Help. Can’t read.

So sorry to hear of your problem Lucca. Reading is such a great time passer.
I find Georgette Heyer never disappoints.
For a really witty light read Trisha Ashley books are very entertaining.
Good luck.

welbeck

would talking books help ?
what about some old ones, barbara pym, which i find both comic and deeply insightful.
there are always characters in hers who are just like people i've come across in real life.
and maybe i'm turning into some... oh dear.

I love Barbara Pym!
Favourites are Crampton Hodnet (set in N Oxford before WW2 so even more of a period piece now than her others) Excellent Women, and Some Tame Gazelle.

Quartet in Autumn is more sombre but IMO a brilliant read - it was shortlisted for the Booker in the 80s.

I'd echo saltnshake's suggestion, Miss Benson's Beetle by Rachel Joyce, or any book by Rachel Joyce.

Ive read quite a few Tracy Chevalier books - really good but I would not say light easy reading.

And All the Light We Cannot See - also very good but definitely not light or short book. Not surprised if you struggled with that.

As others have said Ann Tyler is good. read quite a few of hers. Digging to America the best IMO
The Amateur Marriage too

The Call the Midwife series is good and easy reading

What I find annoying about books sometimes is not just how long they are - but how long between pages until a break up space in the writing. I think there is name for that but I don't know what it is.
so you can easily stop and start.

Lucca I struggled to read throughout the various stages of lockdown, my solution was to re-visit some of my favourite books.

I started by just reading a chapter a day and gradually without me really being aware I was ploughing through them, so happy to have familiar characters back in my life, like long lost friends.

They wetted my appetite to explore new authors and genres, my kindle is now laden with new titles.

JackyB

There are plenty of suggestions here as to what to read but might I suggest you try books with larger print. With less words on the page it might make it easier to concentrate.

I agree with JackyB here, but to give a controversial option - I've got an aging kindle and the big advantage is you can increase the text size at will. I've got mine set to huge! My children can read it from across the room!

Hi, I fully understand the need to read something lighter. I used to be an avid reader but a combination of failing eyesight and the anxieties of life has practically stopped me. When my dad became terminally ill I found re-reading Terry Pratchetts Discworld on a loop got me through for a few years, then just as I started to trust new books, losing my husband sent me back there. Do you have any books that created a comforting world that you'd like to revisit? Re-reading takes no effort at all.
I recently read a charming wee book Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. It's time travel with a difference - the time travel is severely limited, you remain seated, can only travel to meet people who have visited the cafe, and you cannot change the present. You get one chance and have to leave before the coffee gets cold. So within those limits we have a book that explores people's lives and relationships. I found it utterly charming. I like any book that touches me and leaves me with a wee smile.
I second Anne Tyler, Ladder of Years is one that I really enjoyed.
The latest book I have finished is Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus which again was a quick easy read but a lot less comfortable. This poor woman was trying to live an independent life in an utterly misogynistic 1950s society without compromising her beliefs. I really enjoyed it although at times I felt like screaming at her
Audio books can be good if you can't find the time or light enough to read. Audible is out there but so is BBC Sounds. There are serialised books on that app.
Finally it might be worth switching genres. My Mum used to love gory murders, all these pathologists and detectives working on cases, but lately she has switched to family sagas, wartime romances and the like. Good luck with finding something to read.

I read some of Mary Wesley's books probably back in the nineties, when if I recall she being of some great age was drawing on memories in setting some in the time of her youth, Camomile Lawn for example, and part of the story moving forward into the present.

The author whose books I have enjoyed the most who switches between a bygone era, often early to mid twentieth century and the present is Kate Morton. I've loved her books and although she is Australian and doesn't live in this country, she evokes England very well imo. I know some people don't like a narrative that goes backwards and forwards between the past and present, but her plots cantilever together very well in that way. Lucinda Riley is similar but if I were to choose between the two Kate Morton would be my favourite.

I also enjoyed Crawdads. Books are of course very subjective, and there are some great recommendations here especially from Urmston, but of course we can never know whether any personal favourite will appeal to someone else. I Google reviews, but have still found myself disagreeing with 5 star ones.

