Since making this video, I've split my manga content and book content in two different channels. Feel free to follow my book channel if you like: www.youtube.com/@merphynapierreviews
Graduated in Philology here. There is a phrase from a literature teacher that always accompanies me: 'You don't have to be a walking library, if someone asks you if you've read a book and you haven't, say so. It doesn't matter if you haven't read 1000 books, and you've only read 100, but you have to be the best at those books, know almost everything about them. Absorb them down to the last particle of knowledge.'
I'm an old man for whom reading has been a life-long passion. Over the last few years it has been harder for me to concentrate to read, which is thoroughly frustrating. Last year I decided to try reading out loud - I remember my maternal grandmother quietly mouthing words to herself while reading - and found that it not only slowed me down, but helped my comprehension and retention. No more having to reread paragraphs because I missed something. I also remember the actor Christopher Plummer talking about how his family read aloud to each other after dinner when he was growing up and how helpful it was to him. Love your channel, which I only just discovered.
Apparently the readers of old always read out loud. Silent reading was a skill developed later. Its a really good brain workout reading out loud too :)
Great video. I'm a rather slow reader because I try to take in every detail and visualize everything while reading. Also, if I've finished a good book, I need a few days to let it all sink in, mull it over again in my head, "mourn" the end of the story or the death of beloved characters etc. So when I heard someone (a booktuber) talk about how they read 5 to 10 books per week, my jaw hit the ground. I would NEVER be able to do that, not even if reading was my full time job. But then again, I don't really want to. My books are my friends and I just like to sit with them a bit longer. I think that's okay.
Taking a break between books - particularly after a particularly compelling, emotional, or harrowing one - is key for me. Once I deliberately didn't read another book for at least a week, because i couldn't imagine that any book would live up to the one I'd just read.
I feel you on being a slow reader. I'm 16 months into the Wheel Of Time and only on book 10. I read long series (Dragonriders of Pern, Shannara, Foundation beyond the original trilogy, Xanth as a teen) and I do so because I never want to say goodbye. The tough thing with booktubers is they'll talk about a dozen series and I know just finishing WOT, reading Discworld and rereading Mistborn and starting the rest of the Cosmere may take me 5 years and I'm 55 now. So looking forward to retiring and reading more.
No joke: I actually did a RUclips search on this topic last year while incubating ideas for the “Why Read?” Discussion series. Some books do read more quickly for me than others, but overall, I am a far slower-than-average reader, and it’s something I’ve always felt self-conscious about. Loved hearing your experience and discussion of this topic!
I am also not a super fast reader and as a new booktuber, I have been feeling self conscious and some imposter syndrome because of it, like I’m not a “true” reader or a good booktuber. But this was a good reminder that going at a slower pace is not bad or wrong!
@@fiddleleaffiction Slow reader here as well who’s also cursed with not having good memory. If I don’t read slower, I don’t retain as much, and even what I do retain gets fuzzy a few weeks or months later. It’s really frustrating, and I usually read up to 1-3 hours a day and still only get about 4-6 books read a month. I’m jealous of people who can read faster, but I also enjoy being able to take my time and enjoy what I read without rushing through it. ❤
I have always been self-conscious about that, like you! But I’m getting more and more ok with it, and this video obviously helps :) I used to compare myself too much, wanting to compete and read as many books as some others… and now I’m content with just 2 or 3 books a month. :)
Slowing down has done wonders for me. Not only when it comes to reading but also when it comes to speech and typing. We are pushed to go go go in every aspect of our lives. But when we slow down we can actually become more productive and more valuable to the people and with the tasks that we do.
Love this. I’ve felt for a few years that reading has become too competitive. It’s the latest stage of the gamification of everything. Each book has a natural speed for each reader, and that’s the best speed to read it and enjoy it, which is surely the whole point of reading fiction.
That's probably not what you meant by gamification, but I love riding slowly through Skellige or Velen in the Witcher 3, gathering some herbs, watching the countryside, not for any kind of competition but just for fun and relaxation 😊
I've noticed that my reading speed naturally picks up as I make progress with a book. It takes some time for me to get familiar with the characters, the tone, or the style of writing. Once I've fully immersed myself, I just naturally start reading faster without even trying. And it makes reading all the more enjoyable. I dnf-ed so many books in the past just because I didn't have enough patience to give them some time to pull me in... Now that I know this, I find myself more patient and less frustrated with my naturally slow pace of reading at the beginning.
I am a big believer in people reading in whatever pace they naturally do. I am a very fast reader and I have tried to slow down and it just makes me not retain any of the information I am reading because I get distracted and hazy cuz I am forcing myself to read at a pace that isn't mine. I viscerally hate how people get shamed for reading too slow, it's just the way someone's brain works and any way people read is valid (including audiobooks)
Yes. I would have to find someone to ritually sacrifice every hour I was forced to read slowly. There's so much to explore and learn; why would anyone voluntarily limit the amount they can experience by crawling along?
I'm a fairly fast reader, and I have a friend who's the opposite; he tends to slowly take his time with books so that he can analyze and think about the book(this also applies to shows as well; he's currently going through Naruto and he is taking his time). I find that, as you'd probably expect, there are pros and cons to each. He will often have a deeper understanding of some more complex themes and foreshadowing than I would. He's often noted some small detail's significance that I can barely remember. And I am jealous of that, at times. The flipside of this is that, his reading pace is glacial. I don't have exact numbers but I get through way more books and media in general than he does. So while I do envy his deeper understanding, I can't regret that I'm a voracious reader, as it were. I have certainly missed some small details or deeper meanings often enough as I tear through books. But I've been to so many more worlds than he has. I've experienced so much vicariously through various protagonists while he's mostly just focused on one or two. I'm not saying that my way is *better* but it's certainly better for me. I love having experienced so many different worlds, and part of that has to be credited to the pace at which I get through books.
"I'm not saying that my way is better but it's certainly better for me." I love that. And I think that's the most important thing, finding what's best for each of us
@@merphynapier42 Agreed; reading's awesome that way! We all enjoy it in our own unique ways. Thanks for making that super clear in all of your work Merphy! You're so down to earth and open minded; it makes your content so accessible.
@@Kishoto What Merphy said " I love that. And I think that's the most important thing, finding what's best for each of us." And I like to add to Merphy "And then not rubbing that into your friend's face. as well so s/he doesn't get fomo." I always hated it when people would parade around me that they could read faster and progress through books and knowledge faster than me. It made me dislike those people a lot. So DO tone it down how much you read and how many more worlds you've been to when you're around the slow readers. That's not to say don't talk about what you've read or reading and definitely share what you've read and what you found interesting etc but subtly in way that doesn't feel insulting to the slow reader. I appreciate if you are the sort of person who doesn't rub it in for slow readers and I wish I'd had more of those while growing up and beyond.
"I love stories and I want to read them all." Very much this statement. I'm working on not beating myself up for not reading too fast so I can actually retain the stories that I delve into, but that statement sits there in the back of my mind always.
I have the same issue that I tend to accelerate my reading speed because I want to get to every book that sparks my interest...every shiny object. One of the reasons I appreciate booktube (and your channel) so much is that I feel its impotant to read slowly and thoughtfully...let it immerse you. As such, I know I *can't* read everything that interests me. Booktube helps me narrow it down to the experiences that are really really worth it.
I had a friend who was a speed reader and he would read a harry potter book, in school, between classes in a single day. But I've always found it much mroe enjoyable to read at conversation length. Sometimes in action scenes I increase the pace with the story and its great, but I read a conversation at a much slower pace. This allows me to take a break, step back and really take in things better. Its similar to when I used to binge a TV show season in a day and I would forget nearly everything shortly after. If I watched a couple of eps and take a few day break, I really think about the subject and I get so much more out of it. Plus you get something to look forward to.
I read an average of 4 to 5 hours a day. Just discovered your channel while binge watching reading videos on RUclips. Two of my biggest forms of escape is binging RUclips and reading ebooks and regular books. ❤❤❤
Wonderful! I was feeling awful about borrowing five books from the library, devouring one of them the next day and hardly touching the rest since then. Every time I saw them I was stabbed with guilt. You've reminded me not every book is a fast one, and THAT'S OK! Just keep reading and discover new worlds, fast ones and slow ones. The difference is the delight.
I am french and read most books in english (well, not french books obviously) and that has, understandably, impacted my reading speed. This is especially true for big adult fantasy books and it sometimes frustrates me that I CAN'T read faster... especially since I have so many booktube friends who read a lot more. I have to remember your video in the future to remind myself that it's perfectly fine
I have been readying Harry Potter in French. I have gotten through 2 pages after one week. I thought after a year if studying french I could handle "A L'ecole des sorciers" but I still have a lot to learn.
