Help. Can’t read.

Maeve Binchy?

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 have just read Graham Norton's Holding. I was prepared to be snobbish about it - TV celebrity getting in on the novel market etc but I really enjoyed it. Ballykissangel type community with a murder mystery (but not daft like Osman). I could not put it down and read 300 pages in one sitting. Warm characters (mostly) and a well-constructed story.

Have you read any Anne Tyler novels? They’re family-based stories but with lovely little quirks to them. Deborah Moggach is light and there’s Imogen Clark.

My Family & Other Animals is always worth a read. I’m not sure whether you would want to read about food, if you’re having chemo but One more Croissant for the Road is a very amusing account by Felicity Cloake of her trip round France by bicycle.

Lucca me too, between my eyes and concentration I have gone from an avid reader to an almost non reader I try little bits but I’m finding it almost impossible to get back to reading a full book

I find a magazine is sometimes good to dip an and out of.

Ruth Rendell is a bit of a page turner for me, too.

Have you tried Joanna Trollope?

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!

Someone ( FannyC, I think) recommended this book on another thread, ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian’. Don’t let the title put you off! I stopped reading books a while ago, don’t know why, just couldn’t be bothered, but I couldn’t put this one down! It’s very amusing!

Thank you, FannyC for getting me back into reading! 😃

I always find Alexander McCall Smith light reading especially the Isabel Dalhousie ones. Nothing much happens and they are largely observations of human behaviour which can make you smile.

I have just finished Miss Benson's Beetle. Loved it. Worth a try.

Squiffy

Someone ( FannyC, I think) recommended this book on another thread, ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian’. Don’t let the title put you off! I stopped reading books a while ago, don’t know why, just couldn’t be bothered, but I couldn’t put this one down! It’s very amusing!

Read it

kittylester

Have you tried Joanna Trollope?

Yes.

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’ve read some Barbara Pym but I’ll look fir more.
I want to read I think rather than listen

Squiffy

Someone ( FannyC, I think) recommended this book on another thread, ‘A Short History of Tractors in Ukranian’. Don’t let the title put you off! I stopped reading books a while ago, don’t know why, just couldn’t be bothered, but I couldn’t put this one down! It’s very amusing!

FannyC and I both enjoyed it.
The author is Marina Lewycka and she also wrote We Are All Made of Glue

Although I usually pass on paperbacks, I couldn't give them away because I'll want to read them again, most unusual for me.

Read it

Oh, apologies, I read that afterwards.

Have you read The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series by Alexander McCall Smith?

Have you tried novels by Joanna Nell?
Rather poignant but amusing too.
The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village is her first novel.

M C Beaton books about Agatha Raisin (better, apparently, than the TV series).
She also wrote books about Scottish policeman Hamish Macbeth, better than the Agatha ones imo.

I‘ve found it difficult to concentrate lately and have found collections of short stories helpful.

Have you thought of non-fiction in a subject that interest you? I find as I get older I have become more interested in old history, tudors etc. (I'm not that old though!)

patrick gale?
they are pretty easy reading and marina lewycka?

sorry i have just realised my second recommendation has already been suggested
I have a short attention span

Lucca regards reading we are kindred spirits! Who’d have thought we could be alike somewhere along the way?
😊

Everything you liked, I did.
All the genres you don’t like, I don’t like them either!

I’ve just searched through my Kindle and would thoroughly recommend these 4 novels to you.

No. 1

No. 2