>tfw I bought so many books but I'm a slow reader

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I became an avid reader like three months ago and I can't stop. I stopped watching tv and I don't spend much time on 4chan anymore.

Here's how I did it.

-Remember the average person reads like zero books a year. If you read 5 pages a day, you are 5 pages above the average person

-Don't force yourself to read. Commit to read 5 pages a day. I swear after three days you'll feel like reading more and after a month or so you should be reading 50-100 pages a day for pleasure

-Read various books at the same time. When I grab a difficult book or one that makes me sleepy I grab another and switch. This should refresh your head. Keep them thematically different. I read economics and fiction.

-It isn't a race. Reading slowly won't make you sleepy that fast. Try to acknowledge what books are for you to read fast and which aren't.

-Buy the physical copies. When you get the books from your own money you'll feel the need to read them to avoid the feel of wasting your money.

-Start with books highly discussed here so you feel motivated to discuss.

>>8625060
thanks dude

What determines reading speed, /lit/? Is it to do with how much reading you did as a child? I'm not super-fast by any means, but I find it hard to imagine what reading slowly is like.

I think people who claim to be super fast readers are full of shit. When I try to really pick up pace and read something fast, I miss what a sentence is saying. Words aren't a screen, you're hit with a lot of different personal interpretations and meanings of every sentence you read, and you have to construct their meaning before you can have a sense of what it means. If you just zoom through it you're not going to understand what it means. Hell, I can't even read a single paragraph without having to stop a few times and really try to figure out what is being said, if it's a more challenging work of literature. Like right now I'm reading Knut Hamsun's Hunger. Slow, challenging, I take my time on it so I don't miss things.

And I couldn't imagine reading so fast, and getting the full feeling of a book. Sometimes when I'm reading a book I put a book down when a part becomes really emotionally intense and I just look at the ceiling or wall exasperated by what I just read.

I think this obsession with reading fast is nothing more than a byproduct of mortality and the sickening fact that people feel they're being pushed against the clock to simply enjoy their life before they die. Well I take a vow in my life to pursue meaningful things like reading, but say fuck you to mortality, and if I die somewhere in the middle of the 160 year old time schedule of a life I'm living, then so fucking what.

>>8625060
>-Don't force yourself to read. Commit to read 5 pages a day. I swear after three days you'll feel like reading more and after a month or so you should be reading 50-100 pages a day for pleasure

This is so much true. Back a year or two I had a period of the day I had NOTHING to do and I always had a book with me, I would read like 5~10 pages and then I will almost hit the table with my head due to almost falling asleep. Days passed and in little time I was reading 100 pages (around 3 hours) straight and with pretty good focus and attention, without forcing myself and I was very surprised and feeling great. I'm not saying 100 pages in 3 hours is super fast, or that you should read fast, just saying that you CAN read a alot and with quality.

may i suggest instead of buying, going to the library? you get one book, read it and when you return it you get a new one. it's a good system to avoid a backlog pile because sometimes you have a pile and then you really get the urge to read something else so you get that book instead and the pile is still the same.

>>8625127
100 pages in 3 hours straight is ridiculously fast.

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>>8625148
Ya, it was a bit slower but I was reading Hamilton's Mythology and this edition of mine the pages are fairly small
>pic related

>>8625148
... That's fast? I feel like I read much faster than that, but maybe it just feels that way and i have no clue. I feel I read slow

>>8625211
Time it. The results will most likely surprise you.

>>8625112

It depends what you're reading and how familiar you are with it.

For fiction I read at a leisurely pace as it's for entertainment and escapism. Conversely, if I'm reading academic studies for research then I tend to skim through to find relevant information. It's unrealistic to read an entire paper for one or two sections of reference.

People can read quickly, though as you've mentioned reading quickly risks not understanding the text correctly.

Kafka looks disturbed there, but why would you feel that as well?

You bought many books. You are a slow reader.

So ok, anon. Slow read through that many books, take your time. You have many books to read now, is that not a good thing?

>>8625148
is it? I thought 50/hour was pretty good/above average

>>8625095
I had to read really fast when I was in elementary school because I could only read while I was on the train (TV, brothers and sisters at home, etc) so I only had 2 hours a day.