Discussions are my very favorite part of BookTube too! 😄I tend to be a slow reader for several reasons. One is that I often stop to admire a well phrased sentence. Like you, I'm a visual and immersive reader, and I enjoy the scenery along the way. I also find that I remember a book much better when I read it slowly, which is much more conducive to discussing the book with friends. Finally, I don't even count how many books I read, so I never feel like I'm in a competition. Hooray for the tortoises of BookTube! 🐢Thank you for the video, Merphy!
16:50 Absolutely love this so much that I went back, rewatched it, and typed it out! This should definitely be a quote I will use and credit you!! "When I read it's like the author gives me a floorplan for a building, and they wrote the structure of it they wrote the floorplan...but i build the walls. I choose the color of the pain on the walls... I fill in the corners. They told me what to imagine. But I am the one who gets to create it in my mind.... And we all get the same floorplan. We all get the same book. We build the walls in different way.... Based off on your life views and life experiences, different people read book different ways."
I've been thinking about this for some time so thanks for the video. As a 52 year old man with a variety of health conditions is that I'm hyper aware of my mortality and the limited time I've got left for reading (which is probably the thing - after Doctor Who - I love the most. And possibly Dairy Milk chocolate.) Although that hasn't seemed to have stopped me from an almost masochistic refusal to DNF books. I do read different types of books at different speeds, but there's no set genre where I read faster or slower, although non-fiction is usually slower than fiction. I will fly through books I love in the 'can't put it down sense'. Many is the night where I've read through to the 2/3/4am because I can't put a book down. I also tend to have multiple books on the go. I annotate and make notes more than I used to, which does slow you down a little. But I'm bad at then taking a deep breath, gathering my thoughts and notes together. Although I write a review of every book I read on my Goodreads page. Sorry this has gone on far too long.
I really enjoyed hearing you discuss this. So, I used to turn my audiobooks up to 2.5x speed because I felt like I needed to be reading more, and the only way to do it was to speed up my reading. It was a pressure induced change due to social media. I realized after a while that I wasn't really enjoying my books or really diving into them the way that I love. I had to take a step back and realize that I enjoy reading slowly. I enjoy comprehending my books on a deeper level. Since I've done that, I enjoy my books much more! I feel like I missed too much trying to speed read.
I've been the same, feeling like I have to read books faster and speed my audiobooks up, though I rarely go beyond 2x speed - I want to get used to slowing down my reading too, but there are just so many good-sounding books out there and nowhere near enough time 😂
@Claire the_reading_apprentice I definitely know what you mean! It seems like my tbr will never stop growing, but I think that's a good problem to have, haha.
I've always been a binge reader, simply because I NEED to know what happens next when I am engaged by a book. I used to be proud of that, because, reading is a healthy activity, right? But I recently realized that if it consumes me, if all I do is read for a couple of days it is not good for me, plus, yeah, I don't know if I enjoy details as much, I brush over a lot . So now for the first time I am reading book slowly and it's wonderful
Yesssss! I'm also a slow reader by nature. I started reading Mistborn since a few days ago and the only time that I find time to is before I go to bed and while I felt a little bit disappointed cause I was only at the 100 pages mark yesterday, I know that I'm in this (Cosmere) for the long run and it'll take me quite some time to go through all of it but there's nothing like the first time you're going through a series so I'm happy to go slow :)
What you said about having this desire to read quickly not because of some sort of competitions or numbers games but because there are just SO MANY books that you want to read is something I can really relate to :') and lately I've actually been working on purposefully slowing down my reading so that I can really immerse myself and savour what I'm reading so how timely that you've made a video about it
you brought up a good point on how we spend time. When you mentioned you read 2-3 hours a night, I thought, "dang that's such a long time out of your day, idk if I can do that" then realized when you said movies are 2-3 hours long now adays, hold up, that's a good point! Imma start every once in a while try reading longer instead of watching a movie.
I really appreciated this discussion. I am a slow reader and that’s surprisingly been something I’ve really struggled to come to terms with, simply because I don’t see a lot of people take pride in it. I feel like so often the community focuses more on reading more and it’s something many people strive for. I have been making my peace with it slowly, because I don’t think there is anything wrong with reading slowly, but I think this gave a lot of good perspective that I don’t just have to settle with making peace with it, and that it can actually be beneficial and something good. I really appreciated this video!!
Ive started to love re-reads more. the vivid details are more vivid, sometimes things happens slightly different than i remembered on the first read, and i can essentially "fast forward" through slow sections or parts i dont enjoy as much.
It's funny because I have the opposite experience to yours. There are books that I just breeze through and others that I sit with for a lot longer because I want to appreciate every detail, and those tends to be the ones I'm more excited about, because I want to take my time to enjoy it. I've noticed that romance books are especially fast reads for me, because I disconnect from the world and get lost in them, but for fantasies and sci-fi books I always take longer because I want to understand every single thing that went into the world-building. Editing to add that I don't consider myself a fast reader. Some people say I am because of the amount of books I read in a month/year, but they don't see how many hours I dedicate to reading and how many times I squeeze in "just this one paragraph/page" "I'm almost done with the chapter" "one more minute".
I call myself a slow reader because unless I’m in love with a book I only read for 30 minutes a day which is still heaps for the average person. I don’t want to force myself to read more and I’m good with that 😊 I love conversations like this and wish people wouldn’t feel bad for reading “less”.
I consider myself a slower reader, as you said depending on the kind of book we're going to read faster or slower. The most important thing is just read, slower or no. it's really an amazing experience when we are immersive in that story, specially when the environment around us is quiet. Your videos are incredible and always motivates me.
This kind of video appeals to me greatly. I often pressure myself to finish books quickly, thinking that reading more and faster makes me better. This diminishes my enjoyment of both regular books and audiobooks. Videos like this shift the focus to what matters most. Thank you!
Great video! I'm here for a celebration of slow reading and mindful living. I'm a slow, mood reader... and I still manage to read around 70 books per year on an average year, which I think is a lot! Whenever I tried to have a TBR or force myself to read "what I should be reading right now" I got in a reading slump. So I decided long ago I'm not doing that! I'll read at my pace and whatever I feel like. But I have friends who read 100+ books, have TBRs and I'm chearing them on! I'm not into reading for the competition. I'm in it for the books!
This is interesting. I'm a verry fast reader. The reason for this is that I enjoy the immerson, I feel like everything that is not reading is breaking that feeling. So I usually sitt down with a book and not putting it down until I finish it. Only broken up by begrudgingly having to go to the bathroom. So when I look forward to a book, like a new stormlight. I put off my weekend, so Oathbringer I read in a weekend not putting the book down. Later for a reread I can read slower.
that analogy about the floor plan is just amazing to me given im an interior achitecture student; im also a slow reader and this video is gold; thank you merphy as always
Loved this video! I also struggle between consuming books at a breakneck pace and really immersing myself in a story. I am reading the Stormlight Archive series for the first time and I am intentionally reading it slower than my normal speed so that I can get blissfully lost in the story. Thank you for the heads up on the kickstarter. I can't wait to read When Swords Fall Silent.
I let the book set the pace. Some draw me through fast. Others ask for more detailed attention. It's not only density of prose. It can be complexity of material, or an urge to savor certain scenes - Tolkien does that to me - but it's the book that sets my reading pace. You're correct, it's consistency. I shoot for 100pp / day. This pace works for me, but whether I reach it or not, I do read every day for a few hours. I don't watch much TV, etc. I prefer to read.
The faster I read a book, the quicker I forget it. Which is odd because books that I devour quickly tend to be books that I love and give 5 stars to. I always think how it’s possible I forget the details of books that I claim are my favorites. I slowly read books that I’m not loving because I’m not as motivated to pick up the book, but reading it slowly means that I tend to remember lower rated books longer. Great video!
I just let the story carry me to whatever speed it needs. It's like there is a Muse for reading. That said, I tend to read faster than expected when I've taken words-per-minute tests.
I've been thinking about reading speed lately too! Right now, I've been reading more slowly and really enjoying it, and then this video popped up, so thank you RUclips!
Thanks for posting this video. Your point was very well stated. I'm trying to become a more "quality over quantity" type of person with all of my hobbies instead of trying desperately all the time to get through my to be read, to be watched, and to be played piles
Thanks for this video 💕 I tend to be a really fast reader, but just recently I was reflecting on my reading last year, I could barely even remember what books I read, let alone how I felt about them, because I just read way faster than my brain could remember. I tended to read books within a day or two, but this year I want to try slowing my reading down a bit - not with everything, because as you pointed out, some books are just right to devour, but I want to try taking one or two books a month and reading them in smaller chunks and really thinking about them, not just allowing them to be somewhat mindless entertainment. It's been a little hard so far, adjusting my brain to less books read per month, but I think I'm getting there 😊 I think another step for me is to let myself read the bigger books on my shelves and not be intimidated by them just because I can't read them in two days. Sometimes I feel like I've been reading a book for ages, but really it's only been three or four days, and I don't want to feel that way. But anyway, long winded comment, but thanks again for this video, as I think some of the points you made will stick with me and help me keep my resolutions 😊
Reading is very nuanced for me. My reading speed depends on my mood, my energy levels, on the book I'm reading etc. I think labeling myself as one or the other would be very wrong. So, I just let myself read how I feel like at the moment. I want to address the competitiveness as well. People show how much they read and I can see how it can put a lot of pressure to read more. Reading at our own pace and trying not to compare is crucial or else it sucks the joy out of reading.
