Oh, The Reading
Yes, so English is my chosen degree, but I have a nasty secret: I am a slow reader.
That's right, I cannot physically skim read. It's impossible. I have to go through each sentence and take absolutely everything, each word, each full stop, in. Occasionally, if I'm not 'in the mood', if the gods feel like tormenting me for their sport, then I don't take anything in, even if I try my hardest and force myself to stare at the page, read it aloud, sing it - nothing works. A shutter behind my eyes which links them to my brain goes up, and the connection, just like that, is cut.
Of course, sometimes I have good days, where I read a book and some in a day. These are rare.
Overall, this is a devistating disability in the face of an English Degree. Thank goodness this year isn't assessed is all I can say - the reading for next year I'll do in the summer.
Well, better get to the torturous business in the time I have left before my lecture ...
06 Mar 2007 11:19
| 
Comments (3)
| 
Report a problem
Loading…
Justin
Don’t feel too bad about that, Gwen. I’m actually the same way, and I, too, was an English major (until I sold out and switched to Business/MIS, that is…).
On top of the various symptoms you mention, I also have the tendency to let my mind wander if I’m not completely drawn in. When that happens, I’ll end up rereading the same sentence 3.6 million times before I finally make it through without thinking about tulips, or midgets, or sporks. It’s especially bad during long, repetitive sequences (like the 150 page John Galt monologue in Atlas Shrugged… oy vey!)
07 Mar 2007, 04:43
Cheers, Justin – and I do the ‘reading a sentence 3.6 million times’ thing too. In fact, (and this is not meant as any sort of slight) I got stuck when reading the end of your comment: ‘like [should I make tea?] the 150 [hm, that’s a lot of words] page [I really should be reading Heart of Darkness] John Galt [oh, look at that squirrel outside] Monologue [I wonder if it’s possible to boil an egg to the point of explosion] in Atlas [wasn’t he an old man with a beard?] Shrugged’
Oh deary me.
08 Mar 2007, 15:07
What is reading to women like us? I just told my mum (who is concerned that I haven’t unpacked my books) that reading ireversibly taints my natural creativity lol xx
21 Mar 2007, 14:34
Add a comment
You are not allowed to comment on this entry as it has restricted commenting permissions.