Audiobooks. It honestly helped a lot. I used to read a lot up till my late teens and then I got depression and life happened and all that sort of things. When I got better, I wanted to get back into reading, but I kept thinking it was a waste of time when I could be doing something more productive. I was also very critical of anything I read.
I ended up listening to audiobooks while doing other "productive" things instead and it helped a lot. I started enjoying stories again and was less critical of it as I was only half paying attention to it.
And then I slowly moved back to reading text because some books I wanted didn't have audiobook versions. And now I go back and forth between audiobook and text depending on what I'm doing.
But also, what made it feel like a chore to you? Why did you fall out of love with reading? Why does it seem bland now?
Part of the reason I stopped reading from depression was because I used to read a lot of Fantasy. And then real life started being terrible enough that I felt worse every time I realised that Fantasy was just that.. fantasy. Then I went to reading non-fantasy, and then I got annoyed at that too and stopped reading altogether.
When I got better, I jumped to science fiction instead as I could tell myself that it's possible, I'd just be dead by then. I started going for more comedic or hopeful things, and now I'm back to reading any genre.
So I think it would help to know why you stopped in the first place.
My story is pretty much the same as yours, except for the university part. I was a avid reader in my young days but that stopped when I also got depressed etc.
I actually picked up reading when I was in a mental hospital lol. At first it felt like chore, like you said, but I just kept the book in my hands, wondered around, read a few lines or chapters here and there. At first it was a slow slog but as I kept at it the easier it got.
I was(/am) very interested in history so I started reading about topics that interested me anyway. At first I read a few general history books, then I started to go into specific topics, the Great War, the Mongol conquests etc. I only read history books for like 8 years until I decided to re-read Lord of the Rings. Since that went well I picked up the small and short Wheel of Time-series. Now I'm on a Star Wars binge.
I've heard many say that reading is like doing a workout. When you start, everything feels heavy and annoying but the more you do it the easier it gets. So I would recommend to get a book that you feel you want to read and then keep the book at hand. Don't start doing any stupid reading challenges, like my cousin who decided to read 52 books in a year. For him that works because he's been reading A LOT for decades. If I put that sort of pressure on myself I would not read at all. Don't force yourself to read, read a little bit here and there, take pauses when you feel like its getting too difficult. Theres no hurry.
I go against Audiobooks, simply because I find that they're told in a way that doesn't work for me.
Make the time at the end of your day. Leave your phone in another room to charge overnight (Get an alarm clock if you need to be up at a specific time), then put a book next to your bedside table. Give it 30 minutes a night at least to unwind with a book you actually want to read.
I know what the depression thing is mate, it's a doozey. But it's about controlling the things you can with this.
I never was much of a reader to begin with, but I picked it up a few years ago when I discovered the Sanderson Cosmere series. It was just so exciting to read without a lot of prose describing every single thing in nature. The plot moved along quick enough to keep my interest piqued at all times and after a few weeks of reading it just became a habit.
I still have periods of months where I don't read, after finishing a book or a series for example. I feel like I'm too lazy to read again, but at some point I just feel like doing it, and it make it a habit again. I continued a book I started what feels like forever ago and it was so pleasant to read again. Playing tons of video games otherwise, it felt refreshing to not have to do a task or a quest or grind some levels to get to the next piece of the story :) So the last few days I read a lot again and in two weeks another book that's ending a series and I've been waiting for for a while, is coming out, so I'm excited for that.
What might also help you, is to register on goodreads (or alternatives) and just 'collect' and browse books, track your status and rate books. For me personally, that's a huge motivator to just check off books and manage my 'want to read' list.
If you're a SciFi fan, you could also watch The Expanse (which you might have already) and there's 2 or 3 more books than the series covered. So you can read the first 7 (?) books as a refresher and then dive into new Expanse content :) The books' pace is very high and they're not super hard/long reads.
You could also start reading with lighter SciFi/Fantasy YA books that don't have 5 timelines and 10 view points of various characters. They can still be very good reads with interesting topics without being too heavy on the things 'around' it.
I think just finding some universe/author that you like a lot helps a ton. Not saying that it is for you, but Sanderson's universe has a huge fan community, so I can decide how much I want to jump into the stuff. Just read the books? Watch his updates/QnAs? Browse the subreddits? Listen to the podcasts? Check out the Wikis for the books? Having a whole community around a book series that you read and theorize/discuss topics with them can also be motivating. But also more than some poeple want out of their books.
