

What are you doing with your reading time? It didn't just disappear, something happened to it.

For me, the difference has been that whenever I hear about a book I like, I order it from my local library system (ex. minuteman, bccls). My phone allows me to do this from pretty much anywhere. Within a few days, the book is delivered to my local library (always live within walking distance of a library! This is one of my rules for life), not unlike with a netflix queue (in fact, for many, netflix has replaced the library/reading queue). This puts the book in my hands at no cost within days of me wanting it so my interest hasn't moved on to the next thing yet (and I have ADHD, so no excuses!). Then it's just a case of making the time. Fortunately, I don't have kids, though if I did I'd be making the time to read with them. Sometimes it means not turning the computer on right when I get home, other times it means turning it off an hour or so earlier than I normally would (it's a choice between reading things on the internet or reading books; you're still reading in your spare time but it's up to you to choose what you're reading). Have you noticed I've been on MetaChat less in the past few months? Also look at how you're reading. Are you reading sites like MetaFilter for bite-sized entertainment because a day at work leaves you too drained for Dostoevsky? Then don't read really in-depth stuff, at least not at first, while you're rediscovering reading. Go for bite-sized stuff: short-stories, Uncle John's bathroom reader, or even joke books (I used to eat those things up like crack-cocaine when I was a child). Take it easy on yourself.

I still read books, but I haven't really been able to read fiction since, oh, the late 80s - early 90s. I'm not sure why that is, but it does seem to be the case. I'll pick something up, get about 100 - 150 pages in, and just... lose interest. I can still revisit old favorites, but for whatever reason newer fiction hasn't been grabbing me.

I am somewhat disturbed by this turn of events. Maybe I'm not reading the right books. I think the last piece of fiction I tried was Kavalier & Clay. It's not that it was bad, I just wasn't motivated to finish.

It's not that I don't read - I generally go through maybe three or four non-fiction books a month.

I was having the exact same conversation the other day. I read loads and loads of stuff online and the occasional magazine and newspaper but I haven't read any literature in years. I'm going to try and remedy that this year as there's too much stuff out there that I know I should read and then enjoy.

Great answer from Eideteker.

I have pondered this, too. I was the kid who went to the library weekly and took out a stack of books so high I could barely see over it. Last year, I think I managed to read 8 books solely for enjoyment.

But it's true - the time went somewhere. Things that have affected my book-reading time:

1 - getting the New Yorker. This is a book's worth of reading, delivered to your door weekly, and irresistibly interesting. By the time I finish everything I want to read in this week's, the next one arrives.

2- getting a car. Public transportation time was great for reading.

3 - the intarwebs. Self-explanatory. I read a lot of stuff online - but not books. Most of my former reading time has probably gone down this rabbit hold.

4 - having a job which always has a reading backlog. Given a lunch hour, I could read a book, but instead tend to read articles and books for work (which don't count).

5- relationships. When single, I often take myself out to dinner or to have a beer, book in hand, and enjoy some quiet reading time while still being Out in the World. When in a relationship there's less such alone time for reading to fill.

6-being too strict with myself. Often I have this idea that my reading should be edifying and informative. I like nonfiction and have books I feel I 'ought to read.' Not surprisingly, I'm not so tantalized by those, and tend to put them off until bedtime, then get quickly bored and tired and drop off to sleep. At some point this year I was traveling and ran out of book, and went out and picked up a rather fluffy bestseller with no redeeming value - and really enjoyed reading it. I remembered that it's okay for books to be enjoyable - I don't have to eat my book vegetables all the time. Since then I have tried to sprinkle in more books I want to read and fewer I feel I "should."

But because I don't want to stop reading, I'm embracing the idea that it has to become a priority as Eideteker said. Shutting down the electronics for a while, not choosing to watch a movie, not feeling like I have to do work...all that will help me get more done. I actually made "read more books" a resoltuion this year.

Your attention span has shortened somehow.

*hands Claudia remote control*

The day I stopped reading MetaFilter is the day I started reading books again.

