6.05 /// I Love Books, So Why Can’t I Finish One?

A new year deserves a gentler start, so we swap a heavy story for a book‑soaked ramble about attention, joy and the strange guilt that creeps in when we sit down to read. I open the door to my shelves—Alien art books, Douglas Adams box sets, a beloved H. G. Wells collection—and admit what many of us feel but rarely say out loud: loving books doesn’t guarantee we can finish them, especially when burnout, screens and chores fight for the same slice of energy.

We explore why film novelisations can be the perfect bridge back into reading, with draft‑era scenes and character details you won’t find on screen. I share how childhood habits of racing through library stacks hardened into adult expectations, why juggling three to five books used to work, and how that same habit now multiplies friction. There’s practical talk, too: setting a “too small to fail” reading unit, placing the book where doomscrolling usually wins, choosing one anchor title, and rotating formats between print, Kindle and audiobooks to suit your day. Memoirs read by the author on audio get a special nod—they carry a warmth the page can’t replicate.

We also dip into cognitive tools that actually help. Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats gets a shout because separating modes of thought quiets the noise that makes leisure feel like work. If your job already demands constant reading, it’s no wonder the page feels heavy at night. The fix isn’t force; it’s design. Change the default, reduce switching, and let small starts stack into momentum. Along the way I ask for your wisdom: which book broke your slump, and how do you balance paper, Kindle and audio without losing the thread?

If this resonates, tap follow, share it with a friend who misses reading, and leave a quick review to help others find the show. Then tell me: what’s the one habit that brought you back to books?

Chapters

• 0:00 A Lighter Start To The Year
• 0:37 Books As Today’s Focus
• 1:20 New Recording Setup Chat
• 2:09 Tour Of The Bookshelves
• 6:51 Reading Slump And Guilt
• 9:56 Childhood Reading Habits
• 11:45 The Joy Of Film Novelisations
• 14:20 Juggling Multiple Books
• 17:40 Gifts, Autographs, And Unread Stacks
• 20:45 Jobs That Once Made Space For Reading

