Just find someone.

Is it an actual addiction or is it you just enjoy these books but feel like you shouldn't?

There are a lot of people who look down on smutty romance novels and treat them like they're not "real" literature but that's some elitists nonsense.

Read what you enjoy.

smutty novels are a great way to explore personal desire. I wouldn't think it's a problem unless it's negatively impacting your relationships or something. best of luck finding your answer though

NoI read around 250+ books and 80% of them are erotica. I have nothing against the genre per say but love to challenge myself with more difficult books.

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Yeah I hope so. Thank you

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What's your top 3? Asking for a cat.

Porn addiction and reading erotica are not comparable in my opinion. It's like comparing tik tok and being addicted to reading books! You are not biologically designed to get off on the sight of letters and sentences, and will never have an issue putting a book aside when need be. You just enjoy the work, dont feel bad about it. Literature is not a badge of intellect its just a medium for entertainment

Read better erotica / better books with romance subplots?

Your comments said you just want to read more difficult books so idk, do that?

Pick up some easier classics or modern literary fiction. Read an erotica as a reward for making it through.

I don't think it's fair to minimize OPs struggle with addiction. If you're serious about quitting you may need to consider downsizing your library, and trying resist the temptation to purchase more. I'm just curious, what drove you to this realization? Is it affecting another aspect of your life?

Everyone has little go to guilty pleasure books and that's not a bad thing.

Personally I don't think you are quite so much in a hole has you are looking for books that are actually good that can hold your attention.

Think about the books that you did read that weren't erotica, what do they have in common? What genre were they? What did you like about them?

Try Naked Lunch by William Burroughs: you might view things in a whole new light thereafter.

I feel you (I think). As a huge erotica reader myself, I have felt like that more than once, to the point of looking for ways to quit altogether and look at it like an addiction. There's just so much to read and the Internet is so BIG (yes I'm the one who sometimes opens thirty AO3 tabs each leading to a story that seems just right only to feel almost trapped and going through them like a chore....) And when I'm done or quit for the day I feel like I accomplished nothing and didn't bring anything nourishing to my brain or body. If this sounds familiar, the good news is feeling like this is not permanent and you'll still be able to enjoy reading erotica 😊 you just need a little more balance, and feeling sad/empty after reading smut is just your body's way of letting you know that. ). For me the best way to reboot is to either just stop altogether for a while or limit myself to X story.ies a week for a while and wisely choose it/them. Monitoring the time you spend reading vs the time you spend doing something useful/fulfilling/resting also works for me. I hope this helps some!

I love reading "crappy" books as a mental palate cleanser. I know sometimes I just need something mindless and entertaining. It's not an addiction unless it's affecting your life and your relationships.

Tons of people are addicted to reading, and it can definitely feel impossible to put an engrossing book down. And sexual content can feel addictive in any form... Just because you're more of a visual person and can't imagine written porn being equally absorbing doesn't mean it can't be that way for some people. Well-written smut feels a lot more addictive to me than visual porn.

There is nothing wrong or shameful about reading erotica. Ignore the elitist stigma. An addiction, from my understanding, requires it to actually affect you in a negative way in your day to day life. Is it negatively affecting your relationships? Your work? Stuff you have to do? If it's not negatively affecting anything like that, I wouldn't call it an addiction.

If it is though or you're just feeling like you need some more balance, look at the books that are not erotica that you enjoy and find some more books like them and just try and find a better balance. I know that can be easier said than done. Good luck with finding your answer.

It's pretty clear OP is feeling negatively because of their reading habits. They say they "can't seem to quit", and that's pretty alarming for any type of hobby or consumption.

Therapy.

Either your therapist helps you work through your addiction, or reconcile the guilt. It's a win either way.

Somehow everything is labeled as elitist now. The reading is all equal has just gone way too far on this sub

God forbid he wants to challenge his mind. Are we not doing a disservice by not trying to give this person amazing books we have all read that are more meaningful than erotica? I don’t get it

Yea :( that makes me sad. There is nothing wrong or shameful about reading erotica. That's why I mentioned that first, but then others had mentioned balance and I didn't want to assume that it was all about feeling ashamed.

But it's a shame there is such stigma around reading erotica. Hell anything deemed "feminine" is often looked down upon and most people reading erotica, are women. Of course there is nothing wrong with a man or nonbinary person reading erotica, but seeing as it's mostly women, it gets looked down on, because sexism.

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