Does anyone have trouble reading chapter books?

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I used to get so bored reading chapter books. I couldn't follow all those words without pictures. Thing are slowly changing. I read chapter books once in a while, and I'm better at following the plot. I still don't love reading them, but I like them better than I used to.

If a book has a theme or subject or storyline already familiar to me, I can usually get something from it because I already have "pictures" in my mind for reference. Otherwise, I am usually "lost" from the very beginning and do not catch on.

No. I can focus on one thing at a time, and the highly repetitive task of reading lines word for word works well with me.

I read books by paragraphs more than lines, and I make my own pictures. If there are pictures in the book, they're actually a distraction from the story more than an illustration. If the book is full of pictures, I'd rather appreciate the artwork with the distraction of a narrative story.

When you read fiction, do you not get at least a vague visual image of the characters and scenes? I'm curious because I wonder if this could be why some people don't like fiction. For me it's sort of like a movie in my head and if I didn't have that I don't know that I would enjoy fiction as well. I don't know, the visuals come automatically for me although I can't claim they are highly defined.

if i am to finish a novel i need to be both in a pretty good mood. (IOW not too depressed or stressed) and also feel really very motivated.

a pretty recent thing for me is audiobooks. they really work for me. and collecting them on my hard drive is an ongoing obsession

I don't get images in my head much at all but I still enjoy fiction. I think some people just lack the patience for reading.

I know this wasn't aimed at me but that is why I dislike reading. I just can't imagine any of the characters or settings and as a result I struggle to remember the characters and events so I just watch TV shows instead as that way you get a good, in-depth plot and I don't need to try and create various images (and then remember those images) in my head.

My visual thoughts are fuzzy so maybe I'm on the wrong track with that. Maybe it's simply that some people find other people (or characters) interesting and others don't and prefer just information. It is next to impossible for me to focus on a non fiction book unless I am very interested in the subject. With fiction I get lost in the narrative.I had a friend who was an engineer and once when I lent him a book he said later that he found it hard to read because he was so used to scanning books for information and couldn't read it like you would read a novel. Also, it's not that I don't like books for information, I just can't focus.

@Aimless (sorry, on PS3 browser so can't go past a certain character limit), That makes sense. I don't read anything (so perhaps I shouldn't discuss it) but it makes sense that by reading one type of book for an extened period of time you would become accustomed to reading in a certain way (scanning for information as opposed to reading it line by line for example) and it also makes sense that some people just prefer information while others prefer a plot.

As for trouble focusing, perhaps you'd be better at reading factual books that are done in a story like format as opposed to something like an encyclopaedia? This way there is both a narrative and information.

Not at all; I've been reading chapter books since I was 5.

I completely agree. I think the best way to get into chapter books is to read fiction and imagine them. That is one of the ways I got reading multiple chapter books. At one time I would only read this one chapter book and nothing else.

I used to try to like books but I failed at it. Then I discovered The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. I read the entire series (except ...And Another Thing. It was by a different author and was highly confusing). My current favorite author is Arthur C. Clarke, having read 2001: A Space Odyssey (if the movie bored you, read the book. It makes EVERYTHING clear) and multiple short stories. I understand how you feel, though. I'm not the best at picturing things and my mind usually steals characters from other media as representations of main characters, even if they look nothing like the text's description. (For some strange reason, Arthur Dent was the main character from Atlantis: The Lost Empire... )

I think another reason I like fiction is because human nature interests me. I don't particularly like socializing but still like to learn about humans (haha). I really like words too but I don't like to talk. Go figure.

I've been reading chapter books since I could read. I think my first one was either "Alice in Wonderland" or Harry Potter. Right now I'm working on "The Fellowship of the Ring" which is oddly enough the first one I haven't been able to read in 3 weeks or less. Unless it is in another language like Italian or Shakespearean or it's an epic poem, I can probably read it. Still, Dantes Inferno is giving me Hell right now. Westanger Abbey and Twilight the second time are the only english and certainly not poetic books I can not read completely.

When I was younger it was a problem for me. I always read books with pictures in them. I like seeing what I'm reading about. Now, I can read books without pictures, but only if I absolutely have to. I do most of my reading on the internet, which, in my opinion, is way better than any book could ever be.