Transcript

Stephen: 0:05

Hello, welcome to Even of Prattle season six. I'd recorded a different episode for this week's podcast and then decided to exchange it because I didn't want to start the year on a bit of a sad story. So that episode's been shifted to next week. So I thought I'd just come up with something whimsical for today. It's not as heavy. Don't start the new year on kind of a sad negative note. You'll find out what that's gonna be next week. Might be a bit triggering for people, but it is what it is. Anyway, this week's episode is going to be about the medium of books. Um and how I'm struggling at the moment to actually I was gonna say read, but I can read, just to actually get through a book. So uh yeah, stay around and we'll battle about that. Oh my goodness, even so glad you can make it back to me. Uh I hope you're enjoying these new uh videos that I'm producing. Um it's a little bit different for me. I feel a bit weird not sitting here with something. I was gonna use um my podcasting microphone. I may I may change that. But I was going to use one of these microphones, looking like a newsreader, but I felt that was a bit weird. Might be good for interviewing people. Imagine they could have their own because I've got two. Anyway, I've decided to go with what I've gone with at the moment is a lavier mic connected to the phone, um, and I hope it sounds okay for you. Let me know if you're thinking it's dipping quality or that it's okay. Uh because you let's face it, a podcast, especially an audio podcast, uh depends on its sound quality. So I'm hoping it's been okay for you. Uh anyway, books. Uh I love books. Um in my little cave here. I have quite a collection of books around me. Not gonna lie, they're mainly geeky books, as some would say. Um autobiography, autobiographical ones, so a lot of them on this side. There's a little bookshelf here. I've got a couple of nice graphic novel graphic novel um alien books here. And then the top couple of shelves on this on this shelf you can't see is one of the thin Billy bookcases from like here. Uh there's a lot of graphic novels and a lot of the alien universe kind of books, like David's drawings from um Covenant and the set photography of an aliens, and uh blueprints from the alien films, and just lots lots of different different um books from aliens. Um spanning back to before Disney. Um but weirdly I think all of them have been produced by Titan. Um I think they must have some sort of rights to the production of anything that isn't um like a graphic novel, let's say. And under that I've got the complete uh Douglas Adams uh uh Hitchhiker Guide and Salmon Adou and uh the the basically the Dirk Gently stuff as well. And under that I've got some really nice books that um I've got a really nice version of the old the ultimate uh Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and a really nice I'll I'll show you for the people that are watching uh I can show you. So uh I got these recently uh as a as a nice little gift to myself and uh give me little bookmarks in them, but they're just really nice leather out bound, nice graphics, um and the actual pages of them are silvered, so it kind of gives a nice effect, really. I've not read reread it yet. I have read it previously, I've not I've not read it again since obtaining it. And then I have my favourite of all time. I did actually write some notes for this podcast before I started. I've been trying to do that recently. Oh god, this is dusty. Um, and I'm not even looking at them, so well done me. Um so I've got the HG Well collection here. It contains War of the Worlds, and it's a lovely red. Um like I in my brain I always think it's leather, but it isn't. It's like a canvassy kind of uh woven case um case cover, and it contains the Time Machine, The Island of Dr. Monroe, The War World War of the Worlds, which is my favourite science fiction book of all time. It's amazing. If you've never read it, please do um and read it in the essence that it was written in. The fact it is it was written in like the 1850s, I want to say. Um The First Men in the Moon and The Invisible Man, and The Invisible Man again, if you've never read it, it's a must. It is written in such a way that it's quite chilling. Um and again, it's written of the time that they were in, so technology is lacking, and the the science that's in them is maybe def debunked today and a bit like magic back then, but it sounds like it could be so. They're written in a way that you know H. G Wells was obviously a man of science, or a man that read a lot about science and discovery, and um I can't rem I can't remember his background now, but I'm sure he was quite a well-educated man uh in in that era, and I'm not sure if he was a scientist anyway. Uh I feel like he's one of these people that give up something to become an author. Um I can't quite remember. I might be making that up. Anyway, H. G. Wells is all the world's my favourite book, and then under them some self-help books, uh Alex White books, which he does, he's done a couple of the uh alien ones, and I've got a Star Trek one and the first of the um uh a Star Metal Symphony, uh I think which I think is gonna be a trilogy. Uh, a couple of autobiographies and uh some little fun Lego books, and a couple about body language, uh by an FBI agent. And then this side is just all alien novelizations, um, which I love, love the display. It's on my Instagram at infinite prattle. If if you want to have a look, just have a bit of a scroll down, you'll you'll see them at some point. Um so I am a collector of books, amongst other things, as you can tell from behind me. Uh