Hello friends!
So today I stumbled upon a little nugget of wisdom I thought I'd share. I'm a pretty slow reader; I clock in at an astounding 150WPM.
I've always had a problem getting to the end of books. When it takes days to weeks to finish a brief novel, picking up a book becomes a commitment. Either I am going to fall into the story and spend a few days on the couch, locked into the text. Or I'm going to obsessively check which page I'm on and calculate how long it will be before I'm finished.
To counter this, I decided to race through books with various speed reading techniques. And I gotta say, I shot up to a Herculean 300WPM and finished 4 books before the end of winter break even came into sight. That's right ladies, that's 4 books in 3 weeks. I am single.
Anyway, I had no problem getting through Trevor Noah's Born A Crime and Wonder by R.J. Palacio. They are rather simple to read, but considering that I used to finish about 1 book a year, and get 1/5th of the way through 20 others before giving up, I figured I was becoming a speed reading demigod of sorts. A soon-to-be folklore hero. A household name if you will. My story would soon sweep the nation. My inspirational tale would basically bury The Miracle on Ice and put Rocky Balboa to shame.
And then, I read PKD's Man in the High Castle. Got through it in a couple of days, no problem! However! I didn't understand why people LOVED the book so much. It was certainly interesting towards the later chapters, and it got pretty wild. But nothing about the narrative or writing struck me as particularly interesting. It seemed like a small window into alternative history, wherein, nothing too peculiar really happens.
And then I looked stuff up about the story, and a wave of shame and disappointment washed over me. I read the book so urgently, I missed SEVERAL mind-blowing twists and turns. PKD tried to take me on a ride in his strange, amphetamine fuelled mind-fuck, and I basically fell asleep in the car. I missed damn near everything that wasn't presented to me directly — I even missed a lot of those key plot points.
So I began to read Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked Comes This Way, and got through the first 40 pages when I realized I had no idea what the fuck was actually going on. I got the gist of things, but I couldn't help but feel that I wasn't actually submerged in his world. So I went back, took my time, and slowly read through the chapters. And now, I am completely lost in this story. I'm invested, I'm interested. I decided to not ruin this book for myself by making a challenge out of, technically, completing it. And I am enjoying the story 10 times more.
Moral of the story is that my attempt to speed read was an act of cowardice, as I was more concerned that I would loose interest in the book than I was concerned with gaining interest in it.
Anyway, my smoke break is over. I'm going to go back inside. If you got this far, congratulations. And thank you for listening to me ramble!
GOODBYE!
by [deleted]
28 Comments
Good on you for taking that extra step to see if you were getting everything out of these works and then going after the experience you’d wanted to have with them. That’s rare.
I have several friends who are constantly bragging about how many books they’ve read in short periods of time, but they have very little comprehension of the material, including reduced perception of deeper plot points and carefully composed developmental details on characters and the world(s) they occupy. I think they miss out on so much by focusing on hitting a number instead of really immersing themselves in the work.
I hope you continue to find yourself enthralled by a variety of compositions.
I don’t usually read for speed, I read for efficiency. Speed is a factor, but subordinate to understanding.
I can appreciate the benefits of soaking every word and really internalizing a text. However, considering the time crunch that is everyday life, balancing my unnecessarily long ‘for fun’ reading list with mandatory school texts & assignments (I am a college student), social life, current events, pop culture, not to mention a decent amount of sleep per night, pretty much makes slow reading a luxury I can’t afford.
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Your natural reading speed is a combination of genetics, book difficulty, and learning and comprehension of language. Some people are just naturally gifted with obscene reading speed and the retention to boot. It’s not fair, but there are people who can knock out a 700 page book in one afternoon and not have the feeling of being rushed. I knew one such person in college and he would say he was slowly reading a book to understand it better but he still read each page in a few seconds. Some of these readers go on to read up the most challenging books or read up entire libraries. Most are just content with reading a few trashy novels. You just got to accept whatever your natural reading speed is. I’m an incredibly slow reader and sometimes I do get discouraged thinking that a speed reader could finish every book I ever read in just a month or so. But we all are taken in an incredible journey no matter the speed and trying to increase your reading speed misses the point of what books are supposed to be.
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I’m a naturally fast reader. I’m not familiar with speed reading techniques but I find that I instinctively slow down with lack of comprehension; tiny philosophy textbook takes me forever, but a YA novel I can breeze through. I actually was a remedial reader as a young child due to phonic methods not really working for me, instead I naturally gravitated towards whole language methods. One thing I was taught in my remedial lectures was that speed and comprehension were positively correlated; if you’re understanding you’ll speed up. I suspect from your story you were forcing yourself beyond your current ability, perhaps ignoring your instincts and plowing ahead regardless of comprehension.
I’m a poor reader. I just picked up Harry Potter Sorcerer’s Stone since I’ve actually never read it and since people in this sub recommended it to me.
If I’m honest, it’s taken me two days just to get to 25% of the novel, even though the book it comes in rather short at ~250 pages.
I started reading it at a fast pace (at least fast *for me*) and I found myself rereading passages all the time. I just wasn’t comprehending things, which of course led to me being confused about what was going on. It even came to a point where I was about to put the book down for good, when I realized that I was being silly by rushing through it. I told myself, “If you can’t mentally summarize what you just read, then you’re reading too fast.”
I ended up restarting the book (I figured that was the best thing to do since I remembered none of it) and going slow enough that I could remember everything that’s happened. Then I started noticing all of the figures out speech and the foreshadowing–I thought some of the things J.K. Rowling wrote were quite clever. I slowly began to appreciate the writing and the talent and hard work that was put into it.