For light reading, you can't beat Lucinda Riley's Seven Sisters series, intriguing but far from taxing, each one set in a different location around the world. Another novel I've found engaging is Small Pleasures, by Clare Chambers and I also suggest The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams.
I hope you start to enjoy reading sooner rather than later.

Urmstongran

And from my bookcase ... No. 5
Written in 1938 and has line drawings too which are charming in themselves!
All the better reason not to have on a Kindle.
Our book club loved this one two years ago when we read it!

Sounds like an Elizabeth vonArmin book I loved called A enchanted April . Try it!

JackyB

There are plenty of suggestions here as to what to read but might I suggest you try books with larger print. With less words on the page it might make it easier to concentrate.

I agree with that. Now this is probably not up your street Lucca, but I recently read a book Jeremy Clarkson had written about his farming experiences. A collection of his weekly Sunday Times columns. The print was a good size and the lines well spaced. Short chapters. Worked well for me and gave me a few laughs. I have no idea why I have ‘gone off’ small, closely spaced print lately - nothing wrong with my sight.

dragonfly46

I know just what you mean Lucca. I too found it hard to concentrate when I had chemo. I started again with books I had previously loved like Rebecca, A Town Like Alice and other short books. Nothing too taxing!

... me too.

What is it with chemo and not being able to concentrate on reading?

I found I had to keep 'busy' doing something... it was almost impossible to relax.

How about The Tent, the bucket and me, I laughed so much.

CJ Ransome, a set of Historical Novels set in and around Henry V111, a kind of detective series, with the threat of beheading if he doesn’t sort out the mystery.

I loved the constable books by Nicholas Rhea. They go back to a slower pace of life.

That’s a shame Lucca Amazon have lots of free (with Prime) books online, many different genres.

I’ve just read No Place to Hide by Susan Lewis. Made me cry, Which is maybe not what you want, but after the news from the US yesterday it was very apt.
I love Elin Hilderbrand and Anne Rivers Siddons.
Anything that transports me to the coast and away from the fields I’m surrounded by is a good read (to me)
I hate the books that always have a female or a child victim.
I hope you find something soon.

Kim19

Lucca, would audio perhaps be easier for you than either kindle or hard copy?

No ! I have said upthread I don’t want audio and I hate reading from kindle. Sorry.

Rosamund Pilcher writes a good story. I've only recently rediscovered her. I would also consider a Kindle if you don't have one. They are backlit and you can adjust the font, easy to turn the pages too!

Kim19

Alexander McCall Smith....the Isabel Dalhousie series. Such gentle but uplifting reading. Recommend you start at the beginning of the series. Best you can't lay them down! ?

I also recommend as did fairfraise

Lucca, would audio perhaps be easier for you than either kindle or hard copy?

I shall set to and order a load of books tomorrow…er today!

I have just read D.E.Stevenson’s “Miss Buncle’s Book” (1934) in the Persephone edition (love them), light, but a really good read. Similar to Miss Pettigtrew, but a little more meat on the bone. So entranced, I am going to plough through her whole oeuvre.
Also Dorothy Whipple, wonderful writer, same vintage and “The Making of a Marchioness” by Frances Hodgson Burnett, who I didn’t realise wrote excellent adult fiction.
For something more up to date, the Irish writer William Trevor has a very humane, soothing style.

Urmstongran
I enthusiastically second your No. 5, a lovely book! A cousin gave it to me for Christmas, I passed it on to another relative who, sadly, has no memory of receiving it. Then I won a bundle of Persephone books, including ‘Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day’ in a BookCrossing raffle. Sitting next to me was an American academic living in Greenwich. As she hadn’t read it I pressed it on her. I do hope she enjoyed it as much as I did.

Lucca
Have a look at the Persephone catalogue, you may find something to whet your appetite there, they are such gorgeously presented editions that every one I have had feels like a treat!

There are plenty of suggestions here as to what to read but might I suggest you try books with larger print. With less words on the page it might make it easier to concentrate.

Oh… and the Olive Kitteridge books by Elizabeth Stroud. Like being wrapped in a lovely warm blanket. Another beautifully written but flowing read.

I like Lucinda Riley books, easy reading.