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Why Do I Have to Read Things Over and Over Again

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Do You Really Know How To Read

Hello. I see your curiosity brought you lot hither. Convey my thank you to information technology by clapping!

The internet is filled with advice telling you to read more than.

"If you desire to be a writer, y'all must do ii things above all others: read a lot and write a lot." ― Stephen Male monarch

"The more than that you read, the more than things yous will know. The more than that yous acquire, the more places you'll become."
―Dr. Seuss

"Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light. " — Vera Nazarian

"A keen book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading." — William Styron

Of course reading is important. Especially for writers.

Merely do you lot actually know how to read?

I don't. A lot of people don't.

In this article, we'll accept a look at some mutual reading struggles, the solutions to overcome them and whether they really piece of work.

I'll also talk about my personal experiences as promised before in my previous article —

Reading has never been a cake walk for me — and no, it has got nothing to do with my linguistic skills.

I'g pretty good at comprehension and accept a vocabulary vast enough to grasp most of the concepts. It's the reading part where everything falls apart.

Here are some things I struggle with (and whether you admit it or not, a lot of yous practice too) :

Subvocalization

"A microphone and bible resting on a tree stump" past Arthur Miranda on Unsplash

Saying words silently to oneself while reading is known as subvocalizing.

Exercise you lot motion your lips while reading similar yous're whispering the words to yourself?

Exercise you pronounce every word in your head?

Well, that's subvocalization. And information technology sucks.

It slows y'all downwards because our reading speed is supposed to be much faster than our talking speed. When you lot speak every word slowly to yourself or in your head, information technology significantly reduces your grasping and reading speed.

The average talking charge per unit is near 150 wpm while the average reading rate is almost 250 wpm.

So, How to Terminate Subvocalization?

Here are some of the common solutions and my experiments with them :

Repeating a phrase to yourself to keep the inner vox busy —

Either this is the stupidest advice I've come across or everybody except me is exceptionally proficient at simultaneously talking to themselves while reading without getting distracted.

Anyone capable of doing this is a genius. Please show yourself to the world so we can bow to yous.

Chewing glue to stop yourself from pronouncing the words —

Okay, this is good for the people who audibly utter the words while reading simply about of united states read it in our heads. So unless we can shove chewing gum inside our skull, I don't see the possibility of this working.

Listening to music in the groundwork —

Be careful while attempting this ane. Don't pick music that's likewise loud or a song whose lyrics y'all know past eye.

This does not work for me because if information technology's a song I detest it takes away the joy of reading. If it's a vocal I love it takes away my attention! 😆

Read faster than you tin vocalize —

You tin can't vocalize faster than 150–200 wpm. And so if you do reading at the speed of 250–300 wpm, it is physically incommunicable to pronounce every word.

There are diverse ways to exercise this. Y'all can use a pencil as a pointer or speed reading apps avaible online that wink words at a particular speed.

This is the best method in my stance — You lot can't be stuck in traffic when you accept wings to wing above it.

Re-Reading

"An open book in Ukrainian seen through a pair of glasses" by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash

Finally!

Y'all have bought your favourite book, grabbed a cup of coffee made only the way y'all like. The weather is beautiful and your mind is calm.

Y'all inhale the scent of the book instantly getting engulfed past the sheer magnificence of magic you're holding in your hands.

You lot turn the page, you begin reading the beginning line.

You read information technology. Then you read it again and once more and again.

You repeatedly read every paragraph, every line, every discussion even if the book is not too hard to sympathize.

That'due south regressing. Or re-reading in simple terms.

I spend an hour reading and the only thing I acquire is that Sofia is packing her numberless. I don't fifty-fifty know where she'due south going, with whom or why.

Because I spent all my time re-reading every discussion to the point where everything stopped making sense.

I was so scared of missing out on pivotal details that I lost every ounce of pregnant and joy attached to the story.

My obsession with grasping every syllable drowned away the essence of the volume.

It is maddening. Is in that location a therapy available for this?

What is this? OCD?

I was dead scared of this being an incurable disorder and in hopes of regaining my sanity, I decided to google the shit out of it.

