Reading Experiment - Narrow Margins

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

...
Dang. That was long!

Wore me right out, but I do wish you'd made the margins bigger and the lines shorter.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Wore me right out, but I do wish you'd made the margins bigger and the lines shorter.

Ha!! Just adjust your preferences.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by underscore

Do you know some android application that reflow epub to a couple of columns?
I can't seem to do it with the apps installed in my onyx n96
(oreader, fbreader, onyx neo reader and neo reader v2.0)
I vaguely remember such an option on my old linux m92 but i could be wrong.

Both fbreader and coolreader3 do it...but in landscape.
I just checked and got it to work in Coolreader GL. Looks very narrow on a 16x10 screen, though.

[Apache]

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.

I had to go back and look at the author of this post to make sure I had not written it
Apache

[barryem]

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.

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

[barryem]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

For him, sure. That''s why I mentioned I wasn't looking to invalidate the discussion. Just offering an observance.

I don't feel invalidated.

You didn't say anything I don't agree with and if you had that would have been okay too. I made my first post not in the hope of getting converts but looking for opinions. All this is surprising me and I wanted to share my surprise.

Barry

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by barryem

I don't feel invalidated.

You didn't say anything I don't agree with and if you had that would have been okay too. I made my first post not in the hope of getting converts but looking for opinions. All this is surprising me and I wanted to share my surprise.

Barry

And I for one appreciate it!

[sun surfer]

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.

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.

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

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by sun surfer

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.

You assume a bit wrongly.
I'm a terribly slow reader in general (and getting slower all the time on average). Decent-sized works of fiction typically take me a month or more to complete. I take long breaks between short bursts of reading. Sometimes I burn through a book very quickly, but not very often any more.

I don't find it discouraging at all, though. Because I'm still enjoying every minute I'm reading (as long as the book interests me).

Perhaps the difference is that I have a very, very good memory? Long breaks between reading sessions, and even years between reading the previous installment of a series don't cause me to forget any details (and I'm a stickler for details).

But if reading more in a shorter amount of time makes someone happier, who am I to judge? It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me is all.

Originally Posted by sun surfer

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.

I've got nothing. Sorry. The length of the book and the time it takes me to read it (and certainly not the time it takes someone else to read it) has literally no bearing whatsoever on whether or not I will have "liked" the book. That might make me the weirdo, though. And I'm OK with that.

[Deskisamess]

So, like I said back on the first page of this thread, I started a new book, and make the margins fat on my Kobo Glo. For reading in bed, which I do without my glasses, with the screen 6-7 inches from my face, the narrow margins are great! I have much less eyeball travel, and I do believe it allows me to read somewhat faster.

That said, it is the reduced movement that I like. How quickly or how slowly I may read isn't of vital importance for me. I know if I read too fast, I miss details. For some fluff fiction, that's not a problem. When reading more complex books, it certainly is.

I certainly couldn't read a 400 page book written by George Will as quickly as I could read a 400 page book written by Emma Miller. (Not that she writes 400 page books) Her books are usually in the 240-280 page category, and I can read them in 3 hours.

There used to be users on the old Amazon forums who would get hung up in the xxx-minutes to end of book or chapter info that some Kindles show at the bottom of the screen. I never got that...I made changes in the software to shut that stuff off. All I really want to see is a percentage read for the book.

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

You assume a bit wrongly.
I'm a terribly slow reader in general (and getting slower all the time on average). Decent-sized works of fiction typically take me a month or more to complete. I take long breaks between short bursts of reading. Sometimes I burn through a book very quickly, but not very often any more.

I don't find it discouraging at all, though. Because I'm still enjoying every minute I'm reading (as long as the book interests me).

Perhaps the difference is that I have a very, very good memory? Long breaks between reading sessions, and even years between reading the previous installment of a series don't cause me to forget any details (and I'm a stickler for details).

But if reading more in a shorter amount of time makes someone happier, who am I to judge? It just doesn't make a lot of sense to me is all.

Ah, then we're actually quite similar in our reading speeds and memory. As your speed has become worse, so has my reading memory, but generally I've had a very good recall of books too to the point where in the past it was hard for me to ever fathom re-reads of anything because I remembered not only the general story but also many details too well. Sometimes (though much more rarely now) I can even recall a page itself with where the words were on the page when I read them and how they looked (font/size/etc.). Why bother re-reading when it takes me three times as long as others to re-read anything and gives me far fewer 'new' surprises/insights?

But anyway, we're discussing speed which is my big reading 'weakness'. What you don't mention in this reply is how long you spend reading per day and how many hours you put into a book. I also have ups and downs with time spent reading per day/week/month and for me it can depend greatly on work and other things in life. You did give me an idea which made me smile, though. When people mention how many books they read per year, around here it can often be 100+ which I'm not sure I'll ever make in a year even with audiobooks included, so I often see those numbers and think, 'wow, if only I could as well'. However, if we could all easily track time spent reading per year, I wonder if I might not finally be in the upper echelon for reading numbers.