In response to the "I devoured this book!". Been there a number of times. Sunk into the world, galloped through, came up for air at last page... On reread, found things I didn't remember... To my mindset, that was a bonus... Something new in revisiting a world. Because if you aren't forcing a pace, you read at your desired pace. Omg, must read this book is a faster pace than school assignments.
“The body keeps the score” took 6 months to read because I kept putting it down. and some books took a week. Glad I found your video because there are so many subjects and it could have been so overwhelming if I didn’t see this.😅 I fell in love with reading. Idk why i felt I never had time but really it helped me overall lately
I love reading in whatever pace i feel like each book should be read. For me some just scream to be read more quickly, while I enjoy reading others at 0.5x speed. Unfortunately, I’m a lit student and the amount of books I must read for each subject is sometimes unrealistic because they are not easy, quick reads, but rather they DEMAND you read them slowly. So having to fast read them to finish them in time has been a struggle. I comprehend so little in comparison to how much I COULD if I had the time, so I think slowing down a lot of the times has perks that we should enjoy from time to time. At least once every dozen books or something. Fast reading is great, but so is slowing down.
This is always a fascinating subject to talk about because everyone just reads differently, even when it comes to things more granular than speed. Speed isn't something I've ever thought of when it comes to analyzing my own reading habits. It makes more sense for me to think in terms of pages. When I got back into reading for pleasure about a year and half ago, I would read a lot of books according to a schedule to lead up to a series or or movie premiere. This ties into my other hobbies and was much more efficient than whatever it is I do now. I would make calculations about how many pages per day I would need to read in order to finish a book by a certain day and, more often than not, I would meet those deadlines. I was very much an "I need to read every single day" kind of person at the time. If I wasn't chilling away to finish by a deadline, I was reading 50 pages a day as a baseline. Part of that was out of excitement to finally get through series like Mistborn that Booktubers wouldn't shut up about. That pretty much encapsulates how I read early on in my adult reading journey. I'm a lot more relaxed with my reading now and a lot more drop-happy as a result. What I mean by this is that I have a much lower tolerance now for books I'm not enjoying by the time I hit the 20% mark, but I digress. I'm reading far less these days because I'm not reading every day and not reaching my 50 pages goal often. I'm reading because I want to be reading and not because I should be reading to keep up. Although, I can't say I'm enjoying reading any more or less than I did early on. It just feels a little different. As far as actual reading speed goes in terms of time, I find that I get through second half of a book much faster than the first half. There's always a period in the first half of a book where I'm feeling it out to see if I want to keep going and I'm generally locked in at the 50% mark. I've also noticed that I tend to read through action sequences quickly because I replace the descriptions with what is happening in my head. I just need fewer words to get from action beat to action beat. On the topic of rereads, the goal with my first read through a series or a book is to get the high level story, knowing that I'm missing details. I've never been someone who likes experiencing new media vs. re-experiencing media, but I've turned around on that lately. Rereads are where I'll get the details and go slow. I think that's all I got.
Being a person of many interests, I am not a very avid reader - but definitely an immersive one. I usually only spend my time on titles which I really want to read or ones that ive heard a lot about. And the book’s prose and language accessibility usually decides the pace for me. If the prose is very fiery and addictive, I’ll devour that book (for eg. Sally Rooney or Elif Shafak) whereas if it’s a deep book that has a lot of layers and metaphors then I really slow down to appreciate the book (for e.g. Watchmen by Alan Moore where not just the lines but also the comic strip/ artwork had multiple layers). And if im not liking the prose or the direction of the story I simply dnf no matter the grandeur of who has written it. 😅😊
Well, this makes me feel better for reading so slow! Your talking about reading consistently was helpful actually since I sometimes feel like I’m pretty slow for a BookTuber, but I do read every day. This was a great video. Thanks!
I only got back into reading mid-to-late last year, so I’ve been burning through books very quickly because I want to be caught up with modern fantasy and all that (I read the Mistborn trilogy in about 2 weeks), but now that I have a decent number of books and series under my belt I’m trying to slow down and really savor them
I’m definitely a slow reader, but some books have a way of taking all my attention and I just HAVE to fly through those, as you mentioned. I also love getting immersed and sometimes will read a scene several times to get it just right in my head, like I’m watching a movie and needed time to set up the scene properly. I can’t be the only one who does that… right?
I don’t know who said it first but I love the line, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” I would also like to add that it is also a liar that tells is we are not good enough and should do “better”.
As someone that vascillates between some heady nonfiction and fiction I find I need to grind slower while reading the nonfiction, especially for those books that need to be chewed on and reading slightly faster with fiction depending on the book.
I read really slow and I find that I retain and remember better than others. In school my friends needed to review what happened in the chapter when I always just remembered. I think it makes me enjoy it better because it sticks with me longer, but I've never experienced reading far so I don't know.
Can only speak for myself, but I always had the same experience except I was also the fastest reader in the group 🤷In 8th grade I literally had friends get annoyed at me for talking in too much detail and tell me to dial it back, lmao 😂 But I think it's also a matter of focus/investment. 🙂If I read too slowly, that's actually when my retention dips because it means I was distracted in between. Though there's also a correlation between taking multiple breaks because retention is highest at the beginning and end, and taking a break in between also means you have to remember what happened before (and the more times you do that the more likely you'll convert that data from short term to long term memory). I think that's the main basis for the Pomodoro technique, actually? But overall, while it might be human nature and easy to fall into, there's really no need to compare ourselves or compete at our hobbies, and nothing to gain from it either. We all have different experiences, different abilities, and enjoy ourselves differently-- and that diversity is great!
as a SLOW reader, I needed to hear this. I am a slow reader but I put myself in the story and picture it in my head. I can't do that if I force myself to read fast, then I end up not wanting to read.
I am so happy that you are bringing this topic because I can't read ferociously without appreciating and that it's a shame. Though there are books that doesn't deserve my whole attention there are definitely ones that I am missing a lot by reading so fast.
Thank you for sharing such a RELATABLE video, Merphy. 100% yes. I tend to be doing both at the same time, some books I love to read quickly and others I like to take slow.
Wonderful video. I came across a post on reddit recently that I knew would change the way I read forever. It's a technique for neurodivergent readers, and how it works is you focus on the first half of each word, and your mind will fill in the rest of the word automatically as you read.
Thanks for this video! I found it through your video with Brandon Sanderson, and was surprised to find a video that I really identified with! I've really struggled with reading fantasy slowly for the last year or so, especially since I've trained myself to speedread for my school books, which has ended up transferring over to my fantasy reading which really hurts my immersion and comprehension just like you said. :( My solution for it was to read through a book once then read through it slowly afterwards, but it's soooo inconvenient to read through books like Rhythm of War twice in a row... (especially when my first read was done in 20 hrs of straight reading with only one or 2 breaks)
I feel the EXACT same way. The immersion for me, is sooo deep. And I recently realised that I don’t want to pick up another book straight after finishing one. I need a couple of days to process the story. It stays with me. I can’t just jump from one world to another and leave it behind. And I used to be so, I don’t know, ashamed of it? I kept trying to read faster and read more books than I’m used to, only to ask myself ‘why?’. It all came down to comparison to other people, who read 100+ books a year, and I only read like 10. I thought I was doing it wrong, until I found your video and it just felt so good to know someone is just like me. And I want to know all these stories on my TBR list, but they just take so long… and I only recently started reading ebooks because buying books was too expensive for me and it held me back. I prefer paper books, but at the end of the day, I still have the story with me, and it’s better than not having it at all. Thank you Merphy, your video was very insightful and it felt really nice to be understood by another super emotional reader that I’m not alone in my reading habits, and there is nothing wrong with them. And what you said at 16:36, and after 16:52 about the floor plan that the authors give you and you choose to build it was just beautiful. ❤
I often find I read so fast and then regret that I didn’t slow down and take in every morsel of information. I just finished the woman in black and I loved it, I’ve only been reading for 3 years but I’ve already gained such a fast paced.
I sometimes page count for goals of mine with scheduling in mind and I sometimes wish I could read faster and comprehend faster to consume more books, but I honestly don't mind how long it sometimes takes me to finish a book. I love the books I read and I love the journey it takes to finish them.
