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

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

gregb1007 — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:46:04 -0800

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?

By: The World Famous

The World Famous — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:01:08 -0800

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.

By: Orb

Orb — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:10:05 -0800

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.

By: Ironmouth

Ironmouth — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:15:11 -0800

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.

By: thinkingwoman

thinkingwoman — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:35:45 -0800

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.

By: i_am_a_Jedi

i_am_a_Jedi — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 19:15:09 -0800

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).

By: melissam

melissam — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:20:05 -0800

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.

By: JaredSeth

JaredSeth — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:41:54 -0800

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.

By: Rykey

Rykey — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:58:33 -0800

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.

By: shelleycat

shelleycat — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 23:40:00 -0800

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.