The Truth About Reading No One Talks About

Sometimes it seems as though reading is becoming a sort of competitive sport. It shouldn’t be.

Until last year I felt this pressure in reading as many books as possible. Since I moved abroad, it's more difficult for me to find books in a language that I can read, (books in english are very expensive and books in my language are simply unavailable) so I started to choose longer books and I stopped rushing my reading and I realized 1) how many beautiful books I had skipped because I was scared they were too long (they weren't, it just took 1 month instead of 1 week to read them) 2) how much more I take out from each book when I'm not rushing to go to the next book. Like, I read The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann. Took me three months. Totally worth it!

I’ve been trying to read through my pile of books faster. Interesting your video popped up in my feed. I really appreciate the points you made. Especially taking books with you everywhere you go and letting them get a little beat up. I’m always hesitant because I’m afraid it will make the books ugly but you made it seem kind of magical to establish a relationship with that specific book.

I accepted long ago that i’d never be able to read all the books i could possibly lay my hands on. Because of that i decided to only read books that completely and utterly excite me. Taking a cue from Ali Abdaal it’s either ‘no, thank you’ or ‘hell yeah!’. I try to stick to ‘hell yeah!’.

My two all time favorite pieces of reading advice are: "Reading should not be seen as a means to an end, but something you enjoy doing for its own sake" and "If you don't want to read a book, don't leave it sitting on your nightstand saying you're going to finish it "eventually" just move on to a book you actual want to read. This topic hits hard for me because I'm a writer, hoping to publish my first novel this fall, but I checked and I've read 9 novels in the last 5 years. I've also read some non-fiction and A LOT of comics, manga, and light novels, but then I'm surrounded by so many people on writer/bookstagram who read circles around me. Don't get me wrong, I like the friends I've made there and the people I follow, but I just feel like I'm always about to be outed as a fake reader. They read so many books, posts stacks of what they've read, and can easily answer questions about their favorite books. If someone asked me about my 5 favorite books I'd say, "Can "The Lord of the Rings" count as 3?" I've been trying to read more, but I usually end up DNFing after spending too long trying to "muscle" through it. I honestly don't know what the answer is here.

This reminds of something I'm doing myself this week. I have a 1300 word essay to write, not really psyched about it at first, so I only sit down and write a paragraph when I know how it should continue. I'm almost through and it feels like it's better than usual. It's not a very stressful assignment but still, taking my time has eliminated stress, made it better and more enjoyable than I though it would be and I don't even have to work hard, I just suddenly know how to continue so I do and then I stop for a while until i know how to continue again. in other words, I could have done it in an afternoon if I pushed myself, but this way makes it enjoyable, less stressful and better in probably the same amount of time in total

I don't think I've really experienced... any of these problems. Maybe part of the reason is because I'm just getting back into books this year, but I feel like I have the opposite problem, in some ways? I've always been a slow reader, as far as I can tell, and that's always been disappointing to me - but - I've never sought any advice on how to "read faster," I am well aware that I can and am conscious of the fact that trying would almost certainly take something away from the experience. So I don't bother. However when I was a kid I'm pretty sure I would read for hours. Now I get tired easily (like my brain can't handle the worldbuilding it has to do, lol) and while I will apparently read in relatively large chunks, sometimes, I'm more inclined to do it if there are clear stopping points for me to blow past, and not for longer than forty five minutes. Basically I like reading slow, and I don't care about reading as many books as possible either, but I kinda read like I'm watching a six hour movie divided into YouTube shorts at my leisure. And I'm not really sure I want to be the "Quibi" of readers either.

I have this issue with youtube. For every video I watch, I see 3 more I'd like to watch, and the tabs pile on like crazy. Some people play youtube at increased play speed to try to get through their list faster, but it never ends.

Interesting video, thank you for sharing!

Great video, thanks for sharing your thoughts

Suuuubscribed!

Nice premise, at least for me. I have already read slow, and I think about things in the book. I have friends though that are neurodivergent that can read a book and remember what they read. Since, I was in a project group with one at Uni, I could see that he really comprehended the book on scientific material and was able to write about the subject in the report. Maybe I am misunderstanding you in this video about the reading at your own pace, it is just these friends pace are way faster than I am. I have to read every the, a, and, of, etc. on every page. I also have to make sure I read every word, and not speed read it. Or I get gibberish like cereal in a cast of a metal object in an engineering text. Meaning my mind skips lines and makes words of letters lines that make somewhat sense. This is a form of dyslexia, that I have found out when I myself got my neurodiverse diagnosis. BTW, #duck

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