A really great video, enjoyed it immensely. Watching a lot of Booktube I do feel pressure to read more books and hit a certain number each year, but I’m definitely trying to move away from that. I’m not going to set a reading challenge next year, or maybe just set it to a low number, so I don’t feel that pressure to read more just for the sake of it, or to try and match some of the numbers I see on Booktube. In the end it’s not about how many books you read but the enjoyment that you get out of it. And reading slower definitely helps with that.
I think this was a great video. Everyone's reading experiences, plans and approaches are different. I love to use every type of book, physical, digital and audio. I prefer hard cover or trade paperback, but love my Kindle when travelling or at night in bed for 15-30 mins. Love listening to Audio books when in the car, out walking, or even when I am running around the house doing chores. I usually reserve re-reads of favorite books for Audio so I don't have to concentrate on the book quite as much and can multi task with chores, workouts or driving. As I get older now, I have more time to read, and I find it is so good for my brain function, eye sight, etc... as well. Never was a big reader until I entered the working world and had a decent commute to work and then eventually went into sales where I was on the road a lot or on trains and planes.
This is such a good topic, Merphy. I've been feeling so much of this the past few months. I have so many books that I'm dying to read, but I also have missed the deep immersion of reading where you feel like you're waking up from a different world when you finish it. I've been doing a readalong of Shogun for the past 3 months with several other booktubers, and we split the book into 3 parts over 3 months. At first, I was stressed over having to slow down and not fly through the book at my usual speed. Now, I'm realizing how much the process as reminded me how much I love immersing in a world and going on an epic journey over 800+ pages. I sort of felt burned out by those epic chonkers after blazing through SA in 2021-22, and I have been more intimidated by longer books since then because of it. Slowing down with Shogun has been exactly what I needed to reengage with those epic stories and settle in for a bigger commitment without feeling like it's going to "take away time" from other reads. I think as Booktubers it's very easy to get caught up in the rush of reading "enough" books or reading to keep up with friends or reading to have content to talk about. I think that as content creators it is very difficult to find that balance, and takes some self-reflection to figure out if we are reading simply to keep up with the status quo/content side of things, or if we are genuinely reading from a place of loving stories and wanting to talk about them.
I would consider myself a pretty slow reader but more than that, I am a distracted reader. I sit down to read a book and... something in it makes me want to look up a question or reminds me of something I need to do later so I put the book down and do that first before getting back into it. I have always been confused by people who say they can read an entire book in one sitting, that seems completely impossible to me. Your video has made me realize a lot of things about myself. I've been ashamed of the way I read for years but now I feel like it's more normal than I thought, especially looking at the comment section. Didn't know people struggled with the same stuff as me! Love you Merph
Back in 2009/10 I attended a speed reading course (I was working in academia at the time and had too many papers to read each week). In that course I was taught several things: 1. That not everyone "reads aloud" in their head when they are reading, and this is considered by the "experts" as bad and something that we are supposed to have stopped doing when we were kids. 2. Reading "aloud" in my head is what makes me a slow reader and is a "habit" that is next to impossible to break as an adult. But that I could work to increase my speed sufficiently that it would make it hard to keep doing this. 3. We're "not supposed" to read every single word. And doing so will slow down your reading speed. 4. We "shouldn't" be aiming for 90+% comprehension and recall when reading but instead in the first pass 30-50% with the option to pick up more on rereads. 5. That in order to increase my reading speed, I needed to practice the technique I was being taught in my recreational reading as well as work reading. And I learnt one thing: That there was no way I was interested in changing my recreational reading habit, with reduced comprehension, recall and enjoyment, just for the sake of getting through more boring papers at work. And that I'm quite comfortable with my style of reading and others can read how they want to read. One thing that I have reflected on in the years since, is that my testiness at work and constant suppressed need to reply "RTFE" might be reduced if more people slowed down their reading and increased their comprehension and recall of the emails I send 😆
I appreciate this so much. When I got back into reading I tried to push so hard to read fast and read with quantity but now I've slowed down and read slow because thats just my nature. I really try to enjoy it more now
I've always been the type to read slowly. I can't help but reread every sentence 4 times. Usually imagining exactly how the motion of someone's movement would be, especially with Brandan Sanderson's work. I even find myself acting out what I'm imagining physically with shallow gestures and facial expressions xD
I agree. This can be applied to anything though. We will never experience everything in life, so we must make the most of what we have and what we have time time experience. I often have to remind myself that daily.
Another great video! I 1000% agree that reading helps with managing stress, reading for a couple hours in the evening makes the difference between having a restful sleep or a night of exhaustive tossing and turning. I typically read as the book requires ( I agree with one of the comments posted that each book has it's own pace)
Super thankful you mentioned that people have alot of interests! It's something I struggle with alot, I enjoy doing a bunch of different things and can end up feeling inadequate compared to others just because I split my time. It's so silly :)
I’m in the same boat. Every time I’m in a Target or Barnes and Noble I grab another book or two which causes me to mentally accelerate my current book always working towards the “next book”. Going to start tapping into library books for fiction genres and buy personal development/self help books to keep as note taking and reference. Great topic!
I spent some time away from booktube, so I am sure this is extremely late, but congratulations on your daughter, Merphy! 💜💜💜 How exciting… I know you were considering adopting a while back 💜
I'm a slow reader and always have been. Sometimes I go faster when I have that NEED to know what happened, but I reread often so I do get the details later. I've often felt self conscious of my reading pace, but overall it makes me happy. I'm also a writer and that has really affected how I read. Slowing down, I feel a deeper connection to the author, their characters, and their ideas -- and I really like that.
I loved your point that the reading experience is so different from person to person and book to book. It's taken me a year or more to read some thick Sanderson novels, where I knew each time I picked it up I was going to have to spend 15 minutes getting reacquainted and settling into the world again. But I love those stories, I enjoyed taking my time to live in them. Looking back, I can associate a time period of my life with a certain story. But I've also devoured entire (shorter) novels in a single night, staying up until the morning. Everyone should read in a way that they find most enjoyable, and celebrate our different approaches!
this brings to mind a conversation i had when i was younger where one of my friends bragged about how fast they could read and it always felt wrong to me because i felt that if you were reading that fast there is absolutely no way your getting the full experience and now i feel somewhat vindicated. i read consistently every chance i got when i was a kid if i was reading fast it'd usually take me at least three days to burn through a book if i was going slow up to a couple of weeks unfortunately due to my current health issues my reading has gone way down, it now takes me over two weeks to finish a book, still love reading though.
I'm definitely both a "binge" and "savor" kind of a reader. It honestly just depends on my mood and, even more so, on the book and how it's matching up with my mood. Sometimes I will finish a whole series in two weeks and other times it takes me just as long to finish a 400 page book.
This video came at the perfect time for me. I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately by how many fantasy series I’m excited to get to and how I’m not reading fast enough to get to all of them this year, let alone in the next few. So this is a great reminder that slowing down is ok and to appreciate what I’m reading right now instead of always thinking so far ahead. Thanks for the great discussions you always do!
Hello Merphy! Thanks for talking about this! I love to read but I'm definitely a slow reader. I ebb and flow with the speed that I read depending on the book. For example, I'm reading City of Brass currently and I've been running through it because I'm enjoying it. I'm reading it with a group and they were discussing how some characters have literacy and others don't but I didn't pick up on that at all. I feel like I missed out on that which makes me a little sad. However, I do own the book and will be re-reading it in the future so I'm sure I'll be able to catch more details than I did the first go around.
I understand the desire to “read as much as I can”. I know I’ve been there and I still have those thoughts. But there’s something to be said about going slow, taking your time and absorbing a book as much as you can. I think it’s better to read 5 books this year and take a lot from them than read 100 really quickly.
Since making this video, I've split my manga content and book content in two different channels. Feel free to follow my book channel if you like: www.youtube.com/@merphynapierreviews
Graduated in Philology here. There is a phrase from a literature teacher that always accompanies me: 'You don't have to be a walking library, if someone asks you if you've read a book and you haven't, say so. It doesn't matter if you haven't read 1000 books, and you've only read 100, but you have to be the best at those books, know almost everything about them. Absorb them down to the last particle of knowledge.'
I'm an old man for whom reading has been a life-long passion. Over the last few years it has been harder for me to concentrate to read, which is thoroughly frustrating. Last year I decided to try reading out loud - I remember my maternal grandmother quietly mouthing words to herself while reading - and found that it not only slowed me down, but helped my comprehension and retention. No more having to reread paragraphs because I missed something.
I also remember the actor Christopher Plummer talking about how his family read aloud to each other after dinner when he was growing up and how helpful it was to him.
Love your channel, which I only just discovered.
