Could that be a learned adaption to ADHD rather than a directly caused trait? Or just hyper focus?

I do have a pet theory that many of us ADHDers develop habits to overcompensate but do so early enough that we don't realise they're learned. For example my room growing up was always super tidy, I literally never had to be asked to clean it and I'd know straight away if someone had been in while I was out. That really confused me when I got diagnosed but in hindsight it's because without everything having a consistent place I'd constantly lose things and never find anything.

It was definitely not an adaption - I was intrinsically motivated to keep going and read where the story was going, or what exciting new thing I could learn (my parents gave me a children's encyclopedia for my tenth birthday that I would carry around and read everywhere). So hyper focus on the dopamine hit of learning something new, I guess.

What you describe is how I was when I was younger, too. I read everything, I read pretty fast, and I could read for hours on end. That is no longer the case at all, and I'm uncertain when or why it changed so drastically. (The "when" is tough to pinpoint because for much of my early 20s I wasn't doing much reading, and it's possible that the "why" is related to some change my brain underwent during/because of that.)

I am exactly the same way. Was a voracious & fast reader throughout schooling up until college age. Officially diagnosed ADHD in college when the material became hard enough for me to not "brute force through with my raw intelligence anymore" (psychiatrist words, not mine) so I was likely masking all the way up through high school. Younger brother was diagnosed at a more typical age which made my late diagnosis easier.

I wonder if it has to do with the mental burden we start to accumulate in transitioning to adulthood. Much easier to hyperfocus on books when we don't have the weight of finances, careers, complex relationships, etc.

I lost my reading tendency when life got harder. The urgency and anxiety around keeping up with everyday life made activities like reading almost unsettling slow and “unproductive”.

I realized that and did something about it, but I didn’t allow myself to enjoy a book for around 10 years. Not sure if that resonates with you (I hope not!) but I figured I’d mention it just in case. I was totally unaware of what I was doing at the time.

I was similar. Went through countless sci fi novels, Crichton’s complete works to the Admiral Thrawn series.

I found a hack into keeping up with my reading, which is to use a kindle with wireless page turner attached to a mechanical arm.

I’m able to fall asleep reading like I used to and slowly make my way through extended science fiction. The effort to read is very low, the last page always set.

I don’t often stay up way past bedtime from reading anymore, but it did happen this year for me reading Symphony of Secrets by Brendan Slocumb.

What did you do about it? I'm exclusively a vacation reader. When I have limited free time, reading competes with other hobbies or media and almost never wins just because a book is such a huge time investment compared to a movie or a video game and I'd really like to change that.

Can’t speak for the OP but in my case, reading is what I do to unwind before sleep. If I let myself work on hobbies or projects until I want to sleep I’ll either be up until 5am doing “one more thing” or won’t be able to sleep because my brain is still working. I need to stop all “thinking” activities at least an hour before I want to sleep. So I read in that space. The caveat to this (because I can also read until 5am if I’m engrossed) is the moment I notice I’m feeling sleepy or I’ve had to go back and re-read a page because I drifted mentally, then it’s time to shut the reader and go to sleep. If I try to power through to finish the chapter, I’m too likely to have caught a second wind and be up all night.

I use a kindle set to the lowest brightness setting and really make a point of reading before I sleep most nights.

I’ve drilled it into my head that if I’m not reading or focused on quality sleep, everything else will suffer. It’s been true for decades and I’ve been disappointed by finding it out again enough times that I generally believe it now.

No phone, no late night computer/work, just reading if I’m not asleep and otherwise sleep. It’s so important.

I don’t claim to be a particularly intelligent person by any means. This change has done wonders for being less stupid, however. Reading really does stimulate your brain in such positive ways. You probably won’t notice when you’ve stopped for a while and that’s a serious shame; we’d probably all read more if it was more obvious how much better we are when we do it. And of course the sleep hygiene plays a huge role too.

Occasionally I fall off the wagon for a week or two due to family stuff. To be honest, my wife hates that I read at night, and that’s friction as well. When your brain has a tendency to work against you though, you really do need to take action to build routines that keep you sane and on a good trajectory. My wife would hate it more if I allowed myself to sleep less and indulge in other things in the evening, so this is a lesser evil that keeps my cup full so to speak and helps me stay on track.

