Is reading literature hard for you?

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When I was in high school, I had to be put in special education English elective classes because I would have failed the required literature courses. I am obviously completely literate, but I am a visual thinker, not a narrative one. Since I can not think narratively, reading something which I have no visual reference is almost impossible for me to understand. If I first watch a movie about something I can struggle my way through it, but most books do not have movies.

No - I was a good reader and enjoyed reading. Always had trouble expressing myself however.

Did almost fail garde one because I couldn't learn to read phonetically, but my Mom taught he how to read using the <picture - word - hear word - say word> technique and soon I was reading above my age level.

Yes! To hold my interest a book must be factual. It must teach me something or be about a subject that I am interested in. Otherwise I find mere stories boring and a waste of time. I want to learn, not be entertained.

Not at all. I've always loved reading, and my favourite works are from English literature.

No. Unless a sound is disturbing me.
As long as I can focus on the book its stops being a book and becomes a movie in my head. As soon as I sink into a book I don't see or hear the words anymore - they all turn into images of what they describe and I am surrounded by the book environment.

In my youth, I loved readings books --- fiction or non-fiction --- and I read 200-300 pages a day. It brought me great joy to read about adventure and be able to escape my less than fabulous real life. I still love books, but I now find it more difficult to read. I no longer have the attention span needed. I catch myself all the time with not paying attention to the story line, so I often have to reread the page I just read.

NAIL ON THE FREAKIN HEAD. I can't read fiction. If I want to be entertained I'll watch a movie, books are for learning - facts I can store - dots through time and places that I connect.

I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem. I wish I could visualize and interested so I could read fiction like watching a movie, but I can not.

It looks like all 3 of us are science/engineering types.

Reading has always been hard for me. Like, I can read perfectly well, but I have a hard time telling people what I had just read though. I can read books, and it'll be so challenging to process what I have read as well.

Kinda-sorta... I work for a large retail company supporting Finance systems, Integrations, and Data Architecture. Background is in Maths, Astrophysics, and a ton of other things