Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Take It As Read

How fast do you read? Could you read a book in a day? Could you really take it all in?

I know there are people who can do this. Surely they must be speed-reading, getting an overall impression, not giving themselves time to get truly involved. Where's the pleasure in that? Books are there to be read at your leisure. It's not a race.

Since joining Twitter I've learned to speed-read tweets. Something like this...

whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares? lol. whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares? lol. whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares? lol. whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?whocares?

I'm joking. I don't lol that often. And I do care.

When it comes to blog posts I quickly scan the whole post then decide if the subject matter is of interest to me. If it's not I move onto the next blog on Google Reader. I read the ones I'm interested in at my leisure.

Move along, now. Nothing to see here.

14 comments:

  1. One of my Mum's pals was outed for skimming. She doesn't read books she just skims.

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  2. I've read a book in a day... but I mean I literally spent the whole day reading. I took it all in.
    Don't read books so fast these days.. I wonder why?
    Sx

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  3. I'm sorry, did you say something?

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  4. I fall face first asleep on top of the book and hope that I'll absorb the information through osmosis.

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  5. Last night I was watching some film I’d recorded on the hard disk.
    It was a bit boring so I kept fast forwarding to get to something essential to the plot. Then I decided if I was doing that I might as well not bother.
    So I didn’t.
    In really good films you want to savour every eyelid flutter and languid stroll down the shore.

    It’s the same with books .... And blogs.

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  6. Emerson - Skimming's a sin.

    Scarlet - There's not enough hours in the day for me to read a whole book. I couldn't just read all day anyway. I need visual variety.

    Rol - Not a lot.

    MJ - I read Proust in the original French that way.

    Kaz - Eyelid flutter and languid stroll down the shore? I like Brighton Rock, too. If someone's taken their time to write something and you're on the same wavelength, you should take your time to read it. I'm savouring George Melly, so to speak.

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  7. The last book I read right through was Dan Brown. There you are...it's out in the public domain. I don't care.

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  8. Like Rog I can only read Dan Brown books because 3 page chapters is about as long as I can focus..OOH LOOK SOMETHING SHINY!

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  9. Rog - The only thing I know about Dan Brown is that he is known as "the author's author". Anybody rated by Jeffrey Archer is alright by me.

    Donn - I like big type.

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  10. I've read three books in the past three days (all middlebrow fairly easyreading stuff). Although to be fair I don't have a job.

    And I've not read the papers or listened to the news - so for all I know half the planet has been wiped out by armageddon.

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  11. We're all dead from swine flu. And you've got your nose in a book!

    I did read the Vic Reeves autobiography in just over a day. But it was piss easy reading and I was off from work.

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  12. You mean you 'read' tweets?

    I thought one just injected.

    Personally I think a cull of all tweeters is in order.

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  13. I gave up on Twitter today..
    it just never "took".

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  14. Laura - Some of us are alright.

    Moot - It's your wordy rappinghood.

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