Why do I struggle to engage with books?

I admire your persistence to engage with books that did not grab you from the start. It's not a failing that you find some books just don't conjure images. Some people prefer calculus books to novels. My niece found reading a struggle until she discovered books about zombies - goth and skulls really caught her imagination. She'll also read - or at least start reading - books upon which the movies she has seen are based. The movie images are what she needs to "see" the book.

Think of what does engage you. Motorcycles and bikers? Sports? Horror movies? Sci-fi? I'm a history buff. Novels with contemporary settings don't engage me. (Well, some contemporary romances do; but romances are usually based on fairy tales, which connect with troubadours and bards, which connect with history. I have swallowed steam-punk on rare occasions, but that is as close as I want to get to science-fiction.) Don't feel you have to like everything or read everything. Some people I know would rather read a math book or a botany book than a novel. They find fiction boring and math or flowers fascinating.

It's an interesting idea to try audio books and see if there is any difference when the words enter through hearing rather than sight reading. That's an experiment worth trying. But as for what you say, I don't necessarily visualize a scene described by a writer, and maybe that is not unusual. Many writers even omit details and merely sketch a scene with a few words; it's enough for you to know that someone is walking down a city street and, unless you have no experience doing that or have never seen it in a movie, you will know enough to grasp what the environment is. You say you can follow the plot, so what is the problem? I am skeptical of your claim that you cannot visualize; many people say that, but if you question them carefully, you find out that they are well able to visualize (which does not refer only to the sense of sight; an "image" can also include other senses). For instance, when you remember lying on a hot beach or imagine a date you will have next week, you are exercising that power. With a little practice you can even strengthen your powers of imagining scenes. But I really doubt that this is the problem. It may be more that you have difficulty concentrating for a longish period, or even that you are just not interested in literature (there'd be nothing wrong with that). What about nonfiction? Have you had any problems reading about a topic you want to know about, or an article explaining how to do something practical that you want to learn?

I wonder why you "struggle" to engage with books if you are not actually that interested in them. If it is a question of doing school assignments, then that could be a problem. But otherwise maybe you are more interested in engaging with life than with stories.

See books as a train: they should pick you up where you are and take you to where you want to go. To enter a book, you have to be in the same spot where it attempts to pick you up. If a book is attempting to pick you up at hope and get you to optimism, and you're not at hope but in anger, then you're likely not going to be able to get on that train.

The way I see, books, like any art medium, should get you to feel. A good book will tell you how it's feeling and how it wants to feel. Likewise, you should be able to say how you feel and how you want to feel. Once you get a tap on how you feel, then you can search out those books that will give you a good ride to where you want to be.

So, it's a struggle to read books. You want it to be easy to read books. What does struggle feel like? Exhaustion? Trepidation? Doubt? Find a piece of music that keys into what you're feeling (since you're not visual). What book do you think that music would be the starting soundtrack to? Darkly Dreaming Dexter? Les Miserables? Oliver Twist? Or is it more like, The Lord of the Flies? Heart of Darkness? The Road? If not this, what about Game of Thrones? Great Gatsby? Dune? Search out whatever can reach you.

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You just need to find the right genre. I didn't read my first book until high school (I faked book reports until than). You just have to find the right genre!

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