I stopped reading books for about two years after grad school (lit program, natch). I would still read lots of magazines (Harpers, New Yorker, etc, still usually skipping the fiction sections), but it's really been only a few years now (I graduated in 2000) that I've picked fiction back up. Add to that the fact that I worked as a managing editor for awhile and then went back to school--reading anything fictional became pretty low on my list.

So, I started with a lot of short stories and Dashiell Hammett and Richard Matheson--things that I loved that didn't involve charting characters and themes. One of the first books I read after the dry spell was House of Leaves and it was really interesting and fun. I went back to poetry at some point after moving to where we are now. In the meantime, before the new fiction reading began (and after I felt OK picking up another book), I read a lot of nonfiction and "nonfiction"--biographies, histories, most anything dealing with music and recording, film and cultural criticism.

Maybe finding something you want to read might help. Maybe? Something pertaining to your interests? Fiction is usually overrated horseshit anyways. Oh, and I now take the bus, which causes me to read quite a bit nowadays.

I'm having a similar issue: I used to be a voracious read-anything sort of reader, walking out of the library with piles of books at a time. Now I do that maybe four or six times a year. I do read online every day, and in-depth stuff too; and I read magazines. I think part of it is that I've been up to my ears in babies the past few years and it's a lot easier to read from the monitor than it is to read a book while I nurse; it's a lot easier to read in bites (bytes, hee) when I don't have to pick up and put down and find where I left off. Another part is that if I'm reading online as opposed to reading a book I can multitask while I do it. And since I multitask almost everything now, sitting and focusing just on one thing - a book - requires extra effort, extra quiet, time I could be spending getting other things done...

I get the reading itch every now and then and I'll stock up on books from the library's online catalog, get them all at once and read read read for a couple weeks. But I used to always have two or three books going at once and I don't anymore. I've gone off fiction in the past few years in a big way (isn't that funny, other people are saying that too here), I really prefer nonfic for the most part now. And I never thought I'd purge my book collection - getting rid of books? heresy! - but I have, almost in half, because what held my interest 15 years ago doesn't anymore.

I'm definitely crankier with my attention span: if it doesn't catch my interest right away, I don't bother. Luckily I got the Stephen King oeuvre out of the way when I was a teenager because I certainly wouldn't put up with reading 200 pages just to get to where the story gets good these days!

Oh, you know where I read books? In the tub. I take baths way more often than showers these days because it's frequently my only quiet "me" time where I can hide and relax. And I can't read off the laptop in the tub.

I used to be a voracious reader but computers, Usenet, MUDs, and MMOGs ate up a lot of the time I used to dedicate to reading.

I used to read voraciously, until college. Then I had classes with assigned reading, lots of internet time, and a boyfriend who wasn't a big reader.

Now I probably read one-two books a month, usually on the toilet or when MuddDude is busy.

I'm flying in the face of y'all to say I'm still a voracious, read-anything reader. I read around 3-4 books per week, as well as the Economist, the New Yorker, and a few other magazine subscriptions.

And I know full well that the only reason I read so much is because of my commute on public transport. When I drove or walked to work/school, I didn't read nearly as much.

i should read more for work, but it's so dull...

I thought I'd slacked back on my reading last year, but it turns out, having taken a minute to tally them up, that I got through 26 books in 2007. A good deal of my reading now is done on my brief bus-ride to & from work - it's only 10 minutes each way, but that consistent 100 minutes a week adds up.

I'm definitely crankier with my attention span: if it doesn't catch my interest right away, I don't bother.

Life's too short. I no longer feel guilty 'giving up on' books that don't immediately recommend themselves.

A while ago, around the turn of the century, I went through a horrible damned depression. It robbed me of the ability to read anything deep or complicated. Really. The blocks of text would swim in front of my eyes and I couldn't focus on what the author was trying to say.

