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A buddy in my reading group said I skim too fast to really get the emotion
He pointed out I missed the whole slow burn in 'A Little Life' because I kept flipping ahead. Now I force myself to sit with sad parts for like 10 minutes before turning the page. Has anyone else had to unlearn bad reading habits just to feel the impact?
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ryanh7713d ago
My buddy Mark used to speed read every thriller like he was racing a clock. He'd finish a book in two hours, then complain about flat characters. Last year I made him sit still with the last hundred pages of "The Art of Racing in the Rain" where the dog is dying. He fought me for like five minutes, then finally just sat there staring at the words. After maybe eight minutes he started tearing up, and he actually shut the book for a second to just breathe. Now he sets a timer on his phone for the heavy chapters, says it's the only way he can actually cry at books.
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emeryr3813d ago
Man that story hits close to home. I used to be the same way, flying through books like they owed me money, until my sister basically sat me down with "Flowers for Algernon" and told me to actually feel something for once. It's wild how we train ourselves to treat reading like a numbers game, like finishing fast somehow means we're winning. The timer thing sounds goofy but honestly it makes sense - sometimes you gotta force yourself to slow down or you'll just skip right past all the good parts. Good on your buddy for actually trying, most people would just double down and say the book wasn't that deep.
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