I’m a slow reader, and this gives me an inferiority complex. Matt reads faster than I do, and so does my dad; so do lots of other people, in fact. I just feel like I read too slow for someone of my intelligence.
I think there are two reasons I’m a relatively slow reader.
The first reason is that I’m overly interested in details. Even though I’ll just wind up forgetting the details of whatever I’m reading, my overly curious brain wants to pick them all up anyway.
The second reason is that I just plain enjoy reading and language. I like to savor the words, and sometimes even the ideas. I’ll be reading something, and it will spark a thought, and my mind will wander off into uncharted regions for a minute or two. And then I’ll realize I’ve been drifting and I’ll get back to the book.
I guess I’m torn between wanting to finish reading whatever book I happen to be reading so I can go on and read even more stuff, and wanting to just sit back and enjoy the act of reading itself.
The thing is, intelligence is so often associated with speed, so my relatively slow reading speed makes me feel dumb. I do sometimes have problems registering information — strangely, I’m usually better at picking up something complex through words on a page rather than having someone tell it to me — which makes me feel not just dumb, but socially undeveloped.
I have more thoughts on the use of text to convey information, which I’ll get to discussing at some point.
I have to second the comment left by Angelo. The majority of comprehension in reading relates to how one learned the connection between spoken and written skills. It has been theorized that those of us who have this detail-focus probably considered (brain-wise) reading/writing to be an extention of speaking/hearing rather than another alien skill to acquire. The speed/intelligence relationship, while widely held, is a completely moot point, as speed, even in linguistics, is more often associated with (verbal) dexterity.
My sister can read a book in a day. I read the same page four or five times if it’s particularly dense. Where’s the difference? Who knows. We both get the book read and emphasize unique aspects of it after the fact. Enjoy your love of details, as language is a beautiful thing.
When i was learning talmud i remember some prof telling us that (pre-536 BCE) that *all* written word was spoken when read. For example, enter a library pre536 BCE and you would hear each reader speaking each and every word they read from this or that tomb. Only much later in written history did humans learn to read silently.
Speed isn’t everything. Hearing, and pausing for context, is a lot more important.
.rob adams