Apparently the readers of old always read out loud. Silent reading was a skill developed later. Its a really good brain workout reading out loud too :)
Great video. I'm a rather slow reader because I try to take in every detail and visualize everything while reading. Also, if I've finished a good book, I need a few days to let it all sink in, mull it over again in my head, "mourn" the end of the story or the death of beloved characters etc. So when I heard someone (a booktuber) talk about how they read 5 to 10 books per week, my jaw hit the ground. I would NEVER be able to do that, not even if reading was my full time job. But then again, I don't really want to. My books are my friends and I just like to sit with them a bit longer. I think that's okay.
"My books are my friends and I just like to sit with them a bit longer" is a really beautiful statement ❤
Taking a break between books - particularly after a particularly compelling, emotional, or harrowing one - is key for me. Once I deliberately didn't read another book for at least a week, because i couldn't imagine that any book would live up to the one I'd just read.
I am very similar. When I finish a book I enjoyed, I need time to sit with it for a bit. There’s nothing wrong with that at all
I feel you on being a slow reader. I'm 16 months into the Wheel Of Time and only on book 10. I read long series (Dragonriders of Pern, Shannara, Foundation beyond the original trilogy, Xanth as a teen) and I do so because I never want to say goodbye. The tough thing with booktubers is they'll talk about a dozen series and I know just finishing WOT, reading Discworld and rereading Mistborn and starting the rest of the Cosmere may take me 5 years and I'm 55 now. So looking forward to retiring and reading more.
Beautiful
No joke: I actually did a RUclips search on this topic last year while incubating ideas for the “Why Read?” Discussion series. Some books do read more quickly for me than others, but overall, I am a far slower-than-average reader, and it’s something I’ve always felt self-conscious about. Loved hearing your experience and discussion of this topic!
I appreciate your "slow reading" because your discussion and/or reviews are able to convey more to me than "This book was great, read it".
@@Thecatladybooknook_PennyD Thank you! That's always been my goal, so this means a lot to me! 🤍
I am also not a super fast reader and as a new booktuber, I have been feeling self conscious and some imposter syndrome because of it, like I’m not a “true” reader or a good booktuber. But this was a good reminder that going at a slower pace is not bad or wrong!
@@fiddleleaffiction Slow reader here as well who’s also cursed with not having good memory. If I don’t read slower, I don’t retain as much, and even what I do retain gets fuzzy a few weeks or months later. It’s really frustrating, and I usually read up to 1-3 hours a day and still only get about 4-6 books read a month. I’m jealous of people who can read faster, but I also enjoy being able to take my time and enjoy what I read without rushing through it. ❤
I have always been self-conscious about that, like you! But I’m getting more and more ok with it, and this video obviously helps :) I used to compare myself too much, wanting to compete and read as many books as some others… and now I’m content with just 2 or 3 books a month. :)
Slowing down has done wonders for me. Not only when it comes to reading but also when it comes to speech and typing. We are pushed to go go go in every aspect of our lives. But when we slow down we can actually become more productive and more valuable to the people and with the tasks that we do.
Love this. I’ve felt for a few years that reading has become too competitive. It’s the latest stage of the gamification of everything. Each book has a natural speed for each reader, and that’s the best speed to read it and enjoy it, which is surely the whole point of reading fiction.
That's probably not what you meant by gamification, but I love riding slowly through Skellige or Velen in the Witcher 3, gathering some herbs, watching the countryside, not for any kind of competition but just for fun and relaxation 😊
I started slowing down recently. I really felt it with A Day of Fallen Night. I took my time so I could just revel in the world.
I've noticed that my reading speed naturally picks up as I make progress with a book. It takes some time for me to get familiar with the characters, the tone, or the style of writing. Once I've fully immersed myself, I just naturally start reading faster without even trying. And it makes reading all the more enjoyable. I dnf-ed so many books in the past just because I didn't have enough patience to give them some time to pull me in... Now that I know this, I find myself more patient and less frustrated with my naturally slow pace of reading at the beginning.
I am a big believer in people reading in whatever pace they naturally do. I am a very fast reader and I have tried to slow down and it just makes me not retain any of the information I am reading because I get distracted and hazy cuz I am forcing myself to read at a pace that isn't mine. I viscerally hate how people get shamed for reading too slow, it's just the way someone's brain works and any way people read is valid (including audiobooks)
Yes. I would have to find someone to ritually sacrifice every hour I was forced to read slowly. There's so much to explore and learn; why would anyone voluntarily limit the amount they can experience by crawling along?
I'm a fairly fast reader, and I have a friend who's the opposite; he tends to slowly take his time with books so that he can analyze and think about the book(this also applies to shows as well; he's currently going through Naruto and he is taking his time). I find that, as you'd probably expect, there are pros and cons to each. He will often have a deeper understanding of some more complex themes and foreshadowing than I would. He's often noted some small detail's significance that I can barely remember. And I am jealous of that, at times.
The flipside of this is that, his reading pace is glacial. I don't have exact numbers but I get through way more books and media in general than he does. So while I do envy his deeper understanding, I can't regret that I'm a voracious reader, as it were. I have certainly missed some small details or deeper meanings often enough as I tear through books. But I've been to so many more worlds than he has. I've experienced so much vicariously through various protagonists while he's mostly just focused on one or two. I'm not saying that my way is *better* but it's certainly better for me. I love having experienced so many different worlds, and part of that has to be credited to the pace at which I get through books.
"I'm not saying that my way is better but it's certainly better for me." I love that. And I think that's the most important thing, finding what's best for each of us
@@merphynapier42 Agreed; reading's awesome that way! We all enjoy it in our own unique ways. Thanks for making that super clear in all of your work Merphy! You're so down to earth and open minded; it makes your content so accessible.
So you basically just described first a deep and then a shallow person. We are who we are 🤷♀️
@@Kishoto What Merphy said " I love that. And I think that's the most important thing, finding what's best for each of us." And I like to add to Merphy "And then not rubbing that into your friend's face. as well so s/he doesn't get fomo." I always hated it when people would parade around me that they could read faster and progress through books and knowledge faster than me. It made me dislike those people a lot. So DO tone it down how much you read and how many more worlds you've been to when you're around the slow readers. That's not to say don't talk about what you've read or reading and definitely share what you've read and what you found interesting etc but subtly in way that doesn't feel insulting to the slow reader.
I appreciate if you are the sort of person who doesn't rub it in for slow readers and I wish I'd had more of those while growing up and beyond.
"I love stories and I want to read them all." Very much this statement. I'm working on not beating myself up for not reading too fast so I can actually retain the stories that I delve into, but that statement sits there in the back of my mind always.
I have the same issue that I tend to accelerate my reading speed because I want to get to every book that sparks my interest...every shiny object. One of the reasons I appreciate booktube (and your channel) so much is that I feel its impotant to read slowly and thoughtfully...let it immerse you. As such, I know I *can't* read everything that interests me. Booktube helps me narrow it down to the experiences that are really really worth it.
I had a friend who was a speed reader and he would read a harry potter book, in school, between classes in a single day. But I've always found it much mroe enjoyable to read at conversation length. Sometimes in action scenes I increase the pace with the story and its great, but I read a conversation at a much slower pace. This allows me to take a break, step back and really take in things better. Its similar to when I used to binge a TV show season in a day and I would forget nearly everything shortly after. If I watched a couple of eps and take a few day break, I really think about the subject and I get so much more out of it. Plus you get something to look forward to.
I read an average of 4 to 5 hours a day. Just discovered your channel while binge watching reading videos on RUclips. Two of my biggest forms of escape is binging RUclips and reading ebooks and regular books. ❤❤❤
Wonderful! I was feeling awful about borrowing five books from the library, devouring one of them the next day and hardly touching the rest since then. Every time I saw them I was stabbed with guilt.
You've reminded me not every book is a fast one, and THAT'S OK!
Just keep reading and discover new worlds, fast ones and slow ones. The difference is the delight.
Right 👍
I am french and read most books in english (well, not french books obviously) and that has, understandably, impacted my reading speed. This is especially true for big adult fantasy books and it sometimes frustrates me that I CAN'T read faster... especially since I have so many booktube friends who read a lot more. I have to remember your video in the future to remind myself that it's perfectly fine
I have been readying Harry Potter in French. I have gotten through 2 pages after one week. I thought after a year if studying french I could handle "A L'ecole des sorciers" but I still have a lot to learn.
Discussions are my very favorite part of BookTube too! 😄I tend to be a slow reader for several reasons. One is that I often stop to admire a well phrased sentence. Like you, I'm a visual and immersive reader, and I enjoy the scenery along the way. I also find that I remember a book much better when I read it slowly, which is much more conducive to discussing the book with friends. Finally, I don't even count how many books I read, so I never feel like I'm in a competition. Hooray for the tortoises of BookTube! 🐢Thank you for the video, Merphy!
16:50 Absolutely love this so much that I went back, rewatched it, and typed it out! This should definitely be a quote I will use and credit you!!
