I wish I were smarter

[pasithea]

*sigh* I know this isn't an issue of being 'smart' but it often feels like it is and it's something that really bothers me.

I really REALLY wish I read faster. I read constantly. If you include the internet and looking at code, the vast majority of what I do in a day is reading.

But I read REALLY antagonistically slow. Most of my friends can zip through a short novel in 2 or 3 hours. For me it's more like 10-15. Even more frustrating is that most of those friends have much better retention of what they read than I do. Often I can't even remember the names of the characters after I'm done reading a story and I am left with only a vague outline of the plot.

Reading fast might not make one smart but retention surely counts for something and imagine how much smarter I could be if I could read at that speed. I can only imagine the joy of being able to burn through 5 books in the time it currently takes me to get through 1.

*sigh* So many books. So little time. How frustrating it is to be crippled in this particular way. I don't suppose anyone else has faced a similar problem and found some method for solution.

Comments

[holyjesusboner.livejournal.com]

Retention is a matter of manipulating your brain.
Some people don't need to, but otherwise you could pause every chapter (or halfway if it's a loonngg chapter) and think to yourself: "what did i just read? who are the characters? what are the facts? what is the author conveying?" or if you have to, write a summary per chapter once you've finished.

here's a tip to learn how to read faster: start using the closed captioning feature on your tv, ALWAY keep it on. It will be annoying at first, but you'll get used to it, and you'll force your brain to read at a faster pace. Put the CC or subtitles on for DVDs while you're at it.

Course..if you already use CC, then my advice is utterly useless.

*Rana

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

*nod* I don't watch much TV and when I do it is often subtitled because it's foreign language programs. :) Not a bad idea though. Perhaps I should hang out in bars more. :)

On the rest of it. Yeah. That's what I do. (read/reread/question) I was hit by a car when I was 19 and woke up in a cat scanner with amnesia. (full amnesia for about an hour to two (I'm guestimating. Time is meaningless when you haven't got any memory) ) and partial ever since. Most of the holes have been filled in but the order of things and details are still pretty fuzzy and I don't remember most of the time around the accident. Just weird little broken fragments.

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

So it is faster for me to read you a story than for you to read it?
I think we have something I can do when Jon visits. Just stick me on a mic in the corner with an obscure book you want on 'tape' and can't find.

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Mommy read me a story? *big eyes*

Heh. Honestly I have taken to listening to audio books quite a bit lately. I can listen to them while working or doing other stuff (including playing guitar, oddly enough) without my headspace colliding so that's the way I've been getting extra reading. :)

[holyjesusboner.livejournal.com]

audio books = free from libraries and probably take the same amount of time as writing summaries. You don't find them annoying?

do you retain the information better when you listen to them?

*Rana

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

About the same retention rate BUT I listen to *audio books while doing other stuff. Working, reading LJ/news, practicing guitar, animating, etc. So timewise they're slightly superior.

*by audiobooks, I really mean podcasts and expired-copyright books run through a text-to-speech program

I should check out audio books from the library except I'm guessing they're mostly on tape and I'd have to hunt down a tape player.

you don't need a tape player

[holyjesusboner.livejournal.com]

not if you find the audiobooks on CDs..and if you don't have a CDplayer you can put them onto itunes (or some other music program) and transfer to your mp3.

*Rana

[perlandria.livejournal.com]

I could seriously be okay with this. I've been feeling bad that I've lost some a lot of my conversational speed cold reading ability and I'd love the practice. I used to read text books to college friends in the dorm who had the same speed limits. It was very interesting, and then they had someone to talk about it with.

[prickvixen.livejournal.com]

What do you mean by 'short novel?' Getting through your basic Stephen King takes me about ten to fifteen hours...

[dv-girl.livejournal.com]

Pocket sci-fi. That stuff that's around 300 pages.

tortoise vs hare

[ade-of-roke.livejournal.com]

better to mark and inwardly digest, than be able to read quick and never think about what u've read......How many people remember a lot of the novels they've read? so many fade away in the mind.....altho i do remember trawling through a lot of descriptions of countryside in Tolkien LOTR..... Have you read The Origin of Species? ..now that is a book to remember.