Go for some light and easy reads. Stephan king was a good reintroduction for me.
I paired reading with other activities, i.e having brunch at a cafe on saturday and get through some pages. It is a nice environment, fewer distractions.
Setting relaxed targets. So if I have an hour to read, I will aim for x number of pages. No worries if I don't make the target, but if I do, it feels nice and encouraging.
As others have said audiobooks are a great way to casually "read" a book, but also most of the actual reading I do is when I'm going out of town and bring a book along for the plane/car ride or just some extra downtime. Makes it a lot easier to start when I'm not home for some reason. Beach reading is one of my favorite things ever.
Perhaps start with some short-stories, things you can read start to finish in a short time.
I always saw reading books as kind of analogous to exercise in a lot of ways -- when you haven't exercised in a while it's better to not go try and sprint a marathon right off the bat even though you used to have that capacity, instead you start with lighter activity like takes walks etc. and work your way up.
I can relate I went through this a few years ago. This is what I've discovered.
This one sounds super obvious but read what you want to read. Many people have this idea that reading should be about bettering yourself, reading the classics, or getting exposed to new ideas and it certainly can be but if what you really like reading is silly horror slashers or scifi romances then read those one persons trash is anothers treasure. Don't care what others think of your reading choices go with what you enjoy and work outwards from there.
Read short books or novellas (under 200 pages). When getting back into reading it's tempting to get lost in some epic mammoth book but reading shorter ones can help especially when depression is a daily battle and I know this very well from experience. It also helps if the books have short snappy chapters so you can read for 10-15 mins per chapter and then if you need to put the book down and come back later for another quick stint. Before you know it the book will be done and you'll get a sense of satisfaction from having actually finished one and then you'll get to look forward to the next. Many will recommend short story collections and this can be great advice it just doesn't work for me personally because all it takes it getting to one story I don't like to make me less willing to pick the book back up and it will sit their gathering dust as I ignore it because it seems like something I'll have to slog through.
Don't read on your phone. This is a biggie; if you have the means to avoid it. Most people look at their phones and expect a constant stream of information and stimulation and books aren't always conducive to that especially if you have notifications interrupting you. It's simply the wrong environment in my opinion especially if you're already having a bit of trouble concentrating. Try to make reading it's own thing, do it before bed or first thing in the morning whenever you feel comfortable and have the time to dedicate to it. I highly recommend an ereader if you can afford one (usually pretty cheap for older ones off ebay) but physical books work just as well.
Don't pressure yourself too much. Dealing with depression is a ballache at the best of times but putting extra stress on yourself trying to force reading is just not going to work @raccoona_nongrata nailed it with the comparison to exercise it takes time to build back the motivation and routine but once you're there it just flows. Don't expect to be reading a book a day immediately start with realistic goals like 1 per month, a 200 page book in a month is about 7 pages a day which is quite manageable and you'll likely exceed that and then yay another little boost.
Don't be afraid to DNF (did not finish) a book, my personal cut off is about 40-50 pages if I'm not enjoying the story or characters by this point I quit and I don't feel bad, if you have access to kindleunlimited or are reading free books this is much easier but if you find yourself forcing yourself to read it'll have a negative effect on the desire to continue, it's not a failure to just stop and move on to something different.
I went literal years where I don't think I read a book at all then over the last couple of years I got to 1 per month and this year my reading absolutely exploded and I'm on book 74 of this year (mostly still reading short books though) I can read an entire novel in a day but some times a week will go by where I don't touch it but I'm definitely happy with the balance I seem to have struck. This is a combination of getting an ereader and discovering new genres that helped me mentally.
I'm hesitant to give any suggestions or recommendations without more info about your tastes so tried to keep advice quite general I hope some of it helps.
Other have asked it but it's an important question to answer, what do you want to read? What do you like to read? What do your friends read that you'd like to connect with them over?
My reading goes through seasons. I burn through a several books then just don't feel interested anymore. Might not read for a couple months. Then something catches my interest or I decide to see what the hubbub is about something and the cycle starts again. Usually this means changing up genres. Usually something easy to read whets my appetite and I start reading some classics in that vein until I get bored and wait for the next thing to come along.
I think the recommendations for short stories are a good idea, though I don't have much to contribute there. Some strong recommendations to check out:
Asimov's Foundation very short, not very difficult sci-fi. Inspired by rise and fall of Rome but in a galactic empire.