the Lego display is really annoying me because it keeps going off and I don't know what's wrong with it. I don't know if the batteries are low or whether it's just playing up. Um anyway, um yes, so I've been struggling reading books. Take a while to get to that. Uh it is called Infinite Pratt, after all. Uh so yeah, I've been just struggling trying to actually get through a book, and it's not for the fact that the books I'm trying to read are hard, and it's just my concentration levels, and as always, I always feel guilty if I'm doing something that makes me happy. Uh, I really need to work on that. I don't know whether I should get some counselling on that. Um, I do feel quite guilty, and then but if I'm sat scrolling on my phone, like it doesn't really bother me. It's a really weird situation to be in. Um and the last year I've kind of struggled with that, uh, not not having much motivation, um, being a bit felt a bit kind of uh downtrodden, a bit of burnout, I think. And I've never really experienced that in my life before, so um I think the reading the book thing is just something that's come along with that, and it's hard to admit because I'm I'm very much of a person that just fights through everything. Um but you can only do that for so long, I suppose, before this sort of thing happens. Um while it's in my brain, the hat I'm wearing today is a rug rat hat, and it called it says running for my responsibilities, which is kind of what I want to do at the moment. Uh so yeah, when I was a kid, I used to read loads of books. I used to I used to power through books when I was in uh infant school um and in the UK I think that's like up to the age of eight or nine, I think it's eight, so from like four to eight is your infant infant school days. Um and I used to just read everything. Like I literally read everything in the school library uh for my curriculum and for my age level. And I used to finish my work first to read. Uh I do my work correctly, and I think sometimes the teachers were annoyed at how quickly I could do my work and get it correct to go and read. Um sometimes they give me extra tasks or they'd get me to go and help other students, uh, which annoyed me because I was like, no, the reward is go and read why you'd get me to do other things. And that's not me being selfish, it's just what a kids like, isn't it? You tell them something, and then you change the parameters, and I've always kind of helped hated that. Um but yeah, I I used to plow through books as a child. Obviously, children's books are a little bit different, but even going into my teenage years, if if someone give me, for example, like a a novelisation, uh at the moment I've been reading novelisations of of gremlins, so this is the children's novelisation that I've got in my hand. Uh and I I read that like in one sitting. And Gremlins and Gremlins 2 are the ones that I'm reading at the moment, and the ones I'm getting through at the moment. Um, again, it I think it's partly because I know the films and they're easy to read and I know what's coming, kind of thing. Um, and they are written in a very easy way. On that note, actually, if you ever read a novelisation of a film, it's a good way to get a bit of further insight into the characters or the film itself, because a lot of novelisations are written from the drafts of the screenplays, uh, so sometimes before the film's gone actually into uh production. So a lot of the novelisations, especially like the alien ones as well, uh, will have things that aren't in the film. So, for example, uh the Gremlin novelisation of the film actually tells you where the gremlins come from. There's like a the first chapter is where did the gremlins come from? So that's that's pretty cool. So you sometimes get either deleted scenes or scenes that weren't even filmed in the first place. So I I always love that about the novelizations. And plus they're really easy to read because they are written in a style for someone to absorb it as a companion to the film almost. But I've always been a big reader of just anything textbooks, self-help, self-learning, autobiography, uh factual, anything. Um and I've normally had this thing where I would have like at least three books going at the same time. And I know a lot of people can't do that, they have to like read a book, get through it, start another one. But I I would sometimes have maybe up to five sometimes going. But three was normal the norm for me, and still is really, because even though I'm reading like the novelisations of some films, I have another book ongoing which is is from a YouTuber, uh Chris Broad, uh the Broad in the Ch abroad in Japan channel, and he wrote a book. Um so I'm currently reading that and what else am I reading? Oh started June as well, uh so I need to need to actually get on with that really. Um but these have been ongoing for a long time. Um but yeah, I I I used to have at least like I kind of like an autobiography kind of book going on or something based in real world. Um I used to always have something like sci-fi or some fiction that I could read, and sometimes along with that something that was like self-help or another factual style book if it wasn't an autobiography. Um very rarely have two fiction going on at the same time, multiple factual books, sometimes all real life stuff was okay. Um the fantasy world I like to kind of keep my brain in that mode so my imagination doesn't get confused about what's going on. So I think that's the joy about reading the book as well. Not just the fact that um, especially with something you haven't read, not like a film titan, um, but if you've not read it