barryem, I just wanted to say thanks so much for this thread. I am a slow reader compared to most around here and never even thought about adjusting margins. It worked! I seem to be reading faster without even trying with narrower margins.
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Originally Posted by DiapDealer
I just desire to BE reading. I don't care how fast or slow I consume. Too many different factors (mood, time of day, alertness, external stimuli, interest, writing style) contribute to my reading rate at any given moment to attribute all that much extra weight to margins, or characters per line, or line-height, or screen technology and such.
I gave up focusing on how well, or how fast, or for how long of a stretch I read. When I want to read for a long period of time, I read for a long period of time—regardless of typographic minutiae or screen technology. When I don't feel as motivated to do so, then I read in shorter spurts. I've always been fickle in this regard. Even when paper books were my only choice.
I like to read. Analyzing how (or how well/fast) I read?? Not so much. Reading is the goal for me, not finishing. *shrug*
NOTE: post not intended to diminish the topic, nor to seek to belittle/end the discussion. By all means, carry on. Just my opinion.  |
Understood, but now I'll give mine.
I think your mindset is perhaps the mindset of most, especially around here with so many heavy readers, because you read *fast enough*. No set speed really, just still fast enough for your own enjoyment even if it has changed and become harder.
There are those of us who read slowly. It is still enjoyable but the disparity between my reading speed and others is noticeable, especially after years socialising with heavy readers on this site. Think of it this way. Imagine a 300 page book you enjoy reading. Now imagine it being 300 pages for most people to read, but 900 pages for you. Or, if it's a 900 page book then it's 900 pages for others and 2700 pages for you. Alternately, imagine what most others get through in one hour of reading it taking you three hours. Yes, it's still enjoyable to read anyway but certainly makes one wonder why one is reading slower and if one can improve one's speed, especially in my case when there are so many books out there I'd like to read and I often see others getting through books so much more quickly than me. So, that's my defence to the 'why' of why people including me might want to focus on improving reading speed.
I do realise I'm in the minority though, around here and elsewhere. Here, I'm in the minority because I read less than others because of my reading speed (or if I am reading closer to the same amount as others then I'm probably spending much more time at it than them and spending more time at it than others might realise). Elsewhere, I'm in the minority because I read much more than others because I like to read regardless of speed and so spend a good chunk of my leisure time doing it unlike most.
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Originally Posted by barryem
I agree with you. I read because it's fun. This does smack of getting done with sex as quickly as possible. And I don't think this is a very important topic even though I was the OP.
I don't worry about things like getting through my books waiting to be read. That list grows faster than I read anyway. If I ever actually do finish all those books that'll be time to panic. 
Still, part of me feels good about accomplishing more. Also at my age the longer it takes me to read a book the more I'm likely to forget the earlier events and characters as I read. So getting through it quickly does seem to increase my enjoyment a little.
I finished my current book this morning. It was a fairly short fast read anyway. I began it Wednesday morning and finished it this morning. That's three days. It was more of a single thing; a more coherent experience because of that. Nothing had time to get lost.
My previous book, a long and dense book, took about 10 days to get half way and then about 4 or 5 days to finish. I can really see the difference in my understanding of the second half. I enjoyed it more.
Two books do not a test result make so I'll keep trying this to decide over a longer period. The thing is I'm not trying to read faster. I'm just doing it. I'm not sure how much faster but it seems like close to twice as fast. I'm not at all sure of that and I have no plan to really test it. I'll be guided by my reading enjoyment more than anything else.
Part of the equation here is that there's no cost and no effort and no learning curve. I'm not doing anything different; my Kindle is.
Barry |
