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Thread: You think YOU like to read?

  1. #16
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    Why're you sorry?

  2. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandis View Post
    Alright, alright, calm down. I guess I'm wrong . . . though your extreme defensiveness seems a bit odd. Can you not see how one might be dubious when hearing about someone who reads more than one book a day and writes reviews on them, and also apparently has a social life and watches television? It just doesn't seem like there's enough time in the day. How fast do you read? Seems like it'd have to be a page in a matter of seconds. And, I'm sorry, but I still doubt how much someone could get out of a book by reading them that quick. Comprehension and appreciation or two different things, after all.

    And I know there're plenty of people smarter than me (though I'm not sure that just because someone reads a ton of books that makes it so--I've met plenty of people who barely read who are way smarter than me, too).

    Still, I greatly apologize for apparently hurting your feelings, Larry.
    Pfft! I was having fun more than anything else, considering that 1) I've always enjoyed seeing someone say something they believe to be authoritative and then having another person (usually one they've referenced in passing) pop in suddenly to rebut them, and 2) I wrote a piece about reading squirrels when asked about it two years ago.

    I read around 300-400 pages/hour with comfort; skimming would be something around 600-700 pages. I just "see" lines at a time with full comprehension, it's nothing that was taught to me. So I really read for no longer of a time than many others; I just happen to finish 250-400 page books in a sitting, if I desire *shrugs*

    Paulclem,

    How your wife reads is very similar to how I seem to process it.


    But here's another look at the issue: if you slow your reading to 1/3 of your comfort speed, is enjoyment increased or comprehension improved? I would argue that it is not, at least for many people. I have tried to slow down to 60 pages/hour or so and my focus wavers, since it take so much extra effort to make myself read so slowly that I process less than I do otherwise.

  3. #18
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    I envy your gift. It sounds like you have a photographic memory, then? Being able to read that fast is just incomprehensible to me.

    Some questions: Do you enjoy the language when going that fast? Do you pick up on the nuance? Do you chuckle at humor, become frightened at horror, or do you get struck by beautiful prose I'm general whatever the form? Also, what about poetry? Poetry is believed by many to be a type of writing that one should read slowly, or at least multiple times (in the case of short poems). Do you breeze through those, too?

    Thinking about it, though, I don't know if I'd want to read quite that fast . . . the possibility of running out of things to read seems almost feasible. Not to mention costly.

    As to slowing my comfort speed, I guess it wouldn't help. But my comfort speed differs for different types of writing. I read something difficult or dense considerably slower than something easy--I can breeze through something like the Hunger Games much faster than something like Ulysses. Sometimes, though, slowing down does help, though I wouldn't say I slowed as much as 1/3 of regular speed. I can also read faster than usual, I'd say twice as fast if I try, and still understand what I'm reading (depending on the difficulty), but I don't enjoy it or get as much out of it, which is probably why I'm so skeptical of speed readers (and, yes, I realize the vanity of me thinking my way of reading is the best/most realistic way to read).
    Last edited by Mutatis-Mutandis; 11-03-2012 at 11:56 PM.

  4. #19
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandis View Post
    I envy your gift. It sounds like you have a photographic memory, then? Being able to read that fast is just incomprehensible to me.

    Some questions: Do you enjoy the language when going that fast? Do you pick up on the nuance? Do you chuckle at humor, become frightened at horror, or do you get struck by beautiful prose I'm general whatever the form? Also, what about poetry? Poetry is believed by many to be a type of writing that one should read slowly, or at least multiple times (in the case of short poems). Do you breeze through those, too?

    Thinking about it, though, I don't know if I'd want to read quite that fast . . . the possibility of running out of things to read seems almost feasible. Not to mention costly.

