just curious but...

does anyone ever skip pages when reading? i think i was looking at baddads post about how he read 7 books in 12 seconds or something ridiculous like that and i was thinking either this guy doesnt do anything in his days but read or else he skips pages. i dont ever skip pages but i always see people on the train doing so and i cant help but think of them as thickos because usually theyre trashy novels like martina cole or dan brown, i know thats really conceited of me but hey.

how bout you lot? :banana:

I try not to skip pages, but while I rarely read the literature you mentioned ("trashy novels," *laughs) I never skip pages otherwise. I think the few times I have read work by contemporary authors, such as Stephen King, I have neglected some of the verbosity, but other than that, none.

Never do I skip pages. And as far as speed reading goes, I really do not know how people can do it. I really admire anyone who can. I like to read slowly when the story is getting really interesting, reread the paragraphs that I liked and read out loud the sentences or paragraphs that have a certain musicality to them or where it's written with an accent (I like doing accents). So yeah, it can take me pretty long to read a book but I really enjoy them.

However, even as thoroughly as I think I read a book, I usually end up forgetting it - most of the time I can't seem to remember anything but the main character's name at the most.

Oh and if judging a reader by the book makes one conceited, then I'm conceited too.

I don't mind reading 'trashy/popular novels' along with more serious ones as I feel that there is a time and place for everything (being a firm believer in 'All work and no play makes Scheherazade a dull girl :D). I try not to skip pages but I have been known to skim and scan certain parts. When I read more 'highbrow' books I don't do that;on the contrary, I sometimes feel the need to re-read some pages.

My name is Papayahed and I'm a page skipper. When I'm reading just for the pleasure of it I'll skip pages, especially if it's not pertinent to the story. For example, Tom Clancey - he can yammer on about technology and the entricate workings of machines, so I skip those parts. The fountainhead - blech, I wasn't buying Ayn's philosophy so I skipped the parts where she did her preaching (through her characters) and went on with the story. I know there's more but I can't think right now.

well i dont only read literature, i like to read the odd contemporary fiction like the occasional stephen king and theres this book that mr king recommended as the best book he never read (it as an audio book but now thanks to mr king's backing it has become published as a novel) called "the memory of running" by ron mclarty that isn't art but is a good story (im told) which im looking forward to reading. i didnt mean to sound so highbrow in my post i just dont understand people who skip pages and only read dialogue. :banana:

Yeah I'll skip pages, but I don't normally.

It is not a crime to skip. Authors make mistakes, sometimes they should have left things out.

I also skip pages, especially when the book is telling about other characters. I'm doing this if I gos so interested with what happened to the main characters and I just want to read about them. Some parts of books can be boring and they are just like intermezzo or something, which I think not neccesary to be included in the book. Well sometimes I also skip scenes when I watch DVD :)

hmmmmm........7 books in 12 seconds........WICKED!!!

Not quite: Tuesdays are 'library day'. I get six books each visit.

I'm not a page skipper. I scrutinized each and every painful page of 'Fountainhead' last year, despite my objection to objectivism.........but yes......lots of time to read...I'm addicted....not a speed reader, but a lot of the really simplistic escapism in many popular novels leaves little reason to read sloooowwwwly, or re-read passages because they were just to 'deep' the first time around.......Now Umberto Eco's 'Foucault's Pendulum'...THAT book caused me to re-read many a passage just to stay in tune with,and follow, the goings on...

But I feel compelled to read each and every word of each and every book I pick up.....and then I can say with some authority....."OK, that book REALLY SUCKED!!!",
......or not........

As a general rule, I skip every third page.

I have read two-thirds of the world's greatest literature.

To me it is not about what happens to the character... Some authors use of words and laguage is so effective, so beautiful, I enjoy reading all the descriptions and realize why they are considered great writers and stand in awe (well not actually stand as I enjoy reading lying down -As I Lay Down Reading). Like Steinbeck... It is a literary crime to skip anything he has written, IMHO.

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does anyone ever skip pages when reading?

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Not usually. Only if a book gets really, really boring. Like, no offence to Victor Hugo, he's a brilliant writer and all, but at the beginning of Les Miserables, he goes on and on and on and ON!!!!!!!! about the bishop guy, and it just gets so boring....so I skipped most of that. I just couldn't be bothered. And the part about "Argot" - I'm not particularly interested in the history of French swearwords. Well. So I skipped that as well.

But otherwise, no! Definitely not! I don't skip pages. Sometimes I'll kind of drift off in the middle of the page, if the sentences are too long or something, and find myself somewhere else (fine, that's cheating, but...); but this doesn't happen often. I like reading stuff the way the author intended it to be read. Just long, pointless descriptions with no particular purpose get in my way. So I skip them.

Don't tell me... I hardly ever skip. Let's say never, I skip only if for some reason I NEED to read a book in a couple of hours and it's too long to do it (well did it once cos we had two lessons about Pushkin's Onegin and the first one was so involving that I went to buy the book and read it for the next day to see how it ended...but I couldnt read it all so I skipped). Or when I re-read something and I want to read only the parts I liked most. The rest of my reading life is a tragedy ;), I endured every single word of War and Peace, and sometimes I'm so wicked that when I realise that Im not paying attention I read that page again even if I know I will never focus cos it's repeating for the 100th times his thoughts about war and history and whatever, to use War and Peace as an example...

Generally, skipping is a pretty bad habit because you might not fully understand the rest of the book. But I admit to having skipped large sections of Jane Smiley's "A Thousand Acres" and Hemingway's "For Whom The Bell Tolls." Sometimes, when you're not in the right mood, reading long descriptions of landscapes isn't very appealing.

Sometimes.

:banana: Hi,
I usually skip some pages with books. I choose what I wanna read from the table of content of the book.
But with literature epically novels, I skip boring :goof: :rage: descriptions ,and read dialogues, only when I read that novel for a class ,and the time is limited .For I believe that every single word is significant, and helps us to understand and get more of the novel .

Yours,
Rana