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How do you guys read books? I need advice

E

ehitskit00

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Hi. I just registered on this forum which is a great find for me. Well I seem to have a big problem when it comes to reading. I take months to finish a single book. As people complete more than five books in a two months, Im still reading my first one. I guess you can say I read slowly, but I do so because Im constantly looking up definitions in a dictionary for unfamiliar words, understanding every sentence or point of the paragraph before moving on, I regress over sentences and paragraphs before moving on to the next chapter, making word lists. Ive developed an OCD about all this now, and can not stop doing it. I feel as though I must get everything before moving on form the words to the meaning as to why it was put there and so on. For about ten pages of reading, this will take me an hour or more to finish. I dont know what to do really. I love books and reading, but I feel like at this rate Im not going to be reading most of the books that I wish. I read non fiction, literature, philosophy, science and so on. Any tips, advice, you guys can give me about this. How do you guys do your reading, how do you complete books so fast, are you obsessed about understanding everything. I feel like Im moving very slow. I dont think this is normal. I look up unfamiliar words constantly that are descriptive and so on. To put things in perspective... for a 500 page books it takes me months to complete. How about for you guys? Do you guys read a chapter a day or what is the strategy?
 
again, I want to say that these books are not Dan Brown or Michael Crichton... but books with substance and meaning... I suppose such as Cervantes, Borges, and philosophy, science, history. Should I not bother with understanding everything, looking constantly for substance, and so on... because I am basically not reading as much as I wish, or even not bother with vocabulary?
 
I read whenever I can. I'll probably read a good thirty to fifty pages before I go to bed tonight. To me, it is worth staying up a little later.

I rarely look up words I come across. I you can often determine what a word means by looking at the context in which it is used. It is an important skill to have. If you are reading things that are so difficult that you are constantly looking things up, you aren't reading at your level. Try something a little easier to work you into it. Also, try these exercises to help with using context:

http://www.english-zone.com/vocab/vic01.html
http://www.english-zone.com/vocab/vic02.html


Otherwise, you might just be a slow reader. Keep at it and you'll get better and faster.
 
ehitskit00 said:
again, I want to say that these books are not Dan Brown or Michael Crichton... but books with substance and meaning... I suppose such as Cervantes, Borges, and philosophy, science, history. Should I not bother with understanding everything, looking constantly for substance, and so on... because I am basically not reading as much as I wish, or even not bother with vocabulary?
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Ah, I've just seen this. Perhaps you need to step down a bit until you are reading at a more appropriate level for you. There are a lot of steps between Dan Brown and Cervantes. Choose something in the middle until you feel a bit more comfortable and then move up slowly.
 
hey mehastings. About looking up words though... the English language is very subtle and nuanced. There is a reason ( I believe) why a certain word is used as opposed to the other of the same connotation (Such as its tone). And many words can be guessed wrong the meaning. But I will try what you say
 
ehitskit00 said:
hey mehastings. About looking up words though... the English language is very subtle and nuanced. There is a reason ( I believe) why a certain word is used as opposed to the other of the same connotation (Such as its tone). And many words can be guessed wrong the meaning. But I will try what you say
Click to expand...

Hmm. I don't know that I completely agree, especially in matters of translation (which, for example, is what you are getting with Cervantes). I find that word choice has as much to do with contemporary language use and occasionally pretentiousness (ahem...Dan Brown) as it does with setting the tone. Either way, I'd suggest trying that and stepping down to some slightly easier works, preferably not translations, to help move your problem along. Others will undoubtedly have other suggestions for you as well.
 
I usually try to stay away from things that might slow down my reading and concentrate on other things. While I do use the back of the book when there are explanations that are provided, I don't actively seek out using secondary source material when reading (dictionaries, etc.). I do use Sparknotes from time to time when I can't seem to understand what is going on and need some explanation.

I also do the alphabet game while reading and when I start a new chapter, I start the game again, hoping to find the letters in the order that they appear in the alphabet.
 