Sanderson's Mistborn: The Final Empire technically YA but challenged by perceptions of what YA can be. Fantasy which centers on a unique magic system, with court politics, a god emperor, and an Ocean's 11 feeling heist crew. The story feels a bit predictable and tropey but I had a lot of fun aside from a middle section which slows a bit.
Corey's Leviathan Wakes First of 9 books but worth a read even if you decide not to continue. Sci fi set in a near future where humanity has expanded through the solar system. Leans towards "realism" where FTL isn't a thing, physics of mass an acceleration play an important role in combat and transportation. Communication is still constrained by time delays. Politics are very similar to modern day. We find something that maybe we aren't prepared to have access to.
Lots of people seem to be recommending a bunch of books and ways to approach reading. I may have read into this differently (ha! pun.), but it sounds more to me like you need to get a handle on the depression.
Everything you posted in your OP - "I had no will, interest or strength to pick up a book", "Picking up a book today feels like a chore for me. I find a lot of them bland and have to force myself to read/finish the story," and everything else ... it sounds like you may have clinical depression. Not just "a phase", but an ongoing struggle.
Many others here have chimed in about their experiences with depression, and I too have struggled with it. I continue to struggle with it in fact. But I don't think trying to convince you on what you should read next, or how to read it, is as important as getting a handle on the depression itself.
Have you considered talking with a therapist, or bringing up your depression with your doctor/primary care provider? If you can get a diagnosis, it might go a long way towards you recognizing what's going on in your head - hell, it might not even be depression, but something else. But sometimes, putting a name to what's going on in your head can help tremendously in just ... seeing what's going on, and being able to identify when "that thing" is hijacking your thoughts and feelings.
What helped me resume was stopping to care about the book being good and not caring about finishing it. I used to have this thing where I wouldn't pick up a book if it didn't have good reviews or wasn't a classic and where I would make myself finish a book I wasn't enjoying. This is a mood killer.
When I started just looking at the blurbs and reading whatever sounded fun or interesting, I started reading a lot more. I read a lot of middling-at-best romance novels. But they were easy, fun reads, that made me wanna read the next thing. Nowadays I always have a book on the go and I don't stress about it if I don't read for a few days in a row. It's for fun, there shouldn't be any pressure!
Besides "having no strength" during my phase of depression, I kind of started to hate the worlds the books offered. I wished to be part of these worlds, where my depression would not mess with me, where I could be happy or at least experience cool adventures. But after every reading session came the hard realization that I was still in this world with my depression and all my problems. That was when I decided to stop reading.
Aside from others have said, I'll try to approach from this angle. I've had a similar problem in the past. I found that these worlds stopped being escapism that was comforting or entertaining, and that there was instead now an anxiety due to an avoidance of confronting hollow or empty parts of my life, or parts I otherwise wasn't putting enough effort into. As a teen with excess emotional energy and with most needs taken care of by your adult family, it feels easy and safe to get lost in these worlds. But as an adult, you have that comparison to make to the real world, alongside a more limited battery with more responsibilities. So these worlds became less interesting to me, as it seemed like such escapes were compounding my problems in life rather than being a respite from them. It was like a chore, except the chore wouldn't be doing anything to better my life, so why not go and do an actual chore that would do that?
I'm never going to be the type of voracious reader I was once when I was younger - perhaps I could again in retirement - but books do have their place in my life now that I have most things under control, now that I'm living life more and on top of my responsibilities. So I have less free time, but in the free time I do have, it makes it easier to pick up a book knowing that the rest of my life is taken care of. It also means I'm fine with tossing a book a quarter of the way through if it's just not interesting enough since I know I only have so much time to read, so I don't need to burn myself out on something that hasn't caught my interest sufficiently.
This is going to sound very silly but: try fanfiction. I’m serious! There are a lot of incredible amateur writers putting out some fantastic stuff in the fanfic spaces. Reading fanfic about characters you care about from other media will take the pressure of “learning about a new world/new characters/setting/premise”. It feels disposable so if you don’t like something, you just hit the back button.
The other option is to try something like comics. There’s something about the visual element of a webcomic that makes it feel like less of a chore for me. I still get the rush of exploring something new. I personally binge on romance isekai webcomics because they’re predictable and silly and sometimes quite poignant. A lot of those plots revolve around someone being reborn into a novel they’ve been reading and how they navigate those worlds, so that may resonate a lot for you right now!
