Why We Struggle To Finish Books - The Digital Gap

Why people struggle and lack the focus to finish books. Technology plays a big part in this struggle to enjoy literature. How to find time and energy to read more.

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Not Cliff from Better Than Food book reviews, Not Dark Academia playlists, Not Nathaniel Drew why you don't have enough time, Not Productivity tips. This is why we struggle to finish books. This is R.C. Waldun the digital gap and why can't people finish books

[alexiswright]

I find that when reading literature that is more of a requirement than entertainment, making annotations periodically help immensely. It forces you to comprehend the text rather than just reading for reading's sake, and it allows you to relate more to the subject, which personally, makes it easier for me to become more interested in the topic if I was not before.

It gets time-consuming, however, when you want to write every little thought down as I tend to do...

[tysrofy]

This discussion has been quite relevant for me recently. The discomfort at the beginning is too often worth it when reading, sometimes it really takes time to appreciate what a book could possibly give you.

[kristianmladenov]

For me personally, reading Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov and Don Quixote, changed my opinion on long books forever. Always give a chance to a book.

[RockMusicFanNicki]

In the end, I think you need to know why you're reading a book. If I pick up a thriller, wanting to be entertained and halfway in I am still bored, then I won't finish reading it, it's a waste of time in my opinion. But if I pick up a classic (or a non-fiction book), then it is because I am interested in the topic. I want to see how books evolved, a glimpse of how the world was in that time, the way the author wrote and described things and then I won't put it down just because I'm bored (there are other reasons to not finish a classic, like sometimes you're just not in the right space at the moment or the writing makes it impossible to read (which is a big factor for me)).
I think you mentioned something like this before, but I usually read multiple books at a time to not lose my overall interest in reading. Often I'll read a chapter of the classic that I'm on and then switch to some fantasy book if the classic is too boring at that moment.
So as with most things in life, it's the right balance. But if you really just hate reading a book, I think it's okay to put it aside. Maybe in the future you'll have a better state of mind to attempt to read it again.

[wburris]

Reading Les Misérables was somewhat of a struggle, but I kept coming back to it and finished about a year after I started. Ulysses is still on my shelf unread. I am now reading Dubliners. I abandoned Gravity's Rainbow after about 50 pages. The big books I had at university had titles like: "Fundamentals of Physics" and "Calculus". Modern versions of those books are twice as big, because of all the color diagrams.

[leomagtibay]

I've been on the "quit the book if it's boring" mindset and it sky rocketed my reading volume but this idea of slogging through difficult reading has been on the back of my mind lately. It reminds me of Lars Von Trier's film Dogville. The first 2 hours or so were excruciatingly boring and some parts were hard to watch but the ending was the most cathartic sequence I've experienced in cinema. Maybe eventually I'll finally grab 2666 from my shelf and read it.

[Handmedownmac]

I find that making notes and annotations throughout a book keeps me more involved in the act of reading it. Also flipping through the pages after it’s finished and finding a ton of highlighted lines and thoughtful scribbles is very satisfying!

[eatyouryoung]

I find it difficult to start something new these days because there's always this internal pressure to finish what you start

[_Serena]

Today is my birthday, so this video my friend, is one of my gifts, thank you. :)

[dariooben]

I'm midway through chapter 15 of Ullyses as the time of writing this. I've quitted this book like 5 times in the last 3-4 years, but always came back. I've read longer books, but this is a (very) hard one, man. This video is very motivational, I'll sit down and finish this little mf now!

[beadenise]

This was my struggle during my first year of law school — going through walls of text of just dense, rambly legalese was TORTURE. Now that I’m on my third year it’s gotten better and I’ve also learned to optimize my study routine to better fit my needs and my attention span.

[WoodlandPoetry]

Bravo for you! I'm so glad you are trying to stick them out. Often a book will lead you through some very dry patches because that is what the character is feeling. The classics generally were leading up to something, and if you skipped a chapter, you might not ever know what it was.

