Response to Book Riot on Learning to Read Slowly

In early May, Book Riot contributor Laura Sackton wrote a great article on learning to read slowly. It’s long been a goal of mine to read more thoughtfully. I’m not sure I’ve said this explicitly, but I’ve assumed that will require reading more slowly. I’ve tried some similar approaches to those that Laura mentions. This article also made me think about why I struggle to slow myself down from my natural reading pace, which was a helpful exercise.

The main strategy Laura mentions trying is starting to write responses to each essay in a collection. She quickly finds that while this does make her think more about each essay, it also makes reading feel like work. She starts to put if off. I had the exact same experience when I tried to employ the reading techniques from the Harry Potter and the Sacred Text podcast to each chapter of Liane Moriarty’s The Husband’s Secret. It did make me think more about each chapter. It also made me feel like I could only read when I had the energy to put a lot of work into it. My reading dragged and I tended to pick up other books. As Laura summed it up, “This has been amazing, and also it hasn’t exactly worked.”

Although Laura doesn’t share why she struggles to read slowly, she mentions getting to know herself better through this project. That made me pause and think about why I struggle so much to read slowly. I’m pretty sure it’s because I’m such a goal-directed person, even in my leisure time! When playing computer games, I love to go after achievements. When I’m reading something, I feel good about myself when I finish it. I just accomplished something! This can also lead to me reading news articles instead of my book, since I can finish these much more quickly.

Having this realization helped me understand why writing better reviews has made it easier for me to slow my reading down. My goal isn’t to finish any more – it’s to write a good review. I may be reading less lately and therefore getting through books more slowly. Paradoxically, I can avoid feeling bad about that by also reading more slowly, then engaging with reviews and podcasts about a book before writing my own review. This slows down my read/review process even more. But it also gives me a goal that better aligns with what the thoughtful way I want to experience a book. Hopefully I can use this understanding to make it even more pleasant to spend the time I want thinking about each book.

Do you wish you could read more quickly or more slowly? What do you think is keeping you from doing so?

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