Granted, with both of these options you will wade through a sea of garbage (like, a SEA), but finding the gold makes the trash worth it. And sometimes the trash is just fun.
Do you also eschew good shows and good movies because you can't join those worlds?
Many, many, many people used to be readers, but are now glued to a screen.
You aren't alone.
I think it is good to set realistic expectations. If you have jogging 5 years ago, you wouldn't expect to go out and job 6 miles. Likewise, don't expect to spend 3 hours an evening lost in a book. Take it a little bit of a time, as you enjoy it, and build up.
I find it is easier to read fiction after a long day. It also helps to think of it as an alternative form of a episode from a show.
Like so many things, start off small and stay consistent.
Audiobooks. It honestly helped a lot. I used to read a lot up till my late teens and then I got depression and life happened and all that sort of things. When I got better, I wanted to get back into reading, but I kept thinking it was a waste of time when I could be doing something more productive. I was also very critical of anything I read.
I ended up listening to audiobooks while doing other "productive" things instead and it helped a lot. I started enjoying stories again and was less critical of it as I was only half paying attention to it.
And then I slowly moved back to reading text because some books I wanted didn't have audiobook versions. And now I go back and forth between audiobook and text depending on what I'm doing.
But also, what made it feel like a chore to you? Why did you fall out of love with reading? Why does it seem bland now?
Part of the reason I stopped reading from depression was because I used to read a lot of Fantasy. And then real life started being terrible enough that I felt worse every time I realised that Fantasy was just that.. fantasy. Then I went to reading non-fantasy, and then I got annoyed at that too and stopped reading altogether.
When I got better, I jumped to science fiction instead as I could tell myself that it's possible, I'd just be dead by then. I started going for more comedic or hopeful things, and now I'm back to reading any genre.
So I think it would help to know why you stopped in the first place.
My story is pretty much the same as yours, except for the university part. I was a avid reader in my young days but that stopped when I also got depressed etc.
I actually picked up reading when I was in a mental hospital lol. At first it felt like chore, like you said, but I just kept the book in my hands, wondered around, read a few lines or chapters here and there. At first it was a slow slog but as I kept at it the easier it got.
I was(/am) very interested in history so I started reading about topics that interested me anyway. At first I read a few general history books, then I started to go into specific topics, the Great War, the Mongol conquests etc. I only read history books for like 8 years until I decided to re-read Lord of the Rings. Since that went well I picked up the small and short Wheel of Time-series. Now I'm on a Star Wars binge.
I've heard many say that reading is like doing a workout. When you start, everything feels heavy and annoying but the more you do it the easier it gets. So I would recommend to get a book that you feel you want to read and then keep the book at hand. Don't start doing any stupid reading challenges, like my cousin who decided to read 52 books in a year. For him that works because he's been reading A LOT for decades. If I put that sort of pressure on myself I would not read at all. Don't force yourself to read, read a little bit here and there, take pauses when you feel like its getting too difficult. Theres no hurry.
Edit: like the other guy said: Audiobooks.
I go against Audiobooks, simply because I find that they're told in a way that doesn't work for me.
Make the time at the end of your day. Leave your phone in another room to charge overnight (Get an alarm clock if you need to be up at a specific time), then put a book next to your bedside table. Give it 30 minutes a night at least to unwind with a book you actually want to read.
I know what the depression thing is mate, it's a doozey. But it's about controlling the things you can with this.
I never was much of a reader to begin with, but I picked it up a few years ago when I discovered the Sanderson Cosmere series. It was just so exciting to read without a lot of prose describing every single thing in nature. The plot moved along quick enough to keep my interest piqued at all times and after a few weeks of reading it just became a habit.
I still have periods of months where I don't read, after finishing a book or a series for example. I feel like I'm too lazy to read again, but at some point I just feel like doing it, and it make it a habit again. I continued a book I started what feels like forever ago and it was so pleasant to read again. Playing tons of video games otherwise, it felt refreshing to not have to do a task or a quest or grind some levels to get to the next piece of the story :) So the last few days I read a lot again and in two weeks another book that's ending a series and I've been waiting for for a while, is coming out, so I'm excited for that.
What might also help you, is to register on goodreads (or alternatives) and just 'collect' and browse books, track your status and rate books. For me personally, that's a huge motivator to just check off books and manage my 'want to read' list.