    As to slowing my comfort speed, I guess it wouldn't help. But my comfort speed differs for different types of writing. I read something difficult or dense considerably slower than something easy--I can breeze through something like the Hunger Games much faster than something like Ulysses. Sometimes, though, slowing down does help, though I wouldn't say I slowed as much as 1/3 of regular speed. I can also read faster than usual, I'd say twice as fast if I try, and still understand what I'm reading (depending on the difficulty), but I don't enjoy it or get as much out of it, which is probably why I'm so skeptical of speed readers (and, yes, I realize the vanity of me thinking my way of reading is the best/most realistic way to read).
    I do. I recently finished reading Mark Helprin's In Sunlight and in Shadow and the lyricism of his prose is very beautiful. Just because I process rapidly doesn't mean I don't react just as quickly; I usually do. But I will say this: When I'm reading in Spanish or Portuguese, my reading speed does drop to around 125-150 pages/hour, and a bit slower than that when I read in French or Italian. I read just fast enough for me to take in a lot of the atmosphere and I often take breaks to consider what I'm reading (I rarely read more than an hour straight; usually 2-3 sessions of that length or shorter is the norm for a day). As for poetry, I read and re-read it about 2-3 times before I write a review. I recently reviewed Alan Shapiro's National Book Award-nominated Night of the Republic. I read it twice over a 10 day span; first for general impressions, second for a focus on the language and metaphors. That's my general approach when reviewing poetry, because the act of re-reading (or perhaps, re-listening in the case of lyrical verse) is to me at least as important as reading the first time.

    But as for the speed issue, it's just what I'm comfortable working at for what I do as a reader and as a freelance reviewer and even occasional translator. I don't belittle those who read slower than I do, nor do I look askance when I've learned of a few that read even quicker than I do (I think of it more as quickness than just speed). It's what you take out of the experience that counts and I work no faster than I have to in order to enjoy what I do. Hope that answers your questions.

  5. #20
    Bibliophile JBI's Avatar
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    I read around 200-300 titles a year. I finish 80% of the ones I count. But I seldom read novels anymore. Poetry is faster

  6. #21
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandis View Post
    I seriously don't get how someone can read so many books that fast and get something out of it. Isn't the point of reading supposed to be slowing down and savoring the book?
    Personally, I feel I get more out of books since learning to speed-read than I ever did beforehand. The notion that one gets more out of a book the more one "slows down" is simply fallacious. We only remember a very small amount of all we read anyway, and speed-reading trains your brain to remember things in chunks, rather than in details that get lost after the reading. Of course, some things benefit more from the speed approach than others. I think relatively straight-forward narrative novels and lucid, simply written non-fiction are perfect candidates, while philosophy and poetry requires a slower approach because, with the former, you're struggling to grasp difficult concepts and complex arguments and, with the latter, the sounds and rhythms are as much a part of the experience as anything. Really, the point is that being a good reader isn't a matter of how slow or fast you read, it's really more about how well you process what you read, and how well you do that is really a combination of content and speed.
    "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." --Carl Gustav Jung

    "To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due." --Neil Gaiman; The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists

    "I'm on my way, from misery to happiness today. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh" --The Proclaimers

  7. #22
    King of Dreams MorpheusSandman's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JBI View Post
    I seldom read novels anymore. Poetry is faster
    Most poetry is shorter.
    "As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." --Carl Gustav Jung

    "To absent friends, lost loves, old gods, and the season of mists; and may each and every one of us always give the devil his due." --Neil Gaiman; The Sandman Vol. 4: Season of Mists

    "I'm on my way, from misery to happiness today. Uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh" --The Proclaimers

  8. #23
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    People's stories here makes me think like I don't really like reading. I'm slow at reading books. :|

  9. #24
    confidentially pleased cacian's Avatar
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    Oh the joy of reading it is very tricky at times.
    My partner only read a certain books and sometimes he runs out. It is that scary.
    He can't read everything. I guess because he has bi-polar and the books he reads are very specific.
    The same with films.
    it may never try
    but when it does it sigh
    it is just that
    good
    it fly

  10. #25
    I love to read books especially Amar Chitra Katha's Panchatantra stories are interesting to read.

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    Welcome to the site, Ranveer.

  12. #27
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    I confess to finding the pretense to a heroic, herculean reading list philistine and superficial. To the eyes of whom do I have the duty to prove my unequivocal predilection to reading? Where do my reading obligations begin, and by what incentive? May I not be thoroughly absorbed by the act of reading, and read solely one book a year? Or one page a day, by the same token? But of course--a literate must, by all accounts, devour books. He can't just like them, no, that's too base: he has to consume them, just as others produce them, at the cost of little to no effort, it's worth noting...
    Et ignotas animum dimittit in artes.

  13. #28
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    I agree. One thought fills immensity.

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