I still look up words in dictionaries when I'm unfamiliar. Only this week I found catamite in Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

Regarding time to read the book. Don Quixote is a long, long book. Just bear with it. Its prose is more dense than a genre thriller so it stands to reason it will take longer to read. I managed to polish off the three hundred pages of Rabih Alameddine's I, The Divine in two days. If speed were based on the number of pages then, by that logic, I should have finished John Irving's A Prayer For Owen Meany in four days. In fact it took me four weeks. The prose was just so much more.

So don't worry about how long it takes to read a book or how you are reading. As long as you are getting the most out of the book then stick with it. If you're not, move on to the next.
 
If you're truely having to look up a lot of words then I'd go with mehastings suggestion and try books that are a bit less dense. I don't think that there's much point in forcing yourself to struggle through a book that you don't understand because then there is less chance of you picking that book back up again once you have developed the reading level needed to tackle that particular book - there's no enjoyment to reading when you're constantly struggling (well, for me at least).
You could also try reading the books twice. In the first reading just try and let the words flow over you (I think that expression comes from Ell :D), rather than trying to analyse and understand everything. You'll be able to understand a whole lot more in the second reading, without having to look elsewhere for clarification.
 
I don't understand why you read in this manner. Where is the enjoyment?

It depends what you are trying to get out of reading. If you are just trying to read a good story, what's the point in analysing every single word for its connotation?! That level of analysis is pointless, because although writers do often choose certain diction for a reason, why don't purposely pick out every single word to convey further meaning. Novelists are not poets!

Stop reading the way you do. In the long run you would learn a lot more, and have a lot more variety of knowledge and culture in your head if you just read books straight. You will read things faster, and thus have more material under your belt. Of course, I'm not saying it's quantity over quality, but it really is unnecessary to read the way you do. It's absolutely fine with poetry, but not prose writing.

As for not understanding words, you can easily determine what they mean in any given context, if not, do you REALLY need to know? Is it really important for the plot, or for understanding the story? I doubt a few select words that are too difficult to understand even with the context can critically affect your understanding of what you are reading.

The best way to get into a book, and thus read it quickly (you read things very quickly when you are emotionally attached to what you are reading) is just to set aside two hours to straight reading to give you a chance into getting into the story. This almost always works (unless it's a poor book, of course). If you keep stopping yourself and analysing everything, you won't get into a story, and you will actually go away with a lot less understanding with what you just read if you read this way, rather than reading it straight.
 
I find that I read much faster if I listen to the audio version. I load the book onto my MP3 player, and then I can "read" when I'm running errands, waiting for the bus, doing housework... in general, I can multi-task by reading during mindless activities when I otherwise wouldn't be able to hold a book.
 
From what i can tell of what you're saying, you're reading serious books, and not things like Dan Brown, therefore to really understand them you need time. Unless I'm reading a book that is most plot, which I sometimes do, I take time to think about it and even analyze it-it took me ages to read paradise lost because I took notes-so I think that it's fine that yous pend a lot of time making sure you understand a book. You get more out of it. It's not about speed, it's about the content. What I would suggest is finding more time to read. Since you have to look up definitions, etc...you probably do a lot of reading only at home. Try getting a compact dictionary to carry with you, and read books not just sitting around at home for an hour per day, but whenever you can. I read at restaraunts while waiting for food, waiting for the bus, etc...You can read slowly in all of those places as well. Also, as some people have mentioned, reading serious book after serious book can be a bit taxing-try a bit of light reading now and then, books where you can discover meanings of words from the context and just read for enjoyment.

Hope that helped! :)
 
It seems you always want to get the most out of the book, which is understandable, but you might change the attitude from one book to another.

I guess it all comes to what kind of reading it is, how much you want to be picky, and for what reason.
For example, if I'm reading a novel, I might cover 20-40 pages in one go (around 1 hour) but if I'm reading a philosophy book, I would cover 10 pages in one hour since it's takes time to digest plus I want to grasp the full idea.

In the end, read according to the way you enjoy it, since you're reading for pleasure - I guess.
 
