Slow Reading...

Hi Pizza, you have kind of summarized my reading habits above with your comment except that I didn't read more than 40 books last year just 35 ( according to Goodreads but for a person like me who was reading 3 or 4 fiction non technical books before 2011 I think it is a tremendous improvement :) ) and my native tongue is Portuguese.
 
PizzaCaviar said:
What kind of books are we talking about here? Do you mean to say you used to read 4 to 6 books a DAY?
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Novels, non fictions, poetry, plays etc. Something like Les Miserables or War & Peace would take longer than say Jane Eyre. But I could read six airport style paperbacks in a day before I had children.
 
Truly stunned - not to mention envious - at all you fast readers.

I'm lucky to manage one a month. Usually I get one done in 6 weeks.

TDZ sent me Beach Music by Pat Conroy as a Christmas present. I'm loving it but am on page 82 - and there are 700+ pages.

Do you fast readers take it all in? Do you scan? How can someone read so fast?

pH
 
Phyrebrat said:
T
Do you fast readers take it all in? Do you scan? How can someone read so fast?

pH
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Yes - I perhaps don't luxuriate over every word but I take enough in to enjoy and get the nuances of something like Sunset Song and remember in detail scenes from Jane Eyre which I read when I was seven or quote from various books I've read.
 
I can't say reading speed is anything particular to be proud of or obsess over other people's but, for what its worth, no, that's not fast. GoodReads tells me I'm already at 30 books this year. That's not counting DNFs where I got a long way in and critiques/beta reading.

That seems to be in the fast lane but I'm not quite sure how I do it tbh.

Part of it's I've had a lot of free time recently.

Part of it is I'm rarely that far from a book. I've Journeys open in Kindle atm, if I'm watching TV I'll also be reading something, if I'm on my way somewhere there's a good chance there's a book in my pocket.

Part of it is that as a history student and written data sorter, I've spent the last 10 odd years ploughing through the written word pretty much every day. But I was quick as a child too.

I guess by most standards I am something of a scan reader but I'd back myself that I take in as much detail as the next person.

LittleStar said:
There are so many books that I would love to read, but I have to admit probbaly quite unusually for a writer I'm not a very prolific reader.
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Not sure about that. I know a few authors who say they don't read much and given how much time writing takes, and how busy modern life it is, I'm not sure what else people who read frequently, write well, and work demanding jobs do. Certainly can't be sleep!
 
I am probably slower than average. In addition, I can read something and drift off in thoughts while doing so. I then have to go back and reread bits now and then. I am also a slow writer, coincidentally.
 
Lumens said:
I am probably slower than average. In addition, I can read something and drift off in thoughts while doing so. I then have to go back and reread bits now and then. I am also a slow writer, coincidentally.
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This sums me up exactly. I think some of it depends on mood, sometimes I'll tear through pages much faster than expected, sometimes I'll start day dreaming and having to re-read the same paragraph like 3 times. Sometimes I think it's down to how much I'm enjoying the book (e.g. more likely to drift off if I'm not enjoying it all that much), but even when I'm loving a book sometimes I'll do it.

It's annoying though, because it can take me an insanely long time to read books, especially if they;'re long and I'm not going to have a lot of free time, in fact I hold off reading longer books until I know about about to go on holiday or have a lot of time where I'll be able to read.
 
Pwaa said:
This sums me up exactly. I think some of it depends on mood, sometimes I'll tear through pages much faster than expected, sometimes I'll start day dreaming and having to re-read the same paragraph like 3 times. Sometimes I think it's down to how much I'm enjoying the book (e.g. more likely to drift off if I'm not enjoying it all that much), but even when I'm loving a book sometimes I'll do it.

Your habits and situations are why I like reading more than watching television and movies. Television and movies are a contradiction in that they're in you face and demanding attention right now and yet (scientifically) they are stimulate brains less.
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I don't think it's a reader fault when this happens::
Lumens said:
I am probably slower than average. In addition, I can read something and drift off in thoughts while doing so. I then have to go back and reread bits now and then. I am also a slow writer, coincidentally.
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:: I refer to this as the needle skip. This is equivalent to a scratch or flaw on the vinyl record where you know you missed something but can't say how much.

So you reach the bottom of the page and think 'what did I just read?'

Since I've been writing I think my comprehension in reading has gone up. I can read easily two books a week and sometimes one in a day, but I have to plan that out because it involves a lot of hours.

My wife can read 3 books a day and spend quite a bit of time relaying the plot to me so I have no doubts about her comprehension. And her books are long because she searches for long books.

I read slower and unless a book is outstanding I might have to pause several times to shake out the cobwebs. When a book really grabs my attention I can finish it in a day.

I've never been able to finish Dune --the original book in the series--in less than three days.
There are a lot of problems with that book that account for this and unfortunately many of those are what people found to be so fascinating about the novels, so I won't go into it all.
 
That last book of Alastair Reynolds took me over a month! I just don't have the time for solid reading and with a big book it's easy to lose the plot,and then the book doesn't seem that good. Even tho you know it is. I've decided to stick to short story anthologies. Much easier
 
PizzaCaviar said:
What kind of books are we talking about here? Do you mean to say you used to read 4 to 6 books a DAY?

I mostly read science-fiction in English, which is not my native language, so my pace is something around 30 to 40 pages per hour. It is about half as fast as I read in French. But the thing is I don't pay that much attention to it as long as I am enjoying the book. I just use it to know if I have enough time to finish a chapter or get to a point in the book before I get back to my life. Actually, if I find myself looking at what page I am at I know I am thoroughly enjoyed what I am reading.

Last year I had set a challenge of 20 books on Goodreads and found myself to have finished more than 40. I have not been reading for a long time so I was quite pleased with that progress. But again, speed is not of the essence here. As it was mentioned earlier, I like to think of it in term of appreciation so I enjoy taking my time and soaking up a masterpiece. The only thing that might sometimes bother me is that I have to chose carefully what I pick up as my "to read" list seems to be never ending. But I make up for it by dropping something if it gets dull after a couple of chapters.

And I guess every reader is faced with the same issue, we can never read everything we want.
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As a child I used to borrow four books from the children's library (the maximum allowed) during the school holidays and could easily read them all and return the next day to exchange them for another four. Of course, they were short books. So I'm not surprised if Anya was doing the same.
 
I am a very slow reader. It depends on the writing style as much as anything. If the author doesn't go for dense description it usually goes faster. Also, I have been reading online more than print books lately and that seems to have an effect on my speed.
I read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and it took me 5 months!
 
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