Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Nellisir" data-source="post: 8198286" data-attributes="member: 70">I also have ADD, but reading & writing are my "focus" areas, and I generally remember books for years. I've been rereading quite a bit recently, and generally it's gone well, but it's not something I do a lot.So, I hit that point about 10-11 years ago. I realized my reading had dropped to maybe 2-5 books per year, which is bonkers. I grew up without a tv, and I'm a fast reader. I can easily clear 1-2 books a week. I thought "there's no way in hell I've read everything good out there", so I came up with a plan.I went through lists of Best Books, Best Fantasy books, Best SF Books, etc, etc. I went through the NY Times best books of the year going back 10 years. I made a list of everything that looked interesting, regardless of genre - I actually intentionally went outside my normal reading bounds, actually. I also asked friends to recommend their FAVORITE books and their BEST books - which are often not the same. And I read/reread through "Years Best SF/Fantasy" books and noted down the authors that had stories I enjoyed - they almost always have novels as well.Then I purged my bookshelves. I saved any books that had meaning, or I just really enjoyed, or that I would recommend (I'd ask myself if I'd recommend it to my daughter in 10-15 years). If a book failed in all categories, and wasn't otherwise useful, I bagged it up.At the time there were two really good used bookstores in the local area. I hit the best and traded in anything they'd take for credit. Then I hit the next one and gave them whatever they'd take, for credit. At one point I had $500+ in credit at the first store and $150+ in the second.There was also a twice-yearly HUGE used book sale in town. Anything that didn't sell I donated there. The book sale ran three weekends, with the price dropping daily. I went the first weekend and got high priority items. Second weekend I went and got anything else on my list. Third weekend I went and bought whatever the heck caught my eye. I think I maxed out at $90 total one year.Then I hit the used bookstores and got anything that was on my list but I hadn't gotten at the book sale. I think the first year I cleared about 40% of my list between the sale and the stores, and had 100+ books to read, with maybe the aforementioned $90 in actual cash outlay.That helped me find new genres, categories, and authors to read (or avoid). I still avoid most historical biography, but it's actually pretty good occasionally. Scandinavian noir is excellent. Michael Moore is excellent; David Sedaris is somehow not to my taste. Lolita and One Hundred Years of Solitude tie for best book I've ever read, but both are intense and deep and not light pleasure reading. General mass-market detective/mystery isn't really my thing. Etc and so forth.It's really rare now that I buy new books. It's almost always if an author I really like has something coming out. Instead I haunt book sales and used book stores. I only buy copies in good condition, without a lot of abuse, preferably in trade paperback format, and $4 is about average, so I can get 3-4 of those for the price of one new.Look for library sales, thrift stores, and used book stores. Even Goodwill and Salvation Army have book sections. Check out collections (years best, etc) and the authors. There's more out there than you've tried.*Some people really like libraries. I am unable to remember what books I've read unless it was bad, or I have a physical copy of it. So I prefer to buy books over borrowing them, because if I like it I'll look for more to buy, and end up buying the same one I just read. Books that I don't like/won't recommend go back to the bookstores, etc.</blockquote>

Verification