Here's someone who explains it better —

"The core of the problem is having the feeling that you don't understand what you read. As a result, you lot reread a judgement or a word over and over earlier going on to the next sentence. Unfortunately, this contributes to destroying the flow of what y'all are reading, so the feeling of agreement becomes even more than unattainable. Generally, the more important the cloth, the greater the anxiety."

- Jonathan Grayson Ph.D. discusses reading OCD in his book Freedom from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Personalized Program for Living with Incertitude.

And I was surprised to know I was non the only one. At that place are multiple blogs, quora questions, and Reddit threads discussing this compulsion that forces you to keep re-reading sentences repeatedly.

Not only does this slow down the reading speed, it likewise bores the mind somewhen creating resentment towards reading anything at all.

Then it'south non every bit negligible as you recall information technology is.

How to Stop Re-Reading?

Hiding the words —

There are a lot of techniques to keep yourself away from re-reading including burning of the read pages, coloring over the words once you're done reading them and hiding the words with your palms or index cards. Since books are very precious to me, I tin't even think of the offset ii methods. So let'southward run across the last one.

Place a newspaper over the sentences you've read and then you're not tempted to re-read them again.

I only remove the paper and re-read anyways! 😆

I tin can't tape the newspaper either considering then I'll have to untape and re-record it for every judgement and that does not really qualify equally reading.

Speed reading apps

Here you tin't re-read even if yous want to. While your encephalon processes the temptation to quit the application and re-read the sentences in the volume, the screen has already flashed x new lines.

To keep up, you lot gotta keep reading fast. When starting out, set the speed co-ordinate to your grasping level or else the running words will fuel further anxiety.

Y'all tin can but read linearly because in that location are no words on the screen to re-read.

The only downside would be the lack of comprehension considering the fact that your brain is only exposed to 1 word at a fourth dimension and does non have enough time to connect the sentences and sympathize the essence of the story.

Swept under the carpet

There are non many solutions available online for this. Either people don't accept it or don't know something like this fifty-fifty exists. The ones who practice have talked a chip about it are not viral bloggers. As for at present, no one has come up with a concrete solution to permanently overcome this upshot.

Hither are a few out-of-the-google solutions I've derived out of personal experience —

  • Acknowledge information technology — Ignorance is not e'er elation.
  • Have away the pressure of understanding and retaining every syllable.
  • Pick something with a moderate level of difficulty — Besides piece of cake and you'll zone out, too hard and you'll lose involvement.
  • Read books you're excited to read rather than blindly choice upward the bestsellers.
  • Read for the joy of it, for the pleasure, to look at the world with a fresh perspective, to acquire something new — non just to check it off your list or boast nigh the number of books you're through.

"In the example of good books, the point is not to run across how many of them you tin get through, merely rather how many tin can become through to you."

Mortimer J. Adler

Photograph by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

I don't know where information technology has come up from merely I was certainly non built-in with it. I even so retrieve when I was a kid, I was such a voracious reader. I finished books in a matter of 2–iii days — without using any speed reading techniques. It was just natural.

I remember my parents even joked about how if I continued to read books at this speed, in that location volition be no books left in the world for me to devour.

And trust me, it never afflicted my comprehension. I nevertheless remember certain sections of the books I read a few years dorsum every bit prominently as it was a real life retention. I tin can still brief you near the contents of the volume like I read them yesterday. And so I wasn't really skimming through it.

I read it. So well. I read all books like that.

I tin't really pinpoint where things changed but it sucks that it has taken abroad a cute hobby of mine.

Simply hey! If I was able to do it as a child, why not now?

The thing is when we are kids, there'due south no pressure. No bookish, financial or peer pressure.

Reading is more of a immersive feel rather than a habit you must ingrain.

You don't take to learn reading. You know information technology.

Rather, you need to unlearn the rules of reading and allow yourself drown in the tides of the story'southward pull without the pressure of retentivity looming over your caput.

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Source: https://writingcooperative.com/do-you-really-know-how-to-read-4042debbaf5a

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