Happens way too often to me.

edit: I had no idea this was such a common issue!

  • Southrydge Freedom
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    361 year ago

    I’ve reread so many pages and chapters because of this, sometimes even restarted books entirely

  • I used to read a lot more, and I do remember this happening, but it happens a lot for me now with podcasts. I’m a big podcast junkie and I will often find myself going down a rabbit hole of thought and realizing I have no idea what they’re talking about anymore.

    • @kalahlora@sh.itjust.works
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      101 year ago

      So glad it’s not only me zoning out on podcasts. I haven’t been able to read a book in years. I’m hoping i can get back into reading again now that I nuked my reddit account

      • @Mutelogic@sh.itjust.works
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        41 year ago

        Check if your library participates in Overdrive or Libby (digital library collection). I can’t believe I had been missing out on free ebooks, audiobooks, and comics/graphic novels for years. I just needed an active library card to sign up.

  • @MasterBlaster@lemmy.world
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    181 year ago

    It happens. I usually take that to mean that either I’m distracted by other things, or I’m stressed, or very tired. Sometimes it just means it’s time to go to bed.

  • @EnemyBirds@lemmy.world
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    141 year ago

    I’m pretty sure I have undiagnosed inattentive type ADHD so this is the story of my life. One word could send my brain on a journey of other related things even while I’m still reading the words. I have to reread so much.

      • @EnemyBirds@lemmy.world
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        21 year ago

        I wish I could do audiobooks. I don’t know if it’s my autism making it more difficult to process auditory information or what, but audiobooks are even more difficult for me. I love podcasts though, since that is just casual conversation and I never get too lost even if I zone out and miss something.

        • @wheresyourshoe@lemmy.world
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          21 year ago

          I’ve never been able to do audiobooks unless I’m reading along. Can’t pay attention to spoken words. I used to hate when teachers would make students take turns reading passages aloud. I literally couldn’t pay attention because they would read s o s l o w l y that my brain would have too much time to think between words.

          • @EnemyBirds@lemmy.world
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            11 year ago

            I think you just unlocked a memory. It is so difficult for me to understand when people are talking too slow. I can’t remember what words were at the beginning by the time we get to the end. I always have to watch everything with subtitles.

      • the_itsb (she/her)
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        41 year ago

        Diagnosed combined type checking in - I also do this. I came to the comments to upvote whoever was here to tell OP that if this is a constant struggle, they might have ADHD.

    • Antik 👾
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      51 year ago

      Haha yeah came here to comment this to OP. Like, hey I might have some news for you 😉 This is just too recognisable.

      • @kamenoko@sh.itjust.works
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        31 year ago

        And then you have to get a glass of water, feed the dog, go for a walk, do a two hour wiki walk, and maybe then you can go back and read what you’ve missed, but you’ve forgotten the rest of the book.

  • @Rukmer@lemmy.world
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    131 year ago

    I’m sure it’s normal for everyone to do occasionally, but if it’s debilitating/all the time it’s probably something like ADHD. I cannot even read a book but I can listen to an audio book. I might have to rewind it a lot but it’s better than actually reading.

  • @Silvia@lemmy.world
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    121 year ago

    I remember reading a new book that interested me, finished it, and realized I remembered NOTHING and didn’t understand the ending at all. So I read the book again. It was pretty good. … can’t remember the book lol

  • Faceman🇦🇺
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    111 year ago

    I do this pretty often, though usually it’s a sentence or line here and there. of course sometimes books are just written that way and the meaning comes later.

    It’s a bit of an ADHD thing and you get better at reading with purpose as you go. I used to barely take anything in and I can see books in my list that I’ve read but remember almost nothing about, try to read with conviction, take it in, imagine it as it happens, your comprehension will improve as you go.

    • @lightingnerd@lemmy.world
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      61 year ago

      Yeah, definitely an ADD/Attention-Processing issue. I used to read a lot as a kid, and after a head injury that aggravated my ADD and years of reading and talking in short-form messages (SMS, twitter, etc), it took me FOREVER to re-learn the skill of reading long-form text.

      Luckily, with practice comes mastery, I was able to regain my abilities to read, and I’m currently working on a few textbooks and two casual books. It’s still a struggle in distracting environments (loud children, hospitals, etc), but it’s getting better the more I read.

      • Faceman🇦🇺
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        1 year ago

        I struggle in distracting environments due to ASD pretty much forcing brain to take in everything it hears and tries to process it as it would when someone was talking to me directly. I always read with noise cancelling headphones and ambient music.

        When I was getting back into reading as an adult (used to read a lot as a kid but stopped for 20 years) I would read along with audiobooks, that worked wonders for getting into a book that I was struggling with.

        • @lightingnerd@lemmy.world
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          31 year ago

          Oh that’s a really great method! I used to know a guy with ASD who did kind-of the inverse, he was super familiar with reading (specifically the bible), but he had a hard time with conversations. So he learned how to use the bible as a medium to conduct conversation.

          Really, really cool discussions were born from that, and by the time I met him, he was almost independently conducting conversation, only going back to certain bible references when he got stuck or he needed to borrow a story or metaphor.

          • Faceman🇦🇺
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            21 year ago

            The brain is at its coolest when it’s just a bit different.

            Your bible memorising friend makes me think of the Star Trek episode “Darmok”

            • @lightingnerd@lemmy.world
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              21 year ago

              Indeed, indeed! Diversity is one of the strongest traits of human life (and life in-general).

              I don’t recall that episode, I’ll have to go watch it!

              • Faceman🇦🇺
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                31 year ago

                It’s a TNG episode, the commonly memed “Darmok and Jilad, at Tenagra” quote comes from that one. the crew try to talk to aliens that speak almost entirely in historical metaphors so their universal translator gets the words right but cant translate the meaning.

                Honestly a great episode on communication and understanding and I actually see it referenced a lot in neurodivergent communities, people (nerds) have written dissertations on that one.

                • @lightingnerd@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  Thanks for the recommendation, I just finished watching it–and yeah that speaks volumes (quite literally, haha!). I love how they started off the episode with a very fluent mixture of non-English and a few English phrases.

                  I should really go back and revisit TNG! I remember watching it as a kid, but now that I have a few decades under my belt, I’ve gone back and watched a few episodes: and it really is packed with amazing philosophy and social commentary.

  • @jimbo@lemmy.world
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    111 year ago

    Usually happens because I start thinking about something else without quite realizing it. I do the same thing with podcasts sometimes, too.

  • Worse still: starting a book, forgetting it exists for 3-4 days, and having to reread like 3 chapters back because you don’t remember what’s going on.

    Or so I’m told…

    • @icy_mal@lemmy.world
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      51 year ago

      I once got through about 3/4 of a book before realizing that I’d already read the book a few years prior.