Hi All - not sure how this will go down, but thought I would share an approach I use to get through some of the more arduous books on my shelf.

When I put a book on my reading list I'm very reticent to remove it. This means that sometimes I would get stuck on one book and have several false starts before I get through it. For me, it's mainly the 19th century novels I have this issue with.

My approach is listen to the audio book at the same time as reading along. The audio book means that I progress through the book, the reading makes sure I'm still paying attention (something I struggle with just audio books along - what can I say, my mind drifts).

I used this to get through the Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens which I had started around three teams and was never able to get further than 60 pages, and wasn't able to read more than 10 pages at a time until I found I was no longer concentrating enough.

I've found YouTube to be a great resource for free audio books. I've yet to fail finding a classic when searching.

Hope this helps other people wanting to get through books they want to read, but are just a little bit heavy going