Reading slowly doesn't discourage me, either. If anything it just makes me more determined, here and there when it comes to mind, to work on reading faster, so long as it's still enjoyable. I don't see anything wrong with that and in fact see a lot of good in it. I don't mean learning to speed read (as if, lol) so that someone could skim over books and say they 'read' them, rather just trying any tips that come along that may help me easily and enjoyably read at a faster pace.

I've got nothing. Sorry. The length of the book and the time it takes me to read it (and certainly not the time it takes someone else to read it) has literally no bearing whatsoever on whether or not I will have "liked" the book. That might make me the weirdo, though. And I'm OK with that.

I never said it determined whether I liked a book. I was trying to give an example that those who read fast might be able to imagine more easily and meant that when you know most others can read say three times as fast as you, it may make you wonder just why that is.

If it's something inherent that can't be changed, then okay, you will then need to just accept the fact. But if there are things that can be done to help you, then it's up to you whether you take advantage of those things. Some like you may rather not concern yourself with trying those things and instead simply enjoy the reading regardless. Others like me may rather try those things to see if they help. I don't find either approach hard to understand.

[barryem]

In my rarely humble opinion reading is a very personal sort of thing. We all read for our own reasons and we all have our own ways of reading and I think that's as it should be.

Lately I've been doing some experimenting, not because I'm trying to solve any problems but just because I find it interesting. I tried the wide margins and liked the results and posted about it, not so much as to get others to do it but because I thought it was interesting.

I also read for fun. I'm not in a hurry. I'm a fairly slow reader and I always have been and that's okay with me. However, this margin thing speeded me up and that's okay too. It's not very important for it's own sake but it's a positive thing. More important is that by getting through books faster I find myself both enjoying them more and losing track of earlier characters and events less. I'm not speed reading. I'm still reading at what seems my natural speed. It's just that that's increased.

I have no idea how much faster I'm reading. It seems like maybe 50% faster but that's only a pretty wild guess.

Anyway it's working for me. I plan to do it a while longer and then go back to narrow margins and compare. My guess is I'll end up leaving the margins wide but I won't decide that yet.

I think some of the discussion in here about whether this is a good thing or not is more appropriate for speed reading and that's a very different topic. This isn't that at all.

Barry

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by barryem

I have no idea how much faster I'm reading. It seems like maybe 50% faster but that's only a pretty wild guess.

That sounds like a good bit faster. I've been doing it a few days now and have no idea exactly how much faster I'm going yet and don't know if it will last but if I had to guess maybe somewhere between 30% and 50% faster, it seems like without even trying. Although, the idea inspired me to try a few other adjustments on my ereader at the same time too so I'm not sure how much of that is the margins alone, though I suspect it's mostly the margins because I can just tell when my eyes don't have to move side-to-side so much that somehow they are seeming more efficient while reading. I would say I wish I discovered this long ago but then I have to remember that before this decade I only ever read pbooks and it would've been just a little bit difficult to adjust margins on them, heh.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by barryem

Anyway it's working for me. I plan to do it a while longer and then go back to narrow margins and compare. My guess is I'll end up leaving the margins wide but I won't decide that yet.

My guess is that you'll gradually revert to your "normal" reading speed. And that when you go back to wide margins for comparison, you'll temporarily speed up again. Meaning that I think any change to what has become routine for you will result in a temporary increase in your ability to read faster, for longer periods of time. It's change itself, that's making the difference, I think.

I'll still be interested in the results, though.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

My guess is that you'll gradually revert to your "normal" reading speed. And that when you go back to wide margins for comparison, you'll temporarily speed up again. Meaning that I think any change to what has become routine for you will result in a temporary increase in your ability to read faster, for longer periods of time. It's change itself, that's making the difference, I think.

I hadn't considered that it might be the fact of change that's making the difference. I remember taking a psychology class in college where we discussed a famous experiment with, I think Western Electric where they tried making the lights brighter in their plants and sure enough production increased. So they made it still brighter and it increased again. This happened a few times and then someone got the idea of changing it back and sure enough production increased again. They theorized that the increase was due to the fact that employees felt that the company was trying to improve their working conditions.

Anyway I guess I have to consider that sort of effect here, but there's some reason to doubt that's the reason. I've read on my phone and that's where I first noticed the increase in speed so I was just trying to duplicate the same effect on the Kindle.

I'll play with all this and see if I figure out anything. Maybe i will. Maybe not. It's not important stuff but it is pretty interesting.

By the way I googled that Western Electric thing, having read about it in college maybe 50 years ago to make sure I remembered it right. Sure enough. Here's a link to the article on Wikipedia. It's called the Hawthorne Effect, which I hadn't remembered.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect

Barry