[navel-gazing] reading, fast & slow

[kaberett]

At some point in proceedings (depression? pain? migraine? dense technical text for the PhD? poetry?), I realise, I have gone from reading Unusually Quickly to still reading More? Than Population Norm? (75ish books last year, of which 15ish were graphic novels or otherwise not-a-novel's-worth-of-words), but no faster than I'd be able to read the text aloud -- "hearing" each word in my head, and often rereading sentences repeatedly.

This is in contrast to how I type, which is much faster than I can speak comprehensibly (... though I now recall that I am in fact often asked to Slow The Fuck Down when providing information verbally).

I have over the last little bit been tentatively experimenting with trying not to read each word "aloud", mentally, and instead treating The Written Word as something that doesn't always need to be (pseudo-)vocalised.

It feels weird. It's an active effort. I am extremely dubious about the impact on how much information I retain; Further Study Required. I think this is probably how I used to read (when?); I'm not sure what changed; I'm unsettled.

(And I want to post something to Dreamwidth before bed, and this is a thing I was thinking about a lot while almost-but-not-quite finishing Index, A History of the -- I'm at a point I'd ordinarily count as "finished" but obviously it is in this instance both important and rewarding to read the index, all two of it, so here y'go.)

Comments

[aldabra]

Do you visit the optician? I think I got out of the habit of reading fast at the point where I needed glasses but didn't yet know.

[kaberett]

Yep, and even on an approximately regular basis!

[watersword]

I don't subvocalize when I read, and it is definitely part of why I read at the speed I do, which has always been extremely fast. I can force myself to do it, but it is agonizing.

[momijizukamori]

Same, which I realized when I was reading Dracula for the first time a year or two ago and having to do it for the bits written in heavy accent to actually understand them.

[shanaqui]

It may be interesting to know, in light of how much you know I read, that I do a mix of subvocalisation and actual (whispered) vocalisation and silent reading, sometimes all in the same book at different times. I find I do retain stuff I subvocalise or whisper better, particularly non-fiction and particularly stuff that I'm unfamiliar with, e.g. I am not subvocalising Solo Leveling but I am subvocalising or outright whispering Alice Roberts' Domination.

(I do also have lexical->gustatory synaesthesia which also plays a part: it barely kicks in for silent reading, mildly for subvocalisation, strongly for whispering. I have favourite words and will almost always whisper those or at least subvocalise.)

Subvocalisation or whispering obviously slow me down, but I switch so smoothly between the three that I doubt I ever read a book only via whispering.

[kaberett]

This was not a thing I knew about you! And having just read Index, A History of the I am reminded of the passage that goes

And while monastic readers in the Middle Ages may have digested the scriptures inwardly, they ate, as it were, with their mouths open. Meditative reading engaged more senses than just the eye. As the historian Jean Leclercq, himself a Benedictine monk, puts it, 'in the Middle Ages, one generally read by speaking with one's lips, at least in a whisper, and consequently hearing the phrases that the eyes see'. Reading involved a sensitivity to the image of the text as the finger traced the page, to the muscle memories that the words left on the lips as they were murmured, to the sound of the words as they were heard muttered aloud. [...] the tenth-century John of Gorze [is] said to have pored continuously over the psalms with a soft buzzing 'in morem apis': in the manner of a bee.

[shanaqui]

Hee, yes. My sister hates being in a room with me reading because I very much read 'in morem apis' (others have been known to find it soothing, however).

[sfred]

My reading has slowed a lot since my teens. I've noticed that my dad reads really quickly now, as well as spending a lot of time reading, so I think for me it might be partly that I read in smaller chunks of time and it takes a while to get up to speed.

[kaberett]

Oh hmm! That is a very interesting theory that I... will prod at. Empiricism yes yes.

[mdlbear]

Put me down as another long-time subvocalizer.

[doseybat]

Feel like I must have always subvocalised, and have never been a fast reader, in spite of that being my dominant leisure activity growing up. Can also "skim" but that is so unsatisfying and uncomfortable feeling, and core content does get missed, I only do it for work or when stressed. Guess I just let myself subvocalise for any reading where enjoyment is one of the aims.

[doseybat]

Reading enjoyment seems to lie in constructing the mental images from the text. Any pressure to do that faster seems unpleasant. Instead when reading "properly" I like to page back to check bits like names and facts. Should also add that reading off screens is less nice and am guilty of dead trees..

[lunabee34]

Reading for me is hearing the words spoken in my head.

[davidgillon]

(... though I now recall that I am in fact often asked to Slow The Fuck Down when providing information verbally).

Something I've been hearing fairly regularly from my sister ;)

I find reading speed varies with the subject, I'm much faster with fiction than factual (though probably still fast with either), but sometimes the writing is so good it needs to be sounded out, even if silently, in order to hit the cadence it demands.