Reading ADHD

I just finished reading the book 'The Handmaid's Tale' and while I enjoy reading a novel, I have a big place in my heart for short stories.  Before I get into this writing, if you want to read a great science fiction novel about religious suppression and governmental realignment (amongst the more overt topic of the book), this is for you.  It had been a while since I had read a sci-fi book, and this book held it's own. 

Short stories are great for a reader just because they are something that are quick to pick up, get to the point, and wrap up.  They are perfect for the end of the day, just need to relax before going to bed situation.  Or if you are lying by the pool or at the beach during the summer while having a drink or two.  You can't beat short stories.  The nice thing about short stories is you can buy anthologies at bookstores so you can shop by genres.  Earlier this year, I finished up a short story anthology that revolved around noir stories.  So, they were very dark stories which was right up my alley.  A few years ago, I read a book of spy short stories, which was something that I had never really read and it was something different than what I was use to.  The books are fairly cheap if you shop right and can be economical for how much you spend on the book.  If you can get twenty short stories for twelve dollars, it's worth it. 

On the other hand, there are novels.  The upper hand that novels have over short stories is development.  Just overall development.  Story development and character development.  Novels really draw you in and can connect you to the characters.  With short stories, it is over just as quickly as it began that there is no real connection you can make with any one character.  You don't always have to identify with the main character of a novel, but it is easy to do.  It is great to find a secondary character to connect with and find real meaning for them being involved in the story.  The one downside to novels is how long it takes to read.  You take a three hundred page novel versus a ten page short story, it's obvious which is easiest to get through, but in the end, you can get more satisfaction with reading a novel.  There is just so much to get through and analyse as you are reading.  I know when there are times when I want to go back and re-read something that I thought I read but cannot remember where it was and if you are half way through a novel, that can be difficult trying to find. 

In the end, I am never going to turn down reading a book.  I think one thing that keeps me going back to short stories is the ease of reading them.  From start to finish, you can get through the short story in half an hour at the most.  Novels on the other hand can take me a month or so to read.  I am a slow reader, I admit it.  I have always used the term reading ADHD or ADD when it comes to reading.  I like reading novels, but I get distracted and bored at times with them.  Especially if it is a slow moving novel at the beginning of it.  If it takes sixty to seventy pages to get going with the storyline, it can drag on for quite a while.