When I read serious stuff, I tend to read quite slowly...sometimes painfully slowly, because I need to fully grok nearly every sentence. Even when I read for fun, however, I still like to amble, not sprint, through the text.
https://qz.com/892276/speed-reading-wont-make-you-smarter-but-reading-for-deep-understanding-will/
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LEGO Americana Roadshow: Building Across America I just checked out this traveling exhibition from LEGO and was quite impressed. The scale ... -
Merry Christmas, everyone!
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When we let politics trump science, people are needlessly put in harm's way. http://arstechnica.com/science/2017/01/self-censoring-fears...
I carefully read your summaries, thx!
ReplyDeleteI always read very fast, but took a speed reading class during a college break. Not only are they a bit of a scam, they'll destroy your joy of reading. As well as skills: during an early exercise, we were directed to get a childrens book from the public library, but since I had basically been untestably fast and I was bored, I just pulled out a book I'd picked up cheap, used, but hadn't been interested in spending a lot of time on; it went okay although I was still bored...until I realized that due to speed reading it, I was prone to bringing up things I'd directly ingested from it, without critical review of the material: it was Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision, about Venus having originally been a comet that did a drive-by on Earth, or something like that--I don't really know, because I made an active attempt to scour my memory clean of it after that.
ReplyDeleteFrom then on, I realized, yes, subvocalizing while you read slows you down, but that's not a bad thing, it's a good thing to think about what you're reading so that you can at the same time decide if you believe it or not.
I read at warp speed, and remember and retain information better than many others who read more slowly. When I see a movie or TV show with an initial text introduction I amuse myself by seeing how many times I can read it (usually three).
ReplyDeleteI've always felt ashamed of my slow reading. Not-so-much anymore...
ReplyDeleteIf I'm reading material I thoroughly enjoy, I tend to read faster as I gobble it all down. When I was a kid I could read 250 to 300 pages a night, but that was only when it was something I was interested in, and I shut out all distractions and just plowed straight through. If it was boring material, it took me forever to get through, and on those occasions I typically did use speed reading techniques and just took notes on the highlights; I didn't care about learning the details, just meeting the requirements.
ReplyDeleteIf I catch myself reading too fast to really comprehend an article, sometimes I'll read it from the last paragraph backwards.
ReplyDeleteInteresting how each of us are different. My dad taught me to read super fast 60 years ago. It's useful. But when I read something I savor and enjoy, like Tolkien, I read at "aloud" speed because good writing is like music to me. One doesn't play music at 10X normal tempo.
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit like Brad D - I'll chew through a book. I do catch myself missing bits sometimes though - at that point, I'll go back and reread bits I've inadvertently skipped.
ReplyDeleteI'll often reread the entire book a couple of years later too - and I'm frequently delighted by details I missed the first time, or forgot...
I've gotten to the point where if I feel a need to read something so quickly that I might not really get it all, then I wonder why I'm even bothering and decide to either (a) slow down, or (b) not read it at all.
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle Audiobooks.
ReplyDeleteLinda Tewes I don't do things that warrant audiobooks too often...and they're too slow to listen to if I can actually read.
ReplyDeleteCraig Froehle I've heard that. But they are easy on the eyes.
ReplyDeleteThe material matters tremendously.
ReplyDeleteI ploughed through Andy Weir's The Martian in about four hours -- roughly 100 pages/hour. Technical material can take me months.
What I find useful is to familiarise myself with the landscape and terrain of a book. Especially for non-fiction material.
Read the contents, skip to the endnotes (no endnotes, put the book down) and index (dittos). Page through it.
On reading a chapter, first skim the chapter looking for sections and key points.
Then go back and read it in depth. I tend to read with a pencil (not a highlighter) and make light marks around interesting passages. Marginalia for items of interest. Longer note-taking on index cards.
Another mode is to read a book for specific information -- head straight to the terms or sections of interest and read those. To a reasonable extent, these should be free-standing, or if not, clearly indicate (without excessive repetition) necessary antecedants.
I forgot to mention one of my weird practices. I do it less often today because I read most things online. But I often or usually read printed magazine articles backwards, especially technical stuff. I only subscribe to one print magazine these days, though. Funny thing is about a month ago I noticed that my daughter does the same thing. I guess we're both nuts.
ReplyDeletePhillip Landmeier I've started reading long-form articles backwards if only because they bury the salient material at the end, and you avoid wading through 2-3 pages of glurge and tripe to reach it.
ReplyDeleteIf there's nothing at the end either, abandon with extreme prejudice.
Which gets to another aspect: find any reason not to read what's in front of you. If you can't make sense of it (for lack of the writer's skill, not your own capacity for understanding), ditch it.
There's an absolute surplus of material, and no reason at all to deal with what should have fucking died in the slush pile yourself.
I'll make a point of blocking, at the firewall, sites which consistently waste my time. Virtually all political sites are there. I make occasional exceptions, though you can often view through a reflector (archive.is, Google Cache, Internet Archive) if necessary.
!suibrom drawde tnellecxE
ReplyDeleteAl Middleton Hah. Dat ain't wut I meant. It's backwards, sentence by sentence, or paragraph by paragraph. Lol.
ReplyDeleteEdward Morbius I really never analyzed it until now but you're right. I guess I do it because a lot of technical articles start out with a story. "Sooner or later, you're going to run into problem X. When I did, I tried A, and it didn't work because B. Then I tried C..." on and on until we get to the development of "The Final Solution". Eventually, you get to the meat.
ReplyDeleteSo I start at the end and if it's good I'll read it again, properly.
I have never been able to read quickly. If I try I retain nothing. Throughout my life this has definitely left me feeling dim compared to others. So it's nice to read (slowly) that fast reading isn't necessarily good reading.
ReplyDeleteOften with a new book I'll gobble it up quickly, and get the shape of the story. This is partly out of habit and partly because I want to know what happens.
ReplyDeleteThen, if it's a good book, I will go through it again more slowly and catch a bunch of stuff I missed. If it's an okay book I'll sort of reread bits of it more or less at random.
I'll also note that my taste in fiction has evolved as I've matured.
ReplyDeleteIn my callow youth, it was largely technical documentation and programming books.
Now it's economics texts and political philosophy.
Edward Morbius My favorite forms of fiction are product warranties and Texas history schoolbooks.
ReplyDelete