So **tl;dr** — The slower I go, the more I can appreciate the writing and the more I can catch onto non obvious things the author has cleverly hidden in their writing. Also, some authors are extremely talented, but we can miss out on seeing that by reading too fast.
The only way to effectively increase your WPM is to read more. Our brains are pattern matching machines. Language is full of patterns that can be familiar or unfamiliar. As you become familiar with the patterns, you will read quicker. So read more, see more patterns, and your reading speed will go up on its own, no need to worry about subvocalization or tracking speed. Your brain will sort that out on its own.
It all comes down to each person, I’ve always been a speed reader but since I’m slightly smarter than a stone I can easily understand your reading speed has nothing to do with your intelligence or how much you focus on what you’re reading, it’s just something that changes from person to person.
Ray Bradbury’s *Something Wicked This Way Comes
I read fast naturally, even when I don’t use speed reading techniques. To me, speed reading techniques are for things you *need* to read quickly and want to get a basic understanding. Not for pleasure reading. I use it for work related stuff, like reading a technical article or product descriptions.
If you are reading for pleasure, enjoy it and don’t rush through it.
I speed-read OP’s post. Some bruh has wisdom but is slow reader, decides to make his own story, something like Hercules or Miracle on Ice or something. He meets some dude in a castle, crazy stuff happens, he missed a lot though cause probably really drunk. He uses that experience to change the story into something sinister, something wicked. And it’s at least 10 times better. He’s a smoker.
I read through this in 67 seconds, and whatever you said, I agree.
There was a post last week about a guy who read war and peace, a few pages a day for a whole year.
Starting on the 1st, we at /r/ayearofwarandpeace have been doing exactly the same.
It feels painfully slow, and yet taking the time to really absorb each individual chapter is becoming very rewarding.
I read a chapter in the morning. I reflect on it. I discuss it with others from the subreddit. I absorb their perspectives and highlights. Then I read it again later in the day (a different translation) and try to truly understand it.
It’s honestly changed my reading experience altogether. I don’t think I could or would get any meaning from it by speeding through as I have in the past.
>Or I’m going to obsessively check which page I’m on and calculate how long it will be before I’m finished.
FWIW, this isn’t restricted to slow readers. I read quite fast but still do this.
I feel this title is clickbaity because my initial reaction was along the lines of, “OH YEAH?” followed by a faithful recitation of the hallowed _Navy Seal Copypasta._
Once I got past all that (you never really get past it), I realized that am also gladdened by the fact that OP is delving into *how* (s)he reads and making choices based on a self-assessment. It’s all very Socratic.
HashtagGoodOnYaMate
I finished this post in 13 seconds! what was it about?
The thing to learn here isn’t that reading quickly is a bad idea, but purposely pushing yourself to read faster than you normally do is a bad idea, especially when reading quality literature.
To give you another perspective, I’m someone that just reads pretty quickly naturally, especially when there’s not much going on in the book. I read at the speed I can picture what’s going on which means I sometimes read 200-300 page books in an afternoon(I’ve never counted wpm).
As for speeding up reading I find that fun to do on simple books. Rushing through them at the speed of thought. Letting the plot flow by and immersing myself in the emotions of the characters.
It’s all about that sweet subvocalization
I generally read to myself at the same speed I speak. It’s not a race and I want to actually absorb and process what I’m reading.
Lol then you weren’t speed reading. You can train yourself to read faster but you can’t just decide you’re going to finish a book in an hour. You practice by slowly increasing the amount of words you read in a minute and checking if you maintain comprehension. You can learn to speed read but it takes time. You were skimming or some shit.
Edit: for sense making
If you are going over words quickly without full comprehension isn’t that more ‘skimming’ than ‘speed-reading?’
I speed-read the title and misread it as “speed-racing.”
I have the same problem. Takes me forever to get through a book. Instead of learning to speed read, I switched the font on my kindle to the dyslexic font which is slightly bottom heavy and doesn’t have parallels. I don’t know if I am dyslexic but I read a whole book in 2 days and half of “It” by Stephen King in the last 4. It’s helped me immensely.
There’s no point to reading 4 books a month if you’re not enjoying it. The number of books you finish doesn’t need to be a bragging point. You read for you, not for other people.
I only skimmed this post, but think I got the gist of it
Speedreader here, summarizing:
Friends!
So I stumbled nugget share. I’m pretty; I clock astounding.
I’ve problem end. When weeks to novel, picking a commitment. Either the story on the couch, locked. Or obsessively calculate before.
To counter, I decided books with various techniques. And Herculean finished end came. That’s single.
I had no problem getting Crime. They simple, but demigod of sorts. Bury Rocky Balboa.
And I didn’t LOVED. It was chapters, and it got. But narrative or interesting. It alternative history, too peculiar.
And then I looked disappointment washed. I read the book turns. PKD I basically fell asleep in. I missed directly — I points.
So I began to read I realized I had no idea what the fuck was actually on. I got the feel that I wasn’t actually chapters. And now, I am completely interested. I decided to a challenge out of, technically, completing it. And I am more.
Moral of the cowardice, I was.
Anyway, me ramble!
GOODBYE!
It irritates me so much that my kids come home from school with “speed” tests for reading and then we get shit about how they don’t read enough words a minute and they’re behind.
Motherfuckers are missing the point of reading entirely. I tell my kids that these stupid tests don’t matter. What matters is whether you’re understanding and comprehending what you’re reading and enjoying it.
Part of the result their schooling has gotten is that neither of them really like reading, even though I try to instill it in them constantly. My daughter is in 5th grade and I always tell her how I was reading Michael Crichton by 4th grade and actually understanding and enjoying what I was reading. She just thinks reading is super boring and doesn’t like to do it.
Fucking Common Core is ruining education.