First, you are way too hard on yourself. It could be that you just aren't into a given book. It's hard to compelte a book that you aren't into. There is nothing wrong with tossinga book that you've just started if you can't bear it. Why would anyone torture themselves through some monotonous work such as anything Saul Bellow would write?;) Second, quit comparing yourself to others. I have read a ton of books the last couple of months, but of course, I've had the time off. I only have three books under my belt this month as school has started back up and I have more than a few things on my plate at the moment. Reading isn't like a race that you had in the second grade class. If someone reads sixteen books a month, good for them, I hope they get their bucky-beaver badge. As for me, I'll continue to read what I like and go from there. Lastly, post around on the forum. There are some great folks who may be reading the same book as you. If not, it will be interesting to see who responds.
 
Ive really enjoyed reading the last few replies. They have been great. The book I read are things like Milton, Dante, to novels like Joyce, and works of Shakespeare. For me comprehension IS an obsession. Everytime I try ignoring a incomprehensible sentence, or an obscure allusion I find that yes I can move on and read more. But theres a sense where the people I am reading, have chosen to use a specific sentence or word as opposed to another. Anyway, Im going to take some time to think about how I will approach books. I dont want to say anymore really, because I am going to be told to not be so hard on myself and so on.... but it is a OCD basically. I appreciate all your help.
 
altho i dont read the same kind of books as you, i am an ocd sufferer and it affects my reading greatly - my problems do have to do with comprehension too, also with the printed word - which doesnt offer me anything really, constantly checking to see whether there are no mistakes on the page etc - as with all ocd related issues, control is ur key word here - u must realise that whatever u do, u will never have total control on the book ur reading - there will always be more that u might get from a certain phrase or paragraph - that way u could spend ur whole life reading the same book over and over again and nothing else - when u manage to get to terms with this, let me know coz i havent had any success battling this:p i used to read a book per day to the point where my parents begged me to slow down coz they couldnt afford 30 books a month - they got their wish alright, a little bit too late :p :(
 
Maybe you could learn to speedread so that you can do one quick read-through of a book, then another more thorough reading. You may find that the second time through makes more sense as you have the entire book already in your head, so can put things into context.

I've been interested in speed reading software recently. I'm trying out trial versions. At the moment I'm using a trial of AceReader, which seems quite good. There are many others you can download for a limited trial period. This may help to break your bad reading habits.

Tony Buzan writes some good books on the subject.
 
I am a speedreader...so much so that I make myself slow down, or I just won't get the book at all! As for reading itself, reading is a great way to learn, but don't forget the enjoyment! That is the best, most mysterious part of reading- just a real good story as I like to put it. I've always looked at libraries, any libraries, this way: Libraries are portals to other worlds. You walk in, and reach out to any portal, any book...just touch it, and you vanish. Gone. You feel the wind in your face as you race into that world.
Books are not worth reading if you must needs look up lots of words! Of course sometimes it is necessary, but not all the time or you just won't get anywhere. Surely there are other non-fiction books that are better written, that you won't have to look up the words. Just my opinion anyways. If the book is really like a law book, then just find another book on that topic; there are lots to choose from! :D Find one that you can understand better. As for my method of reading, well...I don't know if I have a method. It is very easy for me to simply grasp what a certain word means by the context it is written in. If there is a particular word that is bothering me because I don't understand the meaning I'll look it up if I'm not too lazy. :p Now I've learned and I keep a small dictionary by my chair. :D
 
thanks for all the replies again. To kezla, I really sympathize with you as well. I use to read a lot books in a month, and then the whole speedreading phenomonon I tried out as well. THEN, I began to never bother with commenteries on subjects, or notes on the books because I felt as though Im suppose to have my own interpretation of this book and not what someone else thought about the book. Again this all relates to the more difficult books. About my OCD, I seem to be thinking as though that if I wish to look up all words in order to understand the precise meaning of the sentence, Shakespeare for instance... I will not reallyget around to reading more. And also, it seems as though one can either dedicate their life to just learning words or just being content with good amount of them. I mean when I look at the unabridged dictionary of Oxford... that should remind me that if I want to know all these words I willl not get around to reading anything else
 
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