That depression is over but I haven't re-acquired the habit of reading real books; I chose to goof off on the internet instead, even though I know that I can do better than that. Laziness plays a role in this. Reading a 400 page book about any topic, no matter how lightweight, will never be as easy as posting videos I saw on YouTube. Also, the back-and-forth of online fora provides a certain instant gratification that books -- real books, ones with depth -- cannot. Like a sugar rush, you know? I need to cut back on that shit and start focusing on the protein and veggies.

There wasn't much I could do about my depression but there is an awful lot that I can do right now to improve what I carry between my ears, which, when you get down to it, is the only thing we really own in this life.

Right now, I've got all the time in the world and no money at all. Millions of distractions outside my door and I can't afford a one of 'em.

Might as well make those librarians earn their keep.

Thanks for posting this, Claudia!

I'm the same way - I used to read LOTS but like most of you, life, etc. got in the way, but I've decided to change that in small steps - the first of which is forgoing the crossword I usually do on my subway ride home (I read the paper on the morning ride in) and reading a book instead. I'm certainly not reading at the same pace as I used to - my ride is about 40 minutes, but it's something. I've already finished one book for 2008 and am onto my second. :)

Thanks Claudia, for starting this thread. This is something I've noticed in the last few years in my own life, but probably wouldn't have admitted to if somebody else hadn't volunteered first. I first noticed this in 2003 when I noted that it took me nearly four months to get through Umberto Ecco's Island of the Day Before. These days I consider it a success if I read more than five books a year.

I partially blame the easy availability of instant gratification from the internets. I don't feel as though I have the extended blocks of time needed to seriously immerse myself in a book. It takes a little time for me to get fully into the experience, and even then I can generally only do about 20 pages an hour.

Among other things, I can no longer read the most challenging nonfiction works which I used to tackle as an undergrad. There's a bit of shame involved for me since, according to facebook, many of my cohort from Reed College are now tenured professors, and list among their interests things that sound like "Analysis of the cross-cultural influences of the dialectic of bla bla bla." and I like reading graphic novels and watching romantic comedy anime.

I've been working on a biography of Frederick Law Olmstead for nearly three weeks now. It's lovely reading, but making myself stop doing short term, passive things and pick it up is painfully difficult.

I still read a LOT. Like perhaps it's a problem. (Where's the nearest RA?)I went to the library a while ago and was over my fine limit and had no cash, so I COULDN'T CHECK ANYTHING OUT! I swear, I almost had a panic attack.

I say all that to preface this: Sometimes I burn out. That's the only way I can describe it. I go from reading a book every 2 days to not reading anything at all for months. I grieve about it, too, worrying that I may never feel that "OMG, what a fantastic book!" feeling again.

I don't want to think about life after reading, and, so far, it has always come back to me.

I think I hate trade paperbacks. As my video game systems and music/movie players are getting smaller, my books are getting bigger.

That's what I blame it on.

Whatever small, old paperbacks I can find that are coat pocket size I will devour. But these things that take a man purse to carry anywhere - no thanks.

I also read a lot. A whole lot. And while websites have mostly replaced my magazine and newspaper reading, they haven't even made a dent in my book-reading. Wanna be like me? Just as far as the book-reading thing is concerned, I mean? Here's a five-point plan I just made up:

1. Read book reviews, and maybe bestseller lists, or the occasional list of the best books of the year, or the best American women's novels, or the best novels of the 20th century or whatever.

2. Browse bookshelves--at bookstores, if you're the kind of person who finds themselves in a lot of bookstores, but better yet at libraries, secondhand stores and your friends' and family's houses. Maybe read some book-related websites, too.

3. Library types like to say 'every book its reader.' That phrase always struck me as sort of weirdly mercantile, but you can hear echoes of the idea in reader-response literary criticism. Remember that there are as many readings as there are readers (and many more rereadings), and that yours is as valid as anybody's.

4. Don't be afraid to leave a book unfinished, or to stop reading one. Also, try to always be in the middle of reading at least two or three books. You're not always in the mood to read the one.

5. Take your time with it, y'know?

Yes, yes, to all of the above comments.

There are some books I can still read -- old favorites like Jane Austen. And I loved loved loved Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Those are the exception, lately, though.