When I got into high school, I started reading a book a day because I wanted to read as many book from the library as I could.

I thought I was a slow reader but I never really compared with anyone. From what I'm seeing in this thread I'm fairly fast.

I can read 100-120 pages when reading an average book.

When it's something I really really like and I get in the ''flow'', it goes down to about 80 pages an hour.

I guess the fact that reading a book a day for 5 years helped me to read fast. I know you can train yourself to read 2 lines at a time but I'm too lazy to learn it.

>>8625148
Is this a meme? I read 60/hour if it's something comfy and I think it's not that fast.

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>tfw you read about 30/h

reading fast takes out all the pleasure and comfyness of reading a book

>>8626132
>>8625254
What books do you fucking read? I've read books like the stranger or the metamorphosis in a day, but it took me weeks to get 250 pages into moby dick, and I put real time into it.

A page is not a unit of word count.

>>8626406
Yes it is

>>8625049
pushing yourself to read fast ruins the experience. it's like listening to an album at 2x speed to get through it faster: you're going to miss a lot and it probably won't be fun

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I just try to read two short novels during the week and one fat one in the weekend.

>>8625060
Good old pasta.

>>8626393
not that anon, but it took me ~2 weeks to finish Moby Dick. It was great. Brothers K? 2 weeks too.

I have such bad adhd i literally only read 1 word an hour. I'm halfway through the cat in the hat after a year

>>8626406
Fucking this.

I'm at page 170 of a book I started reading 2-3 days ago, but I know that if it had the same typesetting as some of my other books, I'd only be about 70ish pages in, maybe even less.

Margins, font, font size, and line spacing can drastically affect the number of characters per page.

>>8626346
Agree with this, too.

>>8625148
Counting pages/time is retarded. Print size and format changes things drastically. See the Maradonia Saga.

Word count/time is a far more reliable metric.

>>8625049
Just slow down and absorb. Most good fiction books have a rhythm to the prose and other literary techniques that make reading the book enjoyable. If you read fast, you essentially turn your reading into a CiffsNotes session.

Reading non-fiction is a bit harder; it mostly has to do with following the author's train of thought and being familiar with the references and subjects in the first place. While reading history, for example, certain events (the Enlightenment, for example) will be referenced in books about any time period just as a comparison. Simply put, the more you read, the more you will understand what to remember and what to forget.

Don't worry about speed. The only time I read fast is when I'm thinking about dropping the book or I'm extremely familiar with the content.

>>8626838
I forgot to add: it does matter how fast you read. Novice readers get bogged down by words they don't know and by deconstructing sentences. This is basically the opposite problem of reading too fast and kills comprehension and retention just as much.

Just read at as good of a clip as you can while keeping the author's point in view. Hit words with a highlighter, even, if there are too many you don't know. The point is, you should never be scanning (unless you have to read the book for school or are thinking of dropping it, etc.) and you should slow down if you are trying to enjoy the book or building an understanding of a subject.

>>8626346
There's a difference between reading fast and reading at your own pace.

Some people read faster than others.

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>>8625049
>tfw slow reader feeling incredibly plebian conversing with literary people about good books they read and I didn't and want to but the backlog is infinite and I read 10 pages an hour

>>8626926
>Novice readers get bogged down by words they don't know
This is me reading A Song of Ice and Fire. I read 4 pages, then glance at the time to find that 15 minutes has passed. Right now I'm in the second book and my pace is getting faster. I still have to pause and search the definitions of certain words which is also a neat experience because learning new words is always helpful.

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>>8625049
>used to buy books i wanted only when the backlog wasn´t too big
>now they are only available used for exorbitantly high prices

>>8625223
this

>>8626393
lmao

>>8626393
I did like 80 when I still read retarded fantasy trash, 50-60 for literary fiction and for philosophy it depends, it can be like 10/hour.

>>8629522
And I also subvocalize but I'm fine with that.

>>8626393
Started Moby Dick today and already 100 pages in

>>8629538
wow so well read so edgy so cool what a prodigy wow jealous my dude :^)