I know that the first time I ever watched La Strada, I was tired and worn out when the movie was over, yet I had loved it. Then I realized that that's exactly what I was supposed to feel - what the characters were feeling.

People don't often realize that people who have read a book all the way through can spot a person who hasn't. I don't care how many Cliff's Notes and whatnot people read, in conversation you can tell they haven't read the book. So I completely agree with you that you do need to read the book to have the bragging rights. Or the intellectual knowledge or whatever it is you are seeking.

[MPumpkin]

I have a lot of books I know are good investments on my readlist. I saw it when I finished three last year, then took a gap of reading but I remember my writing being better from them. I never noticed until this video about the attention spurts, but I find it to be true.20ish pages in I was always warring against boredom and wanting instant gratification. I used to read a lot more pre 2010 and I remember my patience being a lot longer. I think, as you said we should judge the potential knowledge or experience a book may bring, via genre, summary, level of technicality or difficulty maybe and how much we can make use of it, then try to stick with it maybe one more week at least or a few more days, just give it a second shot before saying goodbye. If it still sucks well, we learned what we don't like but we still learned something rather than nothing from it

[Laura-gvwy]

I’ve felt like this a lot while doing my latest readings, always anxious and trying to get to the end/ resolution- ironically the ones I’ve read lately have endings that are very much open to interpretation, with no concrete conclusion. But, when i began to notice this, i saw that i was trying to consume books the same way that i consume social media or news, that is, with very little effort that ends with a fast and dense reward, those bursts of info, sometimesi feel impatient even while on social media. So it’s been tiring starting a new one because i know that this is what’s going to happen.. even with the discomfort, when Im done, i always feel glad that i decided finish it
Really like your content:))

[neilartista]

The points in the video are currently ideas that I've been contemplating about for a while, and i've been contemplating them because every time I read, the way I think about ingesting literature evolves.

You're right, society today has this peculiar fixation on expedited means of absorbing media, and in effect has diminished the attention span of the general public. Thats why I think that the act of reading literature for me allows me to develop resistance against the trend of a weak attention span since (in most cases) a book cant be finished as quickly as say a movie or a show. Reading forces me to absorb a medium slowly and allows me to appreciate everything about a book I read, from the grandiose writing style or the imagination of a certain author.

I mean yes, there are mundane stories and yes, there are weaker writers and occasional books that should just be put down or saved for another season. But a book (I believe) in most cases is perceived as "boring" when the work of literature is not properly ingested by the reader, perhaps because of a novice reader expectation of wanting to gain the full benefit of a work of literature in the quickest means possible, or perhaps wanting to finish a book as quickly as possible to earn bragging rights of reading all the books in one's bookshelf. In many cases it is worth to give a book a patient chance. Some mundane stories can be written with great eloquence, and some weaker writers can conjure up stories that are fascinating enough for a reader to become attached to a story if they do so wish to.

Personally, to get as much as I can from a reading session, I engage in a sort of pre-reading mental ritual before I read a book where I really condition my mind to absorb every word and every sentence, to tie every thought as much as possible rather than reading mindlessly and letting the words pass by my consciousness. This way, i'm able to maximize my reading experience and enjoy/soak in a nice work of literature the best way I see possible.

*Sorry, this was a bit of a longer comment but I always like watching your videos so I thought to muster up the courage to drop a thought this time :)

[briancoveney]

It's worth practicing getting to the end of "the book." A learned skill that must be earned.

[Diod]

Oh my goodness this is so relevant for me. I constantly just leave books in the middle to go read another or do something else! I'm trying to get myself to be able to be bored more often so I can finish what I read.

[hypatia]

Actually, I had difficulty finishing reading my set university texts 35 years ago, before the internet. It was called being fed up with studying and wanting to live a little.

[canthony]

You have no idea how many books I’ve got but haven’t read yet...the worst thing is that I continue to buy more.
Btw, how do you read short stories? In order? Or by random?

[whateverbabe]

I just finished a book that I loved so much, I'd recommend it for anyone who sees my comment it's called "The Stationery Shop" maybe it will help someone with a reading slump. 😊