Reading is probably the single greatest passion in my life and always has been, but I've been through periods when I didn't read much at all... and it was like being separated from a beloved family member, and actually painful, though I know that sounds overly dramatic.

Most recently it was because I moved to Greece and had very little money, so that buying the very expensive limited selection of English language books that I found at bookstores was an extravagance, and there were no used book stores, so most of my reading was limited to what I could borrow from friends. It was during this time that I immersed myself in the internet, learned html and then css, and started making web sites - first for myself and then others, as well as playing around with a lot of digital art and design.

Now we are little better off financially, so I can order books from amazon.uk and I've found one place in Athens that does have some used books in English, so it's been some time since I've been bookless - but my energy and ambition for doing other things has dropped dramatically. When I have books, I do a lot less, creatively.

Before that I spent 15 years on a deadline, working for publications. At first it was in the production end, and though it was very stressful and I worked long hours, I was still reading. When I became a staff writer, my reading slowed down a lot, and when I became an editor, it became the merest trickle. Why? Because I couldn't read without guilt. Every minute spent reading purely for pleasure was time that I could/should be writing/reading/editing/planning for the deadlines that were always, always, always hanging over my head.

But I was very productive, and very successful. So for me, because apparently I am totally shitbrained at being able to divide my own time and split my energy/attention, it seems that being personally creative, productive, etc. and reading as much as I want to are opposing forces. Either I read happily and slip away into bookland at every opportunity, or I actually create something myself ... and, evidently, never the twain shall meet. Which sucks. (I'm in bookland at the moment, btw.)

Yes a hundred times to many of the above comments.

The last time I gave up much of the Internet (Metafilter, along with a couple of other forums I visit daily) I made it through most of the major works of Plato and Aristotle before I backslid, in addition to a few novels. I was just thinking last night that it's time to give it up again--I've been working away on an 800-page history-of-science book for a month now that shouldn't have taken me two weeks at the most. I'm also reading the King James Bible accompanied by the Oxford Bible Commentary--at 1800+ pages for the KJV, and another 1400+ for the commentary, I am going to have to make some life changes if I want to get that done before the end of 2008. And I have a stack of about sixty books I've bought and haven't read--pre-Internet, I would have dispatched them, in addition to the KJV, inside of 18 months. Some of them I bought in hardcover--they've since come out in paperback, and in one case the book's even been turned into a film whose trailer spoiled most of the plot.

Also, the back-and-forth of online fora provides a certain instant gratification that books -- real books, ones with depth -- cannot. Like a sugar rush, you know? I need to cut back on that shit and start focusing on the protein and veggies.

This especially struck a chord with me, since I've been feeling lately that the time I spend on the Internet is beginning to erode my ability to process complicated, nuanced thoughts, and to have such thoughts myself. Online forums tend to be full of snark, rhetoric, rants, trivia, memes, and poorly expressed, ill-considered strong opinions, all of which are enemies of careful thinking. It's not just that my time gets sapped away, but that I'm losing the patience and the attention span necessary to consider difficult arguments, of the sort that one can learn from and respond to even if one disagrees with them.

Some of them I bought in hardcover--they've since come out in paperback, and in one case the book's even been turned into a film whose trailer spoiled most of the plot.

I've had one of those next to my bed for a year. Wonder if it's the same one.

I still do read books; I just don't have the momentum I used to. I think you need some critical mass to get involved with a book; it's hard to stick with anything major if you can only allocate ten or fifteen minutes here and there. Commuting time really helps. (I guess that's yet another argument for moving up to SF and Caltraining down here to work, though I'm not sure how well that'd suit my dog, and anyway I'm digressing.)

I disagree with Prospero about online forums. I value a great deal of what I get from the handful of them I use, and think that there's at least some room in some of them for complicated, nuanced thoughts. But probably part of why I'm still reading books at all is that I'm not willing to allocate the time to participate very actively. The few contributions I make are quick and trivial. And that seems unfair somehow, when people like Miko are taking the time to write eloquent, thoughtful, substantive material on a variety of subjects.