How to get back into reading

You can also look to your taste in movies and TV for inspiration. “If you like romance movies, try a romance novel. If you like action movies, try a thriller,” Koven-Matasy says. Or brainstorm around your travels and interests: Before a recent trip to Chile, for example, Dr. Hattan dove into novels by Chilean authors. Meanwhile, her Formula 1–fan husband is into novels about fictional race car drivers.

Another strategy: Return to a genre you adored as a kid or teenager to hopefully recapture some of that childlike enchantment. (YA fantasy, anybody?) Or look for a modern take on an old favorite. “We’re in a golden age of retellings,” Koven-Matasy says.

3. Start with breezy reads

“I really gotta stress, try reading a short book first,” says Koven-Matasy. You wouldn’t stroll into the gym for the first time in six months and go straight for the 200-pound barbell. So if you haven’t worked your reading muscles in a minute, maaaybe don’t start with War and Peace. Slim novellas, fluffy beach reads, and graphic novels require less heavy lifting, and “you still get the satisfaction and the catharsis of the book ending,” Koven-Matasy says.

4. Or books with short chapters

If your attention span feels ridiculously short these days, books broken up into smaller chunks are ideal. Think fast-paced novels, short story collections, and essay collections. They’re easier to dip in and out of than tomes with dauntingly long stretches of text, Schinsky says, and knocking out those chapters can build a sense of momentum.

Quick chapters also make it easier to fit in little doses of reading here and there. “If you’ve got 10 minutes in the waiting room at the doctor’s office, you can read one of the short chapters instead of scrolling TikTok,” Schinsky says.

Plus, brief collections are great for sampling a bunch of stuff and finding a new writer you love. “It’s like a flight of books, where you’re just tasting what each has to offer before you settle in with one,” Schinsky says. She recommends MacMillan’s yearly Best American series, which compile everything from food writing to mystery and suspense.

5. Give yourself permission to DNF

Nothing makes reading more unappetising than forcing yourself to finish a book you just can’t get into. But true bookworms quit books so often that there’s lingo for it in the book world: DNF, for Do Not Finish or Did Not Finish. “Give yourself permission to, like, DNF with reckless abandon,” Schinsky says. “There is no reason in our limited lifetime to force yourself to slog through a book you’re not enjoying.”