Wednesday, and Susan Sarah here...
Rushing through the last bit of my current WIP, moving in hyperspeed, zooming through drafts and last-minute research, and looking longingly at my TBR pile -- which has been sadly neglected for too long -- I got to thinking about reading =speed= -- the simple state of reading fast or slow.
I tend to be a pretty quick reader, when the focus is there and I have the quiet and the time for reading. This is particularly true with nonfiction. I can fly through research books at a lightning pace, scribbling notes as I go, and enough info seems to stick, probably due to ingraining a research-and-notes habit through years of graduate school, that I don't have to read it again, though I use the notes as a refresher as I get further into writing the book. With online research, I can fly through reading on screens, if the material is well organized, and though online research is a fantastic resource--especially for visual research, or quick-hit information--I am a bookaholic. If I can do the research in a book, I will. I love books--the smell of pages and binding, the weight of them, turning pages, skimming, scanning, dipping and reading. I am not keen on reading onscreen, being a bit light sensitive, but I will do it if I have no other choice.
Years ago I took a reading improvement course, not a speed-reading course per se, but one called PhotoReading, which takes a whole-brain approach to reading: the entrainment is geared to allow the eyes and brain to work together to absorb information from the book efficiently and quickly, according to the ways the brain works best, rather than the eyes doing a speed-racing trick to dump the information into the brain. Considering all the research I did in graduate school and as a writer of historicl fiction, the reading course was a big help, and I still use the techniques, and though my skills are a bit stale they still work for me. But I find it more useful for nonfiction and research than fiction, because of reading styles and preferences.
I don't want to fly through reading fiction--I want to savor it. Reading can be an art form in itself, the enjoyment of the physical book, the pages, the relaxation of getting cozy and comfy and settling down to a great book, and a great reading experience. That's the way I read fiction when I have time. But reality does have its bite...and more often than not I am flying through a novel when I really want to take time to read it carefully.
As a writer, I know what goes into the crafting of a novel, and ideally I'd like to give all my attention to any book that I'm reading. I already have quite a to-be-read pile to go through, and there are always more books coming up on the radar screen to tempt and distract me, and so while I want to give each book the time and reading energy, it's not always practical or possible. I end up zooming through books, zipping chapter to chapter, skimming passages. And while I can certainly enjoy books that I'm reading at that pace -- I always feel a little unsatisfied when I reach the end.
Then I find myself reaching for more books, and more, zipping through sometimes more than one book a day. I have been known to go on a reading binge, plowing my way through a stack, absorbing stories, characters, and writing styles...not even finishing them, casting them aside and reaching for another, and by day's end, I'm lying sprawled in a mass of books like a crazy drunken sod.
I've realized this leads to more dissatisfaction with the books--reading more and enjoying it less. Often this is not the writer's doing (ok and sometimes it is, just a fact of too many books, the publishing glut) --often it's my own fault. I'm reading too fast. I'm not getting what I need from the story, all the pith of it, the mental, emotional, spiritual nutrition of that book. It's like eating fast food or taking in empty calories--the more I eat, the more I want, because the body is still craving its nutritional needs, and wants more.
I find that if I slow down and really, truly give my attention and respect to what I'm reading, and allow myself the leisure to disappear into the realm of that story and those characters, the reading experience is a lot more satisfying. Yes, it does take me longer, and my TBR pile grows. But I am learning to trim out the chaff, and read what I really want to read, what I most need to read, and not just what's out there, what everyone's reading, what's on the bestseller lists. I still go through my binges--one has to keep up, and reading in a way becomes the bane of a writer--but I have learned that I have to slow down and savor a book. And often, when all conditions are right -- when I have the time, and the book and author's voice are the right fit for me at that moment -- those are the books I cherish, the ones I will never forget.
So, reading habits: I read nonfiction very fast, in a glut of book stacks and notetaking. I read the fiction I need to read pretty fast too, going on a romance or a mystery or a historical fiction bender...and I'm still way behind, because I'm not getting what I want with that approach. So many books, so little time, as someone once wisely said.
And I slow down my reading approach when the book is very good. I slow down...and allow myself to love that book.
How about you all? How fast or slowly do you plow through books, or do you have a different approach depending on the book, as I do? And do you finish every book you read?
~Susan Sarah