As someone who suffers from a chronic illness that has the side affect of chronic fatigue, I often find it difficult to enjoy my hobby of reading. I can’t even remember the amount of times I have given up on a book after not being able to read it for a long period, or because I simply cannot concentrate enough to complete one page, let alone a whole book.  I’ve had plenty of time to discover some new ways to enjoy reading when the brain fog takes over, so today I thought that I would share some of my Reading Through the Brain Fog tips.


GIVE AUDIOBOOKS A GO

I never really understood the whole audiobook thing before I started getting brain fog. I just didn’t understand how people could enjoy listening to someone reading a book over reading it themselves. However, I have discovered a way to mix the use of audio books with my own reading. If I’m having a particularly hard day, I just switch over to the audio book version of the book I am reading. This way I can still enjoy the book, but I don’t have to strain my eyes or force myself to sit up and read. I also found that some book genres work really well as audio books, and I really enjoy listening to books read by the author.

GET YOURSELF A READING BUDDY

I love following book bloggers on twitter and seeing what they are reading, or seeing what people are reading on good reads. It lets me see what other people are loving at the moment, and helps me to be involved without actually having to read! It’s also great to find another spoonie to become your reading buddy, as you know one of you won’t race off ahead of you if you are reading a book together.

SET YOURSELF MINI READING GOALS

To help me to read more, I don’t look at a book as a whole. I treat each chapter as a mini book. That means that I’m not constantly thinking about how slow I am reading, or how I have hundreds of pages left. The average chapter is not really more than 10-20 pages, and lots of the time they are shorter, so this makes reading a lot more manageable. I also set myself the challenge to finish a chapter before putting the book down.

PUT THE BOOK DOWN

If your brain fog is just too much to handle, step away from the book. Watch some YouTube, or spend some time on another hobby. Reading isn’t a competition and there is no rush to finish a book. We are sometimes so overwhelmed with all the readathons and reading challenges that we forget to enjoy reading. It doesn’t matter how slow you are, if you read one page in a month it doesn’t matter if you still enjoyed that page!

GO FOR SOMETHING SIMPLE

If you are used to reading a certain genre, maybe it is time for a change. When my brain fog is particularly bad I tend to pick up an easy read. Something like Confessions of a Shopaholic, or another contemporary book that I know is going to be easy to read, with no complicated narrative or characters. I also pick up a poetry book, or a book with shorter stories in. This way I still get me reading fix, but I’m not having to remember who is who, and what is what!

These are just super simple tips for when you have Brain Fog, and I could go on and on as I have so much experience with this. At the moment I’m struggling to read anything other than my 18 month old daughter’s picture books, but that is okay. I know that I will pick up my book again soon and read a page at a time again.

Do you have any tips for reading through the brain fog? If you do I would love to hear them! You can find me over on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amundanesarah or you can find my blog over at http://www.amundanelife.co.uk.


BIO: Sarah is a parent and lifestyle blogger who started having seizures at the age of 19 following a car accident. She lives in Leicestershire with her husband, daughter and greyhound. When she isn’t blogging, you can find her playing video games or sharing gifs on twitter.
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amundanesarah
Website: http://www.amundanelife.co.uk
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/amundanelife