before, you get that image in your brain. And I think that's sometimes why it's so hard to go the other way. Reading a novelisation of a film you've watched can actually give you stuff because as I say, sometimes things aren't in the film, and you think, oh that explains that, that's pretty cool. Whereas if you go the other way, uh Lord of the Rings and and and such things are quite a good example because even though the films are so long, there's things they didn't include, and there's details they didn't include. I mean, J.R. Tolkien, like detail of the arse for that guy, he loved uh a good exposition, um and I love him for it. Like the world he built was was incredible. Um so yeah, I always had a few books going on at the same time, and I don't know if maybe that's the issue with me at the moment because my brain's quite busy. Maybe I need to try and move away from that for the time being, or maybe I just need to be more focused and not give myself a hard time about reading. Um it's weird that I do that. I don't know why I do that, it's just a thing. Um I have a load of books downstairs, we have books everywhere in this house. I love I I love the fact Sarah loves books as well. Um and we have a load of books downstairs. I I've I didn't get any books this year because the last few years, um, probably stretching back to Covid, I've probably had books every year, and I've probably read one of them. Um I mean Sarah got me uh Bruce Dickinson autobiographer autobiography um years ago when it whenever it came out. I mean Google when it came out. She went and she actually uh went to the signing on her birthday in Nottingham. She went on the train with her mum and she wasn't very well at the time. She was quite quite poorly at the time, she was on oxygen and everything. But she said to her mum, um I was a bit gutted because I couldn't go because I was working, couldn't get the day off, and they just said they were going to go out for the day. Have no idea I was I thought they were going for a coffee or something like that. And bless her, she travelled to Nottingham, uh, queued up, bought the book, queued up. Uh luckily because she's disabled, she got fast track to the front, which was a big help because she couldn't have stood stood in the queue. She said it went stretched for a long way around the block. And uh I was just good because she met him and he signed the book for me. Um, but she did it, and it was it was ace, I was I was really made up when she when she gave me the book. But I've not bloody read it, like um I forgot to take it on holiday. We went on holiday that year, and I forgot to take it with me, and I actually bought it on Kindle, actually by accident, because I was looking at it on Kindle thinking, um, how much is it? And I accidentally bought it, and I thought, well actually I can start reading it. So I started reading it on the Kindle, and then so I read a few chapters on holiday and then came back and read a chapter at home, and then it sat on the shelf. So this is what I've been doing, so it's not really unique to this year, it's it stretches back. Um but what used to happen with me was I'd buy a few I'd buy a load of books and they'd sit on the shelf, and then the urge would come to me and I'd suddenly get into them again, and then I'd I'd barrel through quite a lot in a short space of time, um maybe six months and get through a load. Um But I used to have a job where I could sit and read. So my my job when I was in a single box, like if if if it was quiet, um I would I would read a newspaper or take a book with me and and do a bit of reading, so I could get through, you know, a couple of hours reading a night potentially. Um doing night shifts and stuff, a little bit quieter, so you can fit things in between your work, and it's not distracted, you know, you weren't allowed phones and radios and things like that, so a book's the perfect thing to keep your attention, keep you awake. And I used to get through so many books when I worked in my first inbox, which was very quiet overnight, I sometimes would read a couple of books a week. Um I got to the point where I stopped actually buying books and started using the library or doing book exchanges and stuff because uh unless it was something I wanted to keep, like say the alien collection that I have, uh it wasn't really worth me doing it because it was cost me a bloody fortune, because I could read that many. Um But I don't know why at the moment I've got so much such brain fog for it. Because I want to get into it, I really do enjoy it. Um I don't know whether I think it's a bit of a wasted time. Um whether it's the I say wasted time I mean because I I know there's other things I probably should be doing, and again chastise myself for giving myself time, but there's many jobs around the house that I put off and put off and put off. I think sometimes that plays on my mind a little bit, and then I still don't do anything about it. It's a big vicious circle. Um I know about these things, try to you know please myself, and then I I can't fully enjoy that time because I know I'm really putting it off. Um and I've been like this for years, so if anyone's got any advice that would be really useful. I'm not I'm not all bad. I do I you know I I can get into a book occasionally and I can read stuff, but I think partly as well is my job over the last few years involves a lot of reading as well, so I have to read documents and such things, so maybe I'm also relating the work thing to reading, and my brain's kind of like, oh my god, you can't read anything else, ah kind of thing, you know. Staring at a screen all day as well, uh