Reddit reviews Woodsong

My younger brother also had a lot of trouble reading growing up and it was a similar sort of "forget what the beginning of the sentence was by the time you get to the end" kind of thing. He is very smart and can remember/understand plots and stories but actually getting through a book was very difficult for him. He's doing much better now (just graduated high school and going to community college for a couple of years before transferring to a four year school) but it took a while to figure out what was going on. Part of it was that he had ADHD but what we weren't expecting was that he needed reading glasses! His sight was just bad enough that he had to really concentrate to read the words but not bad enough that he realized that that's what was making him so mentally fatigued. We got him the glasses and it really improved the situation. Its something you can check pretty easily- visit the eye doctor or just go into the store and try on a bunch of different prescriptions.

Other than that, I would say just stick with it and try going back to basics. Re-read some of the books you loved as a child- since you know/love the plots they will be easier to follow and finishing them might give you the boost of confidence to get into new books! As other people have said, talk to local librarians and see what they recommend. If you're looking for a good non-romance book, you can try Woodsong by Gary Paulsen. Its not very long and written in short and to-the-point prose; Paulsen talks about his experiences in the backwoods of the American west and his first Iditarod race. Its extremely gripping and definitely not anything like the stuff you read in high school! A lot of Paulsen's other works revolve around the man vs wild theme as well. And stay away from Twilight and the entire genre it has somehow spawned. :p

Good luck and let us know what happens!!