The question I get most from friends who want to start reading more is: where do I start? And I've been trying to develop an answer that's useful.

My current answer: don't start with the book you think you should read. Start with the genre you liked when you were twelve, because that genre reached you for a reason and the version of it you wanted then still exists in a better form. If you liked adventure stories, start with Patrick O'Brian or Joe Abercrombie. If you liked mysteries, start with Donna Tartt. If you liked fantasy, start with N.K. Jemisin. Meet yourself where you are rather than where you think you should be.

The 'should' books will come later, when you've rebuilt the reading habit and have bandwidth for difficult material. Or they won't, and that's also fine. Reading for pleasure is not a lesser activity than reading for improvement.