Quote:
Originally Posted by Freeshadow
Feel free to declare me arsehole of the day for that, but for me all of the above doesn't count as "reading" anymore.
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Inattention to a given passage or page would seem to be the fault of the person doing the reading. When a reviewer tells us they stopped
paying attention in the middle of a book, I consider that useful information -- not about the book itself but rather the credibility of the review.
Saying that one has stopped
caring about the book is another matter. One might have grown bored with the book in that case, but at least one's familiar with its contents.
I'm not blaming anyone for falling asleep in mid-paragraph or choosing to multitask. But whenever I find I've only advanced by allowing my eyes to scan the text mechanically, I return to the last line I remember clearly and start again. For me, reading the page I've scanned is even more important than finishing the book.
Another relevant question is how and why I'm reading.
If I'm only looking for selective bits (as in a vast reference tome), then I might well motor through the bits that have nothing to do with my interests. But in a work of fiction or collection of poetry, I'm inclined to read it all. If I don't, then I'll claim only to have read part of the book and not the whole thing -- even if I finish it in the mechanical sense.