I Need to Slow Read

Image: Steven Errico/Corbis

Being a non reader of books (you know…the old paper ones) I joined a local library book club with the express purpose of forcing myself to front up every month and face public humiliation if I hadn’t read the ‘book of the month’. It was hard…really.. really hard.

And it still is! I mean why am I here blogging instead of reading ‘the Running Man” by Michael Gerard Bauer? The first month of ‘book club’ I got a third of the way through the chosen book( a weird murder mystery about sheep detectives-get my drift?), the second month’s book was good but I only read a few chapters. I secretly returned the book and slipped out before book club meeting started. What a coward !! I have but one week to finish ‘the Running Man’ and man will I be running to finish it!

I've just been reading Sarah Wilson's Sunday Life blog on the pleasures of slow reading. The trouble is that part of our brain just loves digital technology…..all that fast reading, browsing, scanning, linking, blogging and twittering. Traveling the information superhighway is like speeding along a ‘real’ motorway with no speed restrictions, sometimes taking the exit to another motorway and then another and so on without even having to slow down except to grab some fast food.Then it’s back on the motorway.

Image ownership being sought

The trap is this: We all know that If you went on a holiday to Britain for example without leaving a motorway except to take a link to other motorways and read about the towns fleeting by in your glovebox copy of Frommer’s ‘Quick Guide to Britain’, you will never experience the ‘real’ Britain, the villages, the quaint pubs, the stately homes, the people. 

Now with high speed broadband (and better motorway coverage!) we can get you there even quicker….but get you where?…. Yes, if you’re on a business trip or need to get somewhere quickly fast broadband and motorways are both great inventions. But to really live our life we need to take that exit to the little village with the teahouse occasionally…. and even get out of the car and take a stroll to the riverbank and put our feet in the water. Now there’s a nice thought! Readability is a wonderful tool for focusing on what you are reading online



I just get tired of reading after 15 minutes and doze off or lose concentration.

Reading….I mean REAL concentrated reading is a big effort for us scanners.

But when I do manage to sit down and read a REAL PAPER BOOK the rest of the world stops for me. It becomes my ‘ feet in the water’ time …just like meditation….and that’s another story!

Andante