[Marcus316]

The mechanical how people read at higher speeds might be an interesting topic.

What I often do when I am "reading" for knowledge can probably be simplified down to "I read fairly quickly", but there's no nuance in that statement to talk about what I'm doing when I'm reading and how I move so quickly.

I am often doing some combination of:

- scanning (moving quickly across sight-words, finding relevant points of entry into the subject matter)

- absorbing (slower process of gathering words surrounding the entry point to gain better local context)

- backtracking (taking local context and fixing it into a broader context)

- full-on processing (often this looks like deep reading, but it is more like deep thinking; I take in fewer words from the page, but connect them to concepts I already understand)

This is not a linear process, at least for myself.

This is different from when I read for pleasure. My pleasure reading can only really be described as "scanning" I think. Authors who craft their paragraphs so carefully would probably be horrified by how I enjoy their works of art, but I appreciate their works in my own way, and I find that this reading for pleasure is probably the fastest reading I do. I could easily consume a book of fiction in a day or two, and I always enjoy re-reading.

Another reading skills facet: my reading out loud is pretty clumsy (or it at least feels that way). I read often to my children, and it feels pretty slow and clunky. I enjoy doing it, but it's not the same type of "reading". Different skill, different goals. It's something I'm working on.

[jwdunne]

Re. the part about reading for pleasure: I do this too and used to think it was a bad habit. But, actually, after years of re-reading particular favourites multiple times, I uncover something knew that clicks more of the story into place. It’s a delightful experience that increases the re-readability of your favourite works :)