Essay

Slow reading

By Tony Laszlo

Speed reading. It sounded like a great idea when I first happened upon it, back in the pre-Internet days. I read up on the techniques and tinkered around for a while, wanting to be like those incredible people I'd heard about. You know, the ones who could absorb huge tomes like "War and Peace" simply by leafing through them, glancing at the pages for just a few seconds each. I was a student back then, and envisioned myself plowing through a year's coursework at more than 1,000 words per minute and finishing up in just a few days. Well, I never managed to increase my reading speed by very much, despite at least a month or two of effort

In one sense, that's a pity, really. These days, I have to deal with several times the reading material that I had in those days, because I spend hours each day on the Internet, viewing data on a whole host of issues that I follow, and poring through small mountains of e-mail and cell phone text messages. There are times when I think it would be very convenient indeed if I possessed some magical power that allowed me to properly process sentences as fast as they appeared on a screen. Or to be a bit like John Stuart Mill. He is said to have been able to read faster than he could turn the pages of a book.

That said, it's probably a good thing that I never succeeded in my experiments. I've always enjoyed reading. For me, with the exception of mundane items, the reading experience should be not only about comprehending what is written, but also about savoring the words, and allowing oneself to be drawn into the imagery or message crafted by the writer. If I were to speed-read, by definition, I would be going too fast to truly appreciate the words contained in books, news articles and letters from home. Some talented aficionados of the techniques might be able to switch modes and slow down; being not so disciplined myself, I doubt that I could.

So, unable to be a speed reader, I find myself a "slow reader." There are worse things to be. More than 100 years ago, Friedrich Nietzsche referred to himself as a "teacher of slow reading" and said that to read well one must read "slowly, profoundly, attentively, prudently, with inner thoughts, with the mental doors ajar, with delicate fingers and eyes." (from the prologue to "Daybreak," 1881).

Nietzsche could not have foreseen the daily data overload that 21st century people are facing. To stay afloat in the ocean we swim in, skimming and scanning are obviously necessary, along with proper reading. Still, just as the "slow food" movement has emerged as a backlash to the proliferation of fast food and fast-food culture, perhaps a "slow reading" movement is also in order. There is no question that food is best when it is prepared slowly, and chewed well and savored before being swallowed. The same must certainly be true of the words that we write and read.

Shukan ST: Feb. 16, 2007

(C) All rights reserved