"When I read it's like the author gives me a floorplan for a building, and they wrote the structure of it they wrote the floorplan...but i build the walls. I choose the color of the pain on the walls... I fill in the corners. They told me what to imagine. But I am the one who gets to create it in my mind.... And we all get the same floorplan. We all get the same book. We build the walls in different way.... Based off on your life views and life experiences, different people read book different ways."
I've been thinking about this for some time so thanks for the video. As a 52 year old man with a variety of health conditions is that I'm hyper aware of my mortality and the limited time I've got left for reading (which is probably the thing - after Doctor Who - I love the most. And possibly Dairy Milk chocolate.) Although that hasn't seemed to have stopped me from an almost masochistic refusal to DNF books. I do read different types of books at different speeds, but there's no set genre where I read faster or slower, although non-fiction is usually slower than fiction. I will fly through books I love in the 'can't put it down sense'. Many is the night where I've read through to the 2/3/4am because I can't put a book down. I also tend to have multiple books on the go. I annotate and make notes more than I used to, which does slow you down a little. But I'm bad at then taking a deep breath, gathering my thoughts and notes together. Although I write a review of every book I read on my Goodreads page. Sorry this has gone on far too long.
I really enjoyed hearing you discuss this. So, I used to turn my audiobooks up to 2.5x speed because I felt like I needed to be reading more, and the only way to do it was to speed up my reading. It was a pressure induced change due to social media. I realized after a while that I wasn't really enjoying my books or really diving into them the way that I love. I had to take a step back and realize that I enjoy reading slowly. I enjoy comprehending my books on a deeper level. Since I've done that, I enjoy my books much more! I feel like I missed too much trying to speed read.
I've been the same, feeling like I have to read books faster and speed my audiobooks up, though I rarely go beyond 2x speed - I want to get used to slowing down my reading too, but there are just so many good-sounding books out there and nowhere near enough time 😂
@Claire the_reading_apprentice I definitely know what you mean! It seems like my tbr will never stop growing, but I think that's a good problem to have, haha.
@@extraordinarilyalli7848 exactly! It will be a sad day if I don't have anything I want to read any more
I've always been a binge reader, simply because I NEED to know what happens next when I am engaged by a book. I used to be proud of that, because, reading is a healthy activity, right? But I recently realized that if it consumes me, if all I do is read for a couple of days it is not good for me, plus, yeah, I don't know if I enjoy details as much, I brush over a lot . So now for the first time I am reading book slowly and it's wonderful
I relate to that NEED 😂
Agreed . I'm interested in whats going on and I get pretty invested in the plot not then I simply forget the details and scenes after a few weeks 😅
Yesssss! I'm also a slow reader by nature. I started reading Mistborn since a few days ago and the only time that I find time to is before I go to bed and while I felt a little bit disappointed cause I was only at the 100 pages mark yesterday, I know that I'm in this (Cosmere) for the long run and it'll take me quite some time to go through all of it but there's nothing like the first time you're going through a series so I'm happy to go slow :)
What you said about having this desire to read quickly not because of some sort of competitions or numbers games but because there are just SO MANY books that you want to read is something I can really relate to :') and lately I've actually been working on purposefully slowing down my reading so that I can really immerse myself and savour what I'm reading so how timely that you've made a video about it
you brought up a good point on how we spend time. When you mentioned you read 2-3 hours a night, I thought, "dang that's such a long time out of your day, idk if I can do that" then realized when you said movies are 2-3 hours long now adays, hold up, that's a good point! Imma start every once in a while try reading longer instead of watching a movie.
I really appreciated this discussion. I am a slow reader and that’s surprisingly been something I’ve really struggled to come to terms with, simply because I don’t see a lot of people take pride in it. I feel like so often the community focuses more on reading more and it’s something many people strive for. I have been making my peace with it slowly, because I don’t think there is anything wrong with reading slowly, but I think this gave a lot of good perspective that I don’t just have to settle with making peace with it, and that it can actually be beneficial and something good. I really appreciated this video!!
Ive started to love re-reads more. the vivid details are more vivid, sometimes things happens slightly different than i remembered on the first read, and i can essentially "fast forward" through slow sections or parts i dont enjoy as much.
This is interesting, I find that when I read a book slower I don’t like it and when I read quickly it usually means I really love it!
Couldn’t agree more! Reading is supposed to be enjoyable. Not in competition with anyone. I’m a kind of “read at your own pace” type of reader.
It's funny because I have the opposite experience to yours. There are books that I just breeze through and others that I sit with for a lot longer because I want to appreciate every detail, and those tends to be the ones I'm more excited about, because I want to take my time to enjoy it. I've noticed that romance books are especially fast reads for me, because I disconnect from the world and get lost in them, but for fantasies and sci-fi books I always take longer because I want to understand every single thing that went into the world-building.
Editing to add that I don't consider myself a fast reader. Some people say I am because of the amount of books I read in a month/year, but they don't see how many hours I dedicate to reading and how many times I squeeze in "just this one paragraph/page" "I'm almost done with the chapter" "one more minute".
I call myself a slow reader because unless I’m in love with a book I only read for 30 minutes a day which is still heaps for the average person. I don’t want to force myself to read more and I’m good with that 😊 I love conversations like this and wish people wouldn’t feel bad for reading “less”.
I consider myself a slower reader, as you said depending on the kind of book we're going to read faster or slower. The most important thing is just read, slower or no. it's really an amazing experience when we are immersive in that story, specially when the environment around us is quiet. Your videos are incredible and always motivates me.
This kind of video appeals to me greatly. I often pressure myself to finish books quickly, thinking that reading more and faster makes me better. This diminishes my enjoyment of both regular books and audiobooks. Videos like this shift the focus to what matters most. Thank you!
Great video! I'm here for a celebration of slow reading and mindful living.
I'm a slow, mood reader... and I still manage to read around 70 books per year on an average year, which I think is a lot! Whenever I tried to have a TBR or force myself to read "what I should be reading right now" I got in a reading slump. So I decided long ago I'm not doing that! I'll read at my pace and whatever I feel like. But I have friends who read 100+ books, have TBRs and I'm chearing them on!
I'm not into reading for the competition. I'm in it for the books!
This is interesting. I'm a verry fast reader. The reason for this is that I enjoy the immerson, I feel like everything that is not reading is breaking that feeling. So I usually sitt down with a book and not putting it down until I finish it. Only broken up by begrudgingly having to go to the bathroom. So when I look forward to a book, like a new stormlight. I put off my weekend, so Oathbringer I read in a weekend not putting the book down. Later for a reread I can read slower.
that analogy about the floor plan is just amazing to me given im an interior achitecture student; im also a slow reader and this video is gold; thank you merphy as always
Loved this video! I also struggle between consuming books at a breakneck pace and really immersing myself in a story. I am reading the Stormlight Archive series for the first time and I am intentionally reading it slower than my normal speed so that I can get blissfully lost in the story. Thank you for the heads up on the kickstarter. I can't wait to read When Swords Fall Silent.
I let the book set the pace. Some draw me through fast. Others ask for more detailed attention. It's not only density of prose. It can be complexity of material, or an urge to savor certain scenes - Tolkien does that to me - but it's the book that sets my reading pace.
You're correct, it's consistency. I shoot for 100pp / day. This pace works for me, but whether I reach it or not, I do read every day for a few hours. I don't watch much TV, etc. I prefer to read.
The faster I read a book, the quicker I forget it. Which is odd because books that I devour quickly tend to be books that I love and give 5 stars to. I always think how it’s possible I forget the details of books that I claim are my favorites. I slowly read books that I’m not loving because I’m not as motivated to pick up the book, but reading it slowly means that I tend to remember lower rated books longer.
Great video!
I just let the story carry me to whatever speed it needs. It's like there is a Muse for reading. That said, I tend to read faster than expected when I've taken words-per-minute tests.
I've been thinking about reading speed lately too! Right now, I've been reading more slowly and really enjoying it, and then this video popped up, so thank you RUclips!
Thanks for posting this video. Your point was very well stated. I'm trying to become a more "quality over quantity" type of person with all of my hobbies instead of trying desperately all the time to get through my to be read, to be watched, and to be played piles
"Books take time , a movie will always be 2:30. " What's a great insight. I'm gonna use that from now on lol
Thanks for this video 💕 I tend to be a really fast reader, but just recently I was reflecting on my reading last year, I could barely even remember what books I read, let alone how I felt about them, because I just read way faster than my brain could remember. I tended to read books within a day or two, but this year I want to try slowing my reading down a bit - not with everything, because as you pointed out, some books are just right to devour, but I want to try taking one or two books a month and reading them in smaller chunks and really thinking about them, not just allowing them to be somewhat mindless entertainment. It's been a little hard so far, adjusting my brain to less books read per month, but I think I'm getting there 😊 I think another step for me is to let myself read the bigger books on my shelves and not be intimidated by them just because I can't read them in two days. Sometimes I feel like I've been reading a book for ages, but really it's only been three or four days, and I don't want to feel that way. But anyway, long winded comment, but thanks again for this video, as I think some of the points you made will stick with me and help me keep my resolutions 😊
Love your new reading corner! The ship model is a nice touch. Chef's kiss!
