Speed Readers

Mistook · Jun 17, 2005

Does anybody share my nightmare that after slaving over a manuscript for years, and grieving over every last word, you publish your novel, only to have a speed reader breeze through it in half an hour?

scribbler1382 · Jun 17, 2005

Whether they read it in half an hour or half a year, you make the some royalties off the purchase. And since you'll be busy working on your next book, you won't have time to worry about it.

reph · Jun 17, 2005

It can take an hour to cook a meal and 20 minutes to eat it, but we're not going to stop cooking – or eating – for that reason.

maestrowork · Jun 17, 2005

If a reader can finish your book in half an hour and understand and get your story -- congratulations! You should be SO proud.

What I dread is for someone to spend 5 years reading my book, and eventually give up. That would be totally depressing.

Mistook · Jun 17, 2005

scribbler1382 said:
Whether they read it in half an hour or half a year, you make the some royalties off the purchase. And since you'll be busy working on your next book, you won't have time to worry about it.

Yeah, the money would be nice of course. But we don't just write for money.

sunandshadow · Jun 17, 2005

I try to read books at one sitting (which means a day, not half an hour) because I think my reading does the book more justice that way - the careful buildup of suspense isn't broken by me thinking about something else for hours. I would be horrified if somebody read my writing one paragraph a day, they would never get the full effect or remember the beginning by the time they got to the end.

But think positive - think about the handful of readers who will like your books so much they'll read it more than once!

aruna · Jun 18, 2005

Mistook said:
Does anybody share my nightmare that after slaving over a manuscript for years, and grieving over every last word, you publish your novel, only to have a speed reader breeze through it in half an hour?

I couldn't giev a damn how quickly or slowly people read my books!

Speed readers actually take in a lot more than you'd think. My son is a speed reader. When he was about ten I was amazed at how quickly he read books , and thought he was just skimming. But he really understood - and enjoyed - the books and could answer quedtons on the content. He's now 19 and doesn't read much, but recently he was in hopsital for a day and took a couple of novels. In one day he had finished two and knew exactly what was in them.

ted_curtis · Jun 18, 2005

I'm unpublished, and my personal nightmare is that I'll slave over every word for more than 4 years and the vