Hello and Happy World Book Day!Do you like reading Books? If yes, are you a speed reader or do you prefer to read Slow?
While we all want to read more and more books and there are Productivity Gurus who teach us techniques to finish reading books in Hours, is it really the way we want to be ‘reading’ them?We are the generation used to reading short bursts of words on Twitter more than long texts. Our hyperactive online habits are affecting our abilities to process and understand longer texts.Well depending on the material that we are reading, we may want to change the rate of reading. Speed reading is good when we want to skim through things that we do not want to remember. But when we read for Knowledge, slow learning is the way to go.There are several reasons why I like reading SlowlyEmotional:
The first, and in my case the most important, factor is that I do not want the book to end. I do not want to come out of the Beautiful world that the writer has created. When we love the characters truely, we do not want them to leave. Plus, I fear that after this, ‘There will be no more of these’. (Precisely also the reason behind my general Kanjusai😂.)
Moral:
The work that I am reading is a result of Months or Years of work by some Author. And as a reader, I feel it is my responsibility to atleast respect that Narrative.
Aspirational:As a literature lover and a wannabe writer, I understand that it is not just the creativity of the writer but the Creativity of the Reader which a book provokes, that is precious.You read a book, comprehend it, relate it to your life and that is where new creation begins.Once an old English professor, who is also a writer and has a huge library of books in his house, showed me how he not just reads books but also writes his comments about the passage on the sides of the pages.
Also I underline my books and an Underline may be due to:
- Beautiful Language
- Unique Description and Comparison
- Was moving and touched me
- A message that is worth remembering
- Was a new word and I had to google its meaning
- Is information that can be useful to me
- Is a witty Joke and I would like to use it one day😄
And I can do this only when I read at Peace and think about it. (That’s why I like e-books more, especially those that provide Multicolour Highlighting facility)The Slower, the DeeperOk, when we read a Non-Fiction book, we want whatever we learnt to reflect in our Behaviour. For that to happen, it has to Sink-in deep.It is similar to Breathing. Deep breathing is slower. This also affects the Peace in your mind. When you are anxious, your breath becomes fast and shallow, doesn’t it?The Velocity of the Ocean also decreases the Deeper it is.
Scientific:Reading is a Complex process. We just can’t vaccum things from pages into our brains.When we are reading to learn, we need to engage with the content and integrate the new concept with our existing knowledge. It is like linking one webpage to a website on the Worldwide web so that we can retrieve it when we want. If we do not link it, how can we retrieve it? For that we have to read slowly to support knowledge acquisition as we read.Language Comprehension lies at the core of reading. Regression and Subvocalization aid in that. But both are denied by Speed Reading Trainers.
We glance back at the words that we just read. This is regression. Subvocalization is natural process of imagining the sound of the word as we read it. Eliminating it is not possible and even if we could, it would just make reading more difficult.Thus in today’s era where we have so much to read, all we need is to learn the Balance. Depending on what’s important and what’s not, let’s read with more Consciousness.If this interested you, I have one more blog about Slow Eating which also ultimately tells about Slow Living. You might also want to check that out. The link to it is:
https://diniwriteup.home.blog/2019/06/20/eat-slow-and-focus-on-food/
Ok. That was enough Bhashan on reading. I hope I didn’t bore you much! Do tell me what you feel about this article! Share it if you like! Keep Reading and Have a Good Day!😊
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