What's the best way to pace yourself when reading?

September 11, 2007 4:46 PM

What's the best way to pace yourself when reading?

I recently realized that I have two different styles of reading with regard to pacing. One: I move along rather rapdily, breezing through the pages. Two: I savor every word and every sentence.

What is the best way to read: fast or slow? When I read fast, I am happy to have a story unfold for me before my eyes. But when I read slow, I take joy in lingering on the words and images, savoring every sentence.

Have you found a good way of balancing the tendency to read fast and slow, so that you both get to enjoy a book's details and yet not have to literally absorb every word and image at the speed of a snail crawling?

posted by gregb1007 to media & arts (9 comments total)

It depends on the book and the reasons I'm reading.

When reading for pleasure, I let the book's natural pace set in and I stick with that. If it lends itself to slow savoring, then that's the pace that will naturally set in. My only exception to that pacing rule is that when I'm reading something that I really want to finish in spite of the fact that its natural pace is for me to stop reading it and never return because it's so plodding and disengaging, I just power through it.
posted by The World Famous at 5:01 PM on September 11, 2007

I do both a first reading that goes quickly as the story pulls me along at whatever speed it wants to, and then I reread it slowly, already knowing the story and savor the actual writing (provided it is worth savoring). But then, I'm weird when it comes to reading and don't mind reading books twice (don't always do both readings right after each other, sometimes read another book in between and alternate -- my stack of books-to-be-read or in-progress is huge).

The only books I tend to read really slowly on a first reading, other than textbooks or other non-fiction skill-teaching books I am studying from, are the ones that suck, and I usually never even finish reading them one time through let alone twice. Unlike The World Famous, I don't force myself to plod through a poorly written tome. Too many good books out there waiting to be read.
posted by Orb at 5:10 PM on September 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

For work, I "savor" every word, if it can be called that. I can't mess up on what is written on the page.

For fun, I go as my heart leads me, which means: very goddamn fast.
posted by Ironmouth at 5:15 PM on September 11, 2007

it totally depends. usually, you will read at the pace you should read at--a plot-heavy text lends itself to fast reading and lots of rapid page-turning, while a more literary text will make you slow down. i wouldn't worry.
posted by thinkingwoman at 6:35 PM on September 11, 2007

I read fiction pretty fast. In books with a lot of characters, I make a quick stop and focus on the character's name during a given sentence so that I don't lose track of who is doing what, etc.

When I read textbooks, I do the same thing, except I do it on the subject of the sentence. (I also skim first, very quickly before reading a section or a long paragraph).
posted by i_am_a_Jedi at 7:15 PM on September 11, 2007

When I read fiction for just pleasure, I just read. Non-fiction or a book that I don't own, I mark interesting passages with post-its and return to them later. Textbooks and complicated reading I usually annotate in the Adler style a la Great Books. It really helps for law, science papers, etc. even if it is a little time consuming.
posted by melissam at 8:20 PM on September 11, 2007

Definitely depends on the material. I usually devour books (I'm up to 40-some novels this year so far) but if it's really standout writing, I find I naturally slow down.

For example, I recently read John Fowles' The Magus and, as much as I wanted to speed through it and figure out what was going on, the writing was so compelling I just had to slow down and savor it.
posted by JaredSeth at 8:41 PM on September 11, 2007

I've been wondering the same thing about my own reading habits, OP.

It's like a buffet of your favorite foods: devour to your heart's content, or really enjoy each bite?

For fiction, I really like to go slow and enjoy the scenery. My trouble is, if I read slowly I invariably fall asleep, which I've seen others discuss on AskMeFi (not the reading slowly part, but the falling asleep part). But rushing it seems such a waste!

I do like Orb's idea though, of reading first quickly, then going back and smelling the roses. That's a good way to watch films too, BTW.
posted by Rykey at 8:58 PM on September 11, 2007

Didn't we do this before? Oh yes, here.

I don't think there is one universal good speed for reading, do whatever feels best to you at the time. I guess you could check yourself, hold back, take a few pauses, think about what you're reading, if you feel you're going too fast but otherwise, there are no rules.
posted by shelleycat at 11:40 PM on September 11, 2007