How do you read when you just can't focus?

I finished a book I'd been reading for the past 2 months or so this evening. Okay, I feel so ashamed. I still do not think of myself as a slow reader, but as I was telling a friend, just slightly distracted. My attention span has shrunk to the size of a fly. Honestly, it's become a real problem. Completing books is the least of my problems - at least, I tend to have the luxury of time and can take as much as I need to finish the book. Listening to instructions is another thing entirely! After the first sentence, my mind has wandered to Timbuktu and back. Out of embarrasment, I tend to pretend I got the whole jist of what the other person was saying and nod in an off-handed manner. A lot of times, I can figure out what I need to. When I can't, I sometimes try to pass it off like they didn't explain it properly the first time around. LOL!!

So, I finished Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. I really want to start Barbara Sher's What do I do when I want to do everything? (yet, another problem of mine, and one that I suspect is closely linked to my difficulty in focusing). However, someone lent me a biography of Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill and Thomas Edison, so I think out of courtesy, I should read that one next so that I can finish and return it before the end of the year.