If you're a SciFi fan, you could also watch The Expanse (which you might have already) and there's 2 or 3 more books than the series covered. So you can read the first 7 (?) books as a refresher and then dive into new Expanse content :) The books' pace is very high and they're not super hard/long reads.
You could also start reading with lighter SciFi/Fantasy YA books that don't have 5 timelines and 10 view points of various characters. They can still be very good reads with interesting topics without being too heavy on the things 'around' it.
I think just finding some universe/author that you like a lot helps a ton. Not saying that it is for you, but Sanderson's universe has a huge fan community, so I can decide how much I want to jump into the stuff. Just read the books? Watch his updates/QnAs? Browse the subreddits? Listen to the podcasts? Check out the Wikis for the books? Having a whole community around a book series that you read and theorize/discuss topics with them can also be motivating. But also more than some poeple want out of their books.
I am currently on this journey.
What I find helps:
As others have said audiobooks are a great way to casually "read" a book, but also most of the actual reading I do is when I'm going out of town and bring a book along for the plane/car ride or just some extra downtime. Makes it a lot easier to start when I'm not home for some reason. Beach reading is one of my favorite things ever.
Perhaps start with some short-stories, things you can read start to finish in a short time.
I always saw reading books as kind of analogous to exercise in a lot of ways -- when you haven't exercised in a while it's better to not go try and sprint a marathon right off the bat even though you used to have that capacity, instead you start with lighter activity like takes walks etc. and work your way up.
I can relate I went through this a few years ago. This is what I've discovered.
This one sounds super obvious but read what you want to read. Many people have this idea that reading should be about bettering yourself, reading the classics, or getting exposed to new ideas and it certainly can be but if what you really like reading is silly horror slashers or scifi romances then read those one persons trash is anothers treasure. Don't care what others think of your reading choices go with what you enjoy and work outwards from there.
Read short books or novellas (under 200 pages). When getting back into reading it's tempting to get lost in some epic mammoth book but reading shorter ones can help especially when depression is a daily battle and I know this very well from experience. It also helps if the books have short snappy chapters so you can read for 10-15 mins per chapter and then if you need to put the book down and come back later for another quick stint. Before you know it the book will be done and you'll get a sense of satisfaction from having actually finished one and then you'll get to look forward to the next. Many will recommend short story collections and this can be great advice it just doesn't work for me personally because all it takes it getting to one story I don't like to make me less willing to pick the book back up and it will sit their gathering dust as I ignore it because it seems like something I'll have to slog through.
Don't read on your phone. This is a biggie; if you have the means to avoid it. Most people look at their phones and expect a constant stream of information and stimulation and books aren't always conducive to that especially if you have notifications interrupting you. It's simply the wrong environment in my opinion especially if you're already having a bit of trouble concentrating. Try to make reading it's own thing, do it before bed or first thing in the morning whenever you feel comfortable and have the time to dedicate to it. I highly recommend an ereader if you can afford one (usually pretty cheap for older ones off ebay) but physical books work just as well.
Don't pressure yourself too much. Dealing with depression is a ballache at the best of times but putting extra stress on yourself trying to force reading is just not going to work @raccoona_nongrata nailed it with the comparison to exercise it takes time to build back the motivation and routine but once you're there it just flows. Don't expect to be reading a book a day immediately start with realistic goals like 1 per month, a 200 page book in a month is about 7 pages a day which is quite manageable and you'll likely exceed that and then yay another little boost.
Don't be afraid to DNF (did not finish) a book, my personal cut off is about 40-50 pages if I'm not enjoying the story or characters by this point I quit and I don't feel bad, if you have access to kindleunlimited or are reading free books this is much easier but if you find yourself forcing yourself to read it'll have a negative effect on the desire to continue, it's not a failure to just stop and move on to something different.
I went literal years where I don't think I read a book at all then over the last couple of years I got to 1 per month and this year my reading absolutely exploded and I'm on book 74 of this year (mostly still reading short books though) I can read an entire novel in a day but some times a week will go by where I don't touch it but I'm definitely happy with the balance I seem to have struck. This is a combination of getting an ereader and discovering new genres that helped me mentally.
I'm hesitant to give any suggestions or recommendations without more info about your tastes so tried to keep advice quite general I hope some of it helps.
Other have asked it but it's an important question to answer, what do you want to read? What do you like to read? What do your friends read that you'd like to connect with them over?
