slow reading

Rand performing in the Ookla The Mok concert at OVFF.
Photo by Jim Leonard.


I used to be proud of how quickly I could read fiction books.

I didn't skim or use any of the fancy shortcuts you hear about in speed-reading courses. I actually did READ and enjoy the books, and still do read some types of mass market paperbacks that way (often referred to as "beach reads") when I'm looking for pure distraction and nothing else.

But I'm starting to changing my reading style for most other types of books, particularly ones with writing styles I especially enjoy. I'm purposely slowing down, savouring the shape and flow of the words, the imagery and character dialogue. I'm taking out books I've already read and enjoyed in the past and reading them more carefully.

In a way, it's like going food shopping. There are the "get in, get out" expeditions where I know exactly what I want, pay for it, spend as little time in the store as possible. But sometimes I also go to the grocery store or local market when I don't really have anything in particular I need to buy: I go for experience itself, enjoying the colours and scents, lingering over favourite aisles, luxuriating in choice.

I approach books the same way. There are certain types of books now that I could never read quickly. Ray Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, for example. I read that book much more differently as an adult than I did as a child; it means more to me, and I appreciate Bradbury's lyrical style much more now.

I'm also enjoying poetry, something I never did when I was younger. Except for one poetry collection I read in school (I Am A Sensation), I never found poems appealing at all. Started actively disliking poetry when we studied William Carlos Williams's The Red Wheelbarrow; we analyzed and rehashed and dissected these eight lines until I felt like jumping up and screaming "IT'S JUST A STUPID WHEELBARROW, FOR PETE'S SAKE!!"

Ok, so I don't hate it quite so much now. I did experience that sort of thing quite a bit in school, by the way: enjoying something the first time I came across it but ending up loathing it by the time we were finished cutting apart and examining its entrails for the millionth time. But I'll save that rant for another Blathering.

I thank my friend Rand for getting me to enjoy poetry again. And in German, too! :-) Rand gave me his copy of Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by Robert Bly) a while back, by the way, which includes an English and German translation of every poem. Bly somehow manages to translate the poems so that the line lengths end up being pretty similar to the original...something of a feat considering the German language, I'd think.

Anyway, a poll for all of you.

Are you a "slow reader" or "fast reader" or both?
Do you enjoy poetry?

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