ADHD is all about the pit of success and elimination of problematic systems or temptations, in my experience. Make it hard to fail.

Edit: I should add that while it seems boring or impossible with limited time, the routine encourages better sleep (at least in my case) and as a result, better results of my efforts through the subsequent days and weeks and so on. I end up with more time to do stuff I like because I’m not making as many poor choices due to a lack of sleep, corresponding poorer diet, decreased productivity, etc.

I struggled with this part for most of my life and didn’t truly believe it would make a difference until it did. I’m a much better person when I let myself sleep. My brain yells at me not to most nights, but it I can cut through that I will have a better following day without fail. That effect compounds far better than I would have guessed before.

The whole basis of making this work is the commitment and ideally interest in cozying up with a book you want to read. Soon after, because you aren’t 13 anymore, you will pass out. If not, you gain the significant benefit of having not been staring at a screen, engaged in thought, eating, worrying, etc. Your sleep quality will increase even if you read extra some nights.

I keep a book near me while working.

I can't really 'break' on the computer because that's where the work is happening. But I can push down the laptop screen for a little while and read for 10 minutes, no problem. A physical book is a different modality, different everything, and sticky enough to keep my interest but not so sticky I'll lose an hour without noticing.

Do that 2 or 3 times during your workday and you'll be finishing books in no time.

I use a similar technique with ebooks on my phone.

What did you do about it? If you don't mind expanding on that.

Not at all, I responded to someone else about that here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36729512

When did you start using the internet regularly? (It's possible that you didn't change, it's just that your brain found an easier dopamine delivery system).

Way, way earlier. I definitely had different dopamine delivery systems during those years when I wasn't reading a lot. I was doing a lot of things differently n general during that time. But it was surprising and disappointing that I never seemed to regain quite the same reading "abilities" (for lack of a better word) even after years of regular reading again.

Don't get me wrong, I read all the time now, but I can't burn through books like I did back then, I don't read faster than I can subvocalize, and it can be challenging to stay focused or retain what I read.

A few years ago, I spent about nine months reading a single book about Napoleon. It was pretty long, detailed, and complex, so it wasn't intended to be an easy/quick read, but it still took me a pretty long time to get through it while giving it the proper focus. But the annoying part is that a couple years later, I struggle to remember details about Napoleon. I know, memory needs to be practiced and reinforced and such, but I had hoped the length of my immersion in the subject would've done a bit more in this area on its own.

I managed to slowly claw it back by completely changing my reading method. I download ebooks on my phone and read in 5-10 min chunks throughout the day (where I’d normally be using social media or checking the news) followed by 1 hour at the end.

You get hyper-focus when you're interested in something. So both can't read a paragraph and can read non-stop happen in ADHD depending on your interest in reading.

Already has to a degree - hyperactive type and inattentive type.

But you've also got to consider personal taste - hyperfixation happens when it's something you're interested in. Someone else might hyperfocus on video games, or trawling ebay, or researching a topic.

I am famous for "ratholing" for hours on some specific thing that caught my interest, usually with little sense of the time that has passed, and almost exclusively on problems that aren't at all what I'm supposed to be focused on at the time

Not a disagreement, more of a yes, and: “interested” may not necessarily be personal interest, and the subject of hyperfocus might not be a personal interest. It can also happen manifest, for example, as obsession with solving some work problem or chore which isn’t appealing at all until begun. Or even some unrelated yak shaving tangent that fits none of these categories.

Yeah, from personal experience I'll happily sit there and hand-lint a file. It's... calming? So I wonder what the right word to use in place of "interest" is. Attention?

I read recently that they're starting to view hyperactive and inattentive as different presentations of the same symptoms/root causes rather than different types ie the same things that make hyperactive ADHD not sit still make inattentive constantly go off on mental tangents.

I have both things going on, you might say. When I first settle down with a book or long form reading after not having done it a while, it's a considerable effort to focus. Typically at some point after forcing myself back to the text and rereading paragraphs many times I will get immersed in the text. Focus improves and reading speeds up, and for a book I might binge-read it in a couple days, with it occupying my thoughts even when I put it down.

Recently I've heard ADHD described as "the inability (or weak ability) to direct attention" rather than a lack of it. So hyper fixation could be a symptom.

I have the same experience with books. For me I believe it's due to a complicated synergy between my autism and my ADHD.