My reading goes through seasons. I burn through a several books then just don't feel interested anymore. Might not read for a couple months. Then something catches my interest or I decide to see what the hubbub is about something and the cycle starts again. Usually this means changing up genres. Usually something easy to read whets my appetite and I start reading some classics in that vein until I get bored and wait for the next thing to come along.
I think the recommendations for short stories are a good idea, though I don't have much to contribute there. Some strong recommendations to check out:
Lots of people seem to be recommending a bunch of books and ways to approach reading. I may have read into this differently (ha! pun.), but it sounds more to me like you need to get a handle on the depression.
Everything you posted in your OP - "I had no will, interest or strength to pick up a book", "Picking up a book today feels like a chore for me. I find a lot of them bland and have to force myself to read/finish the story," and everything else ... it sounds like you may have clinical depression. Not just "a phase", but an ongoing struggle.
Many others here have chimed in about their experiences with depression, and I too have struggled with it. I continue to struggle with it in fact. But I don't think trying to convince you on what you should read next, or how to read it, is as important as getting a handle on the depression itself.
Have you considered talking with a therapist, or bringing up your depression with your doctor/primary care provider? If you can get a diagnosis, it might go a long way towards you recognizing what's going on in your head - hell, it might not even be depression, but something else. But sometimes, putting a name to what's going on in your head can help tremendously in just ... seeing what's going on, and being able to identify when "that thing" is hijacking your thoughts and feelings.
Just my two cents. I wish you the best.
What helped me resume was stopping to care about the book being good and not caring about finishing it. I used to have this thing where I wouldn't pick up a book if it didn't have good reviews or wasn't a classic and where I would make myself finish a book I wasn't enjoying. This is a mood killer.
When I started just looking at the blurbs and reading whatever sounded fun or interesting, I started reading a lot more. I read a lot of middling-at-best romance novels. But they were easy, fun reads, that made me wanna read the next thing. Nowadays I always have a book on the go and I don't stress about it if I don't read for a few days in a row. It's for fun, there shouldn't be any pressure!
Aside from others have said, I'll try to approach from this angle. I've had a similar problem in the past. I found that these worlds stopped being escapism that was comforting or entertaining, and that there was instead now an anxiety due to an avoidance of confronting hollow or empty parts of my life, or parts I otherwise wasn't putting enough effort into. As a teen with excess emotional energy and with most needs taken care of by your adult family, it feels easy and safe to get lost in these worlds. But as an adult, you have that comparison to make to the real world, alongside a more limited battery with more responsibilities. So these worlds became less interesting to me, as it seemed like such escapes were compounding my problems in life rather than being a respite from them. It was like a chore, except the chore wouldn't be doing anything to better my life, so why not go and do an actual chore that would do that?
I'm never going to be the type of voracious reader I was once when I was younger - perhaps I could again in retirement - but books do have their place in my life now that I have most things under control, now that I'm living life more and on top of my responsibilities. So I have less free time, but in the free time I do have, it makes it easier to pick up a book knowing that the rest of my life is taken care of. It also means I'm fine with tossing a book a quarter of the way through if it's just not interesting enough since I know I only have so much time to read, so I don't need to burn myself out on something that hasn't caught my interest sufficiently.
This is going to sound very silly but: try fanfiction. I’m serious! There are a lot of incredible amateur writers putting out some fantastic stuff in the fanfic spaces. Reading fanfic about characters you care about from other media will take the pressure of “learning about a new world/new characters/setting/premise”. It feels disposable so if you don’t like something, you just hit the back button.
The other option is to try something like comics. There’s something about the visual element of a webcomic that makes it feel like less of a chore for me. I still get the rush of exploring something new. I personally binge on romance isekai webcomics because they’re predictable and silly and sometimes quite poignant. A lot of those plots revolve around someone being reborn into a novel they’ve been reading and how they navigate those worlds, so that may resonate a lot for you right now!
Granted, with both of these options you will wade through a sea of garbage (like, a SEA), but finding the gold makes the trash worth it. And sometimes the trash is just fun.
Do you also eschew good shows and good movies because you can't join those worlds?
Many, many, many people used to be readers, but are now glued to a screen.
You aren't alone.
I think it is good to set realistic expectations. If you have jogging 5 years ago, you wouldn't expect to go out and job 6 miles. Likewise, don't expect to spend 3 hours an evening lost in a book. Take it a little bit of a time, as you enjoy it, and build up.
I find it is easier to read fiction after a long day. It also helps to think of it as an alternative form of a episode from a show.
Like so many things, start off small and stay consistent.