Reading Problems (Problems with Reading)

[Jack of Hearts]

Does anyone else ever get these? Not necessarily disabilities, but... er, problems.

For instance, do you ever find yourself reading two pages at once? Or 'reading words before you read them' and sometimes (knowingly) being wrong? Or tracking the author's train of thought for paragraphs at a time before you read them? Or simply looking at the paragraphs on a page and then realizing you've read them?








J

[kasie]

Strikes me you're a speed reader, Jack - your eye moves quickly over the print, taking in several words at a time, rather than looking and possibly sub-vocalising each individual word.
If you are also skipping ahead to follow a particular train of thought, you are possibly becoming impatient with the author for not developing the themes in which you have become particularly interested.
Or maybe you are just tired and need to stop reading and need to give your eyes a rest by doing something different for a while.

[Iain Sparrow]

My job requires intense eyeball work... by the end of my workweek the eye strain is quite enough, so I listen to audiobooks.:)

It took some getting used to at first, but now it just seems like reading and not listening.

[Ruben Meijerink]

Usually I get frustrated when I stumble upon a sentence I don't understand. I feel bad for reading further then, which usually doesn't help either: sometimes the context later on gives a clue

[MANICHAEAN]

At university I had to speed read (i.e. gut a book or article), just to get through the amount we had to deal with. So basically I was just examining the entrails and getting the main ideas / facts being presented. It's a habit hard to get out of and I still have to force myself to slow down, appreciate prose and digest slowly like a good malt.
There are nevertheless, still some writers that I have to read sections of, two or three times before I get the meaning. Might I suggest one of Hemingway's old haunts in Havana with a bloody big rum and coke at your elbow to acquire the knack.

[108 fountains]

As I've gotten more and more into writing the past couple of years, I find that I notice authors' styles more. I'll notice things like how much internal dialogue they use, the use of similes and metaphors, repetition, symbolism, consistency or inconsitency in their characters, etc. Occasionally this will occur to the point where I'm looking more at the style than the story itself. (I recently re-read Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities; I first read it while in high school. I am a Dickens fan, but on the re-read of this book, I was blown away by the sheer quality of the writing stlye. So well done!)

Also, I will sometimes find myself re-reading a paragraph, seeing the words, but not "getting it," especially if it is a dense passage having to do with philosophy or cosmology. Ironically, I find I can concentrate better when I'm in a crowded place, like the metro, rather than in a quiet corner at home. My thoughts tend to stray when I am in quiet places while I am forced to concentrate in noisy places.

[aliengirl]

Does anyone else ever get these? Not necessarily disabilities, but... er, problems.

For instance, do you ever find yourself reading two pages at once? Or 'reading words before you read them' and sometimes (knowingly) being wrong? Or tracking the author's train of thought for paragraphs at a time before you read them? Or simply looking at the paragraphs on a page and then realizing you've read them?

J

That 'reading words before you read them' and 'looking at the paragraphs on a page and then realizing you've read them' happens with me. I also find it difficult to switch from reading on-screen to reading on paper and vice versa.