This might sound stupid but it clicked for me. When I first read Things Fall Apart in high school I had a great English teacher who talked about the importance of literary mediums. While books have long had a place, most stories written down over 150 years ago were originally told orally and so many of those books "feel" better read aloud.

Igbo literature is traditionally oral, as Achebe depicts a few times in Things Fall Apart. Reading the story aloud as if you were telling it over a campfire just makes it feel more engrossing to me. I've reread it twice now and I still prefer reading aloud to myself. It's similar to how most Shakespeare is pretty thick and verbose when you just read words on a page, but his work can be profound when people read those words in character.