Your point on the floor plan, is how i view music too
Yess love a book / show or even song breakdown to better understand a certain topic 😊
Reading is very nuanced for me. My reading speed depends on my mood, my energy levels, on the book I'm reading etc. I think labeling myself as one or the other would be very wrong. So, I just let myself read how I feel like at the moment.
I want to address the competitiveness as well. People show how much they read and I can see how it can put a lot of pressure to read more. Reading at our own pace and trying not to compare is crucial or else it sucks the joy out of reading.
I'm a slow reader)
I quite often read when others go to sleep when the world around stop to noising.
I really like your video. Thanks a lot!
In response to the "I devoured this book!". Been there a number of times. Sunk into the world, galloped through, came up for air at last page... On reread, found things I didn't remember... To my mindset, that was a bonus... Something new in revisiting a world. Because if you aren't forcing a pace, you read at your desired pace. Omg, must read this book is a faster pace than school assignments.
“The body keeps the score” took 6 months to read because I kept putting it down. and some books took a week. Glad I found your video because there are so many subjects and it could have been so overwhelming if I didn’t see this.😅 I fell in love with reading. Idk why i felt I never had time but really it helped me overall lately
I love reading in whatever pace i feel like each book should be read. For me some just scream to be read more quickly, while I enjoy reading others at 0.5x speed.
Unfortunately, I’m a lit student and the amount of books I must read for each subject is sometimes unrealistic because they are not easy, quick reads, but rather they DEMAND you read them slowly. So having to fast read them to finish them in time has been a struggle. I comprehend so little in comparison to how much I COULD if I had the time, so I think slowing down a lot of the times has perks that we should enjoy from time to time. At least once every dozen books or something.
Fast reading is great, but so is slowing down.
This is always a fascinating subject to talk about because everyone just reads differently, even when it comes to things more granular than speed. Speed isn't something I've ever thought of when it comes to analyzing my own reading habits. It makes more sense for me to think in terms of pages. When I got back into reading for pleasure about a year and half ago, I would read a lot of books according to a schedule to lead up to a series or or movie premiere. This ties into my other hobbies and was much more efficient than whatever it is I do now. I would make calculations about how many pages per day I would need to read in order to finish a book by a certain day and, more often than not, I would meet those deadlines. I was very much an "I need to read every single day" kind of person at the time. If I wasn't chilling away to finish by a deadline, I was reading 50 pages a day as a baseline. Part of that was out of excitement to finally get through series like Mistborn that Booktubers wouldn't shut up about. That pretty much encapsulates how I read early on in my adult reading journey.
I'm a lot more relaxed with my reading now and a lot more drop-happy as a result. What I mean by this is that I have a much lower tolerance now for books I'm not enjoying by the time I hit the 20% mark, but I digress. I'm reading far less these days because I'm not reading every day and not reaching my 50 pages goal often. I'm reading because I want to be reading and not because I should be reading to keep up. Although, I can't say I'm enjoying reading any more or less than I did early on. It just feels a little different.
As far as actual reading speed goes in terms of time, I find that I get through second half of a book much faster than the first half. There's always a period in the first half of a book where I'm feeling it out to see if I want to keep going and I'm generally locked in at the 50% mark. I've also noticed that I tend to read through action sequences quickly because I replace the descriptions with what is happening in my head. I just need fewer words to get from action beat to action beat.
On the topic of rereads, the goal with my first read through a series or a book is to get the high level story, knowing that I'm missing details. I've never been someone who likes experiencing new media vs. re-experiencing media, but I've turned around on that lately. Rereads are where I'll get the details and go slow.
I think that's all I got.
Being a person of many interests, I am not a very avid reader - but definitely an immersive one. I usually only spend my time on titles which I really want to read or ones that ive heard a lot about. And the book’s prose and language accessibility usually decides the pace for me. If the prose is very fiery and addictive, I’ll devour that book (for eg. Sally Rooney or Elif Shafak) whereas if it’s a deep book that has a lot of layers and metaphors then I really slow down to appreciate the book (for e.g. Watchmen by Alan Moore where not just the lines but also the comic strip/ artwork had multiple layers). And if im not liking the prose or the direction of the story I simply dnf no matter the grandeur of who has written it. 😅😊
Well, this makes me feel better for reading so slow! Your talking about reading consistently was helpful actually since I sometimes feel like I’m pretty slow for a BookTuber, but I do read every day. This was a great video. Thanks!
I only got back into reading mid-to-late last year, so I’ve been burning through books very quickly because I want to be caught up with modern fantasy and all that (I read the Mistborn trilogy in about 2 weeks), but now that I have a decent number of books and series under my belt I’m trying to slow down and really savor them
From the thumbnail I can tell this is a good video with an amazing message. Intelligent stuff.
I’m definitely a slow reader, but some books have a way of taking all my attention and I just HAVE to fly through those, as you mentioned. I also love getting immersed and sometimes will read a scene several times to get it just right in my head, like I’m watching a movie and needed time to set up the scene properly. I can’t be the only one who does that… right?
I don’t know who said it first but I love the line, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” I would also like to add that it is also a liar that tells is we are not good enough and should do “better”.
As someone that vascillates between some heady nonfiction and fiction I find I need to grind slower while reading the nonfiction, especially for those books that need to be chewed on and reading slightly faster with fiction depending on the book.
I read really slow and I find that I retain and remember better than others. In school my friends needed to review what happened in the chapter when I always just remembered. I think it makes me enjoy it better because it sticks with me longer, but I've never experienced reading far so I don't know.
Can only speak for myself, but I always had the same experience except I was also the fastest reader in the group 🤷In 8th grade I literally had friends get annoyed at me for talking in too much detail and tell me to dial it back, lmao 😂
But I think it's also a matter of focus/investment. 🙂If I read too slowly, that's actually when my retention dips because it means I was distracted in between.
Though there's also a correlation between taking multiple breaks because retention is highest at the beginning and end, and taking a break in between also means you have to remember what happened before (and the more times you do that the more likely you'll convert that data from short term to long term memory). I think that's the main basis for the Pomodoro technique, actually?
But overall, while it might be human nature and easy to fall into, there's really no need to compare ourselves or compete at our hobbies, and nothing to gain from it either. We all have different experiences, different abilities, and enjoy ourselves differently-- and that diversity is great!
as a SLOW reader, I needed to hear this. I am a slow reader but I put myself in the story and picture it in my head. I can't do that if I force myself to read fast, then I end up not wanting to read.
Hi, Merphy! 12:00 - 12:30 would make such a great short video! I felt inspired!
I am so happy that you are bringing this topic because I can't read ferociously without appreciating and that it's a shame. Though there are books that doesn't deserve my whole attention there are definitely ones that I am missing a lot by reading so fast.
Thank you for sharing such a RELATABLE video, Merphy. 100% yes. I tend to be doing both at the same time, some books I love to read quickly and others I like to take slow.
Wonderful video. I came across a post on reddit recently that I knew would change the way I read forever. It's a technique for neurodivergent readers, and how it works is you focus on the first half of each word, and your mind will fill in the rest of the word automatically as you read.
Thanks for this video! I found it through your video with Brandon Sanderson, and was surprised to find a video that I really identified with! I've really struggled with reading fantasy slowly for the last year or so, especially since I've trained myself to speedread for my school books, which has ended up transferring over to my fantasy reading which really hurts my immersion and comprehension just like you said. :( My solution for it was to read through a book once then read through it slowly afterwards, but it's soooo inconvenient to read through books like Rhythm of War twice in a row... (especially when my first read was done in 20 hrs of straight reading with only one or 2 breaks)
I feel the EXACT same way. The immersion for me, is sooo deep. And I recently realised that I don’t want to pick up another book straight after finishing one. I need a couple of days to process the story. It stays with me. I can’t just jump from one world to another and leave it behind. And I used to be so, I don’t know, ashamed of it? I kept trying to read faster and read more books than I’m used to, only to ask myself ‘why?’. It all came down to comparison to other people, who read 100+ books a year, and I only read like 10. I thought I was doing it wrong, until I found your video and it just felt so good to know someone is just like me. And I want to know all these stories on my TBR list, but they just take so long… and I only recently started reading ebooks because buying books was too expensive for me and it held me back. I prefer paper books, but at the end of the day, I still have the story with me, and it’s better than not having it at all. Thank you Merphy, your video was very insightful and it felt really nice to be understood by another super emotional reader that I’m not alone in my reading habits, and there is nothing wrong with them. And what you said at 16:36, and after 16:52 about the floor plan that the authors give you and you choose to build it was just beautiful. ❤
I often find I read so fast and then regret that I didn’t slow down and take in every morsel of information. I just finished the woman in black and I loved it, I’ve only been reading for 3 years but I’ve already gained such a fast paced.