staring at my computer, it it's it's it's kind of partly why the the podcaster was late. I think my brain was just like I can't really sit and stare at a screen any longer, I can't work at a computer. Um I also I forget to wear my glasses quite a lot, so that's not a good thing. But yeah, the the whole thing with um multiple books though, maybe that is a thing that I need to kind of calm down on and maybe just relax about that and and maybe you know choose a book and make time for it and put time aside and I want to say force myself, but almost force myself to to read that book. Because I've got quite a lot unfinished as well, say like the Chris Broad book is sat by my bedside table and I've not finished it. Them FBI books I told you about uh the start of the start of the podcast, um really wanna really want to read them because I struggle sometimes with people's body language and facial expressions and tone of voice and it's basically he's he's an ex-FBI agent and he's basically saying how to read people and I thought it would be useful, so it's almost like a self-help book for me. Um so I really need to read them. Um and I used to love reading self-help books actually, not well self-help, self-learning books, probably really. Uh you know, self-discovery. Uh and one one I'll recommend another author to you is a guy called uh Edward de Bono or De Bono, I I don't know how you pronounce his name. But you'll have heard of him, or at least his work, he coins like the phrase uh thinking outside the box, um, amongst others. Uh lateral thinking, I think was his as well. Um and his books are very much about you know how the brain works, how to organise your thoughts. Uh and I've read many of his books and they're all brilliant, and maybe I should read read them again to help me with my current situation. Um weirdly enough, reading them really helped for my mum and dad's divorce. Uh, there was a lot going on. I was on a training course for the the joining the company that I'm in now, and I was on quite an intense training course, and I'd started to read them books and I really, really enjoyed them. Uh, one of them being Six Thinking Hats, which is a brilliant read and brilliant self help book. Um, if you uh you know jumble your thoughts up a little bit, uh it kind of says about putting different coloured hats on to like basically think about a situation only in a certain mindset and each hat has a mindset. Really really good. Simple but effective. So yeah Edward Bono is a is a is a must if you're into that sort of psycholog psychology self-learning. Really, really helped me and um how might get them out, make that break them out and and and read six six thinking hats again. I'll add that to the list. Yeah just let me know like if you've got any tips how how many books do you read? And I know some people can barrel through them and I wish I was that away. Maybe when I get back into it my speed will pick up and the absorption of it will pick up and I need to be on my phone less. I need to be scrolling through my phone less and them times when I waste 20 minutes on a mobile game I just need to delete them off my phone I think and spend 20 minutes reading the book. I think that's probably the solution. And I don't mind like Kindle devices. I do own a Kindle and I don't mind reading on one of them but there is something special like holding a physical book in your hand and smelling the pages especially old books. I don't mind a secondhand book and sometimes they're they're nicer if it's been used and and as long as it's in good condition. I don't like it when they're all scuffed and stuff like that but if they're in good condition don't mind a little bit of wear but it's that smell of a book of the pages in the ink and it's it's strange I get some of the books that I had as a kid and the smell is is very nostalgic. So Kindles are good. I I read some books sometimes to save my books as well. A big thing I do is audible as well I listen to a lot of books. The problem with that is sometimes I don't absorb it because you get distracted when you're listening and you're not maybe paying as much attention whereas when you read it you have to read it and I think you take it in a little bit more. So um yeah I think I think I just need to make a plan. I think I just need to do scroll less. I think we all probably do and I think um I just need to make time for that not feel guilty and and having that 20 minutes of of reading which feels good may enable me to go and feel that I can go and accomplish something else around the house that needs doing 'cause I'm pretty sure Sarah's getting pissed off. I'm great when I start but it's the starting anything. As you know, as you know um anyway thanks very much for joining me on the podcast today. Give us a like and a follow and all that jazz if you want to go back and check some other podcasts out. Thank you very much for for listening to me today prattle on please feel free to prattle back to me in the comments suggest what topics you'd like to hear my thoughts on. And I'd like to hear your thoughts on books. Do you think books are a waste of time? Do you like Kindles? Do you not like Kindles? And what do you think of audiobooks? Do you listen to them? I think biographies are the best on Audible to be a fair because listening to the person that's wrote the book is is quite special it's quite special. Anyway take care of yourselves and uh I'll speak to you on the next podcast and remember keep prattling thanks for listening to Infinite Prattle with your host Steven follow me on social networks at Infinite Prattle and don't forget to subscribe thanks very much