I sometimes page count for goals of mine with scheduling in mind and I sometimes wish I could read faster and comprehend faster to consume more books, but I honestly don't mind how long it sometimes takes me to finish a book. I love the books I read and I love the journey it takes to finish them.
Thank you for this video Merph. I really needed to hear this message.
It's always a pleasure to hear you talk about books 😭
A really great video, enjoyed it immensely. Watching a lot of Booktube I do feel pressure to read more books and hit a certain number each year, but I’m definitely trying to move away from that. I’m not going to set a reading challenge next year, or maybe just set it to a low number, so I don’t feel that pressure to read more just for the sake of it, or to try and match some of the numbers I see on Booktube. In the end it’s not about how many books you read but the enjoyment that you get out of it. And reading slower definitely helps with that.
I read slowly, visualizing most of the scenes in my head. Reading should be fun and it should not be a chore.
Me too. I have a problem with concentration, but that has nothing to do with my glacial read speed. Nor is it confined solely to reading.
I think this was a great video. Everyone's reading experiences, plans and approaches are different. I love to use every type of book, physical, digital and audio. I prefer hard cover or trade paperback, but love my Kindle when travelling or at night in bed for 15-30 mins. Love listening to Audio books when in the car, out walking, or even when I am running around the house doing chores. I usually reserve re-reads of favorite books for Audio so I don't have to concentrate on the book quite as much and can multi task with chores, workouts or driving. As I get older now, I have more time to read, and I find it is so good for my brain function, eye sight, etc... as well. Never was a big reader until I entered the working world and had a decent commute to work and then eventually went into sales where I was on the road a lot or on trains and planes.
This is such a good topic, Merphy. I've been feeling so much of this the past few months. I have so many books that I'm dying to read, but I also have missed the deep immersion of reading where you feel like you're waking up from a different world when you finish it.
I've been doing a readalong of Shogun for the past 3 months with several other booktubers, and we split the book into 3 parts over 3 months. At first, I was stressed over having to slow down and not fly through the book at my usual speed. Now, I'm realizing how much the process as reminded me how much I love immersing in a world and going on an epic journey over 800+ pages. I sort of felt burned out by those epic chonkers after blazing through SA in 2021-22, and I have been more intimidated by longer books since then because of it.
Slowing down with Shogun has been exactly what I needed to reengage with those epic stories and settle in for a bigger commitment without feeling like it's going to "take away time" from other reads.
I think as Booktubers it's very easy to get caught up in the rush of reading "enough" books or reading to keep up with friends or reading to have content to talk about. I think that as content creators it is very difficult to find that balance, and takes some self-reflection to figure out if we are reading simply to keep up with the status quo/content side of things, or if we are genuinely reading from a place of loving stories and wanting to talk about them.
I would consider myself a pretty slow reader but more than that, I am a distracted reader. I sit down to read a book and... something in it makes me want to look up a question or reminds me of something I need to do later so I put the book down and do that first before getting back into it. I have always been confused by people who say they can read an entire book in one sitting, that seems completely impossible to me. Your video has made me realize a lot of things about myself. I've been ashamed of the way I read for years but now I feel like it's more normal than I thought, especially looking at the comment section. Didn't know people struggled with the same stuff as me! Love you Merph
Back in 2009/10 I attended a speed reading course (I was working in academia at the time and had too many papers to read each week).
In that course I was taught several things:
1. That not everyone "reads aloud" in their head when they are reading, and this is considered by the "experts" as bad and something that we are supposed to have stopped doing when we were kids.
2. Reading "aloud" in my head is what makes me a slow reader and is a "habit" that is next to impossible to break as an adult. But that I could work to increase my speed sufficiently that it would make it hard to keep doing this.
3. We're "not supposed" to read every single word. And doing so will slow down your reading speed.
4. We "shouldn't" be aiming for 90+% comprehension and recall when reading but instead in the first pass 30-50% with the option to pick up more on rereads.
5. That in order to increase my reading speed, I needed to practice the technique I was being taught in my recreational reading as well as work reading.
And I learnt one thing:
That there was no way I was interested in changing my recreational reading habit, with reduced comprehension, recall and enjoyment, just for the sake of getting through more boring papers at work. And that I'm quite comfortable with my style of reading and others can read how they want to read.
One thing that I have reflected on in the years since, is that my testiness at work and constant suppressed need to reply "RTFE" might be reduced if more people slowed down their reading and increased their comprehension and recall of the emails I send 😆
I appreciate this so much. When I got back into reading I tried to push so hard to read fast and read with quantity but now I've slowed down and read slow because thats just my nature. I really try to enjoy it more now
I've always been the type to read slowly. I can't help but reread every sentence 4 times. Usually imagining exactly how the motion of someone's movement would be, especially with Brandan Sanderson's work. I even find myself acting out what I'm imagining physically with shallow gestures and facial expressions xD
I love taking my time with a good book.
I agree. This can be applied to anything though. We will never experience everything in life, so we must make the most of what we have and what we have time time experience. I often have to remind myself that daily.
Another great video! I 1000% agree that reading helps with managing stress, reading for a couple hours in the evening makes the difference between having a restful sleep or a night of exhaustive tossing and turning. I typically read as the book requires ( I agree with one of the comments posted that each book has it's own pace)
This is so important and your timing is unbelievable. Thank you so much for it, and for your kindness about it.
Super thankful you mentioned that people have alot of interests! It's something I struggle with alot, I enjoy doing a bunch of different things and can end up feeling inadequate compared to others just because I split my time. It's so silly :)
I’m in the same boat. Every time I’m in a Target or Barnes and Noble I grab another book or two which causes me to mentally accelerate my current book always working towards the “next book”. Going to start tapping into library books for fiction genres and buy personal development/self help books to keep as note taking and reference. Great topic!
I spent some time away from booktube, so I am sure this is extremely late, but congratulations on your daughter, Merphy! 💜💜💜 How exciting… I know you were considering adopting a while back 💜
I'm a slow reader and always have been. Sometimes I go faster when I have that NEED to know what happened, but I reread often so I do get the details later. I've often felt self conscious of my reading pace, but overall it makes me happy.
I'm also a writer and that has really affected how I read. Slowing down, I feel a deeper connection to the author, their characters, and their ideas -- and I really like that.
I loved your point that the reading experience is so different from person to person and book to book. It's taken me a year or more to read some thick Sanderson novels, where I knew each time I picked it up I was going to have to spend 15 minutes getting reacquainted and settling into the world again. But I love those stories, I enjoyed taking my time to live in them. Looking back, I can associate a time period of my life with a certain story. But I've also devoured entire (shorter) novels in a single night, staying up until the morning. Everyone should read in a way that they find most enjoyable, and celebrate our different approaches!
this brings to mind a conversation i had when i was younger where one of my friends bragged about how fast they could read and it always felt wrong to me because i felt that if you were reading that fast there is absolutely no way your getting the full experience and now i feel somewhat vindicated. i read consistently every chance i got when i was a kid if i was reading fast it'd usually take me at least three days to burn through a book if i was going slow up to a couple of weeks unfortunately due to my current health issues my reading has gone way down, it now takes me over two weeks to finish a book, still love reading though.
LOVE this conversation 💕💕💕
I really needed this video! Thanks Merph!
I'm definitely both a "binge" and "savor" kind of a reader. It honestly just depends on my mood and, even more so, on the book and how it's matching up with my mood. Sometimes I will finish a whole series in two weeks and other times it takes me just as long to finish a 400 page book.
This video came at the perfect time for me. I’ve been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately by how many fantasy series I’m excited to get to and how I’m not reading fast enough to get to all of them this year, let alone in the next few. So this is a great reminder that slowing down is ok and to appreciate what I’m reading right now instead of always thinking so far ahead. Thanks for the great discussions you always do!
Hello Merphy! Thanks for talking about this! I love to read but I'm definitely a slow reader. I ebb and flow with the speed that I read depending on the book. For example, I'm reading City of Brass currently and I've been running through it because I'm enjoying it. I'm reading it with a group and they were discussing how some characters have literacy and others don't but I didn't pick up on that at all. I feel like I missed out on that which makes me a little sad. However, I do own the book and will be re-reading it in the future so I'm sure I'll be able to catch more details than I did the first go around.
I understand the desire to “read as much as I can”. I know I’ve been there and I still have those thoughts. But there’s something to be said about going slow, taking your time and absorbing a book as much as you can. I think it’s better to read 5 books this year and take a lot from them than read 100 really quickly.
Loved this video thank you Merphy!
I love the new setup Merphy! I watched you setup on 2nd channel ❤
I love these kinds of videos from you!!
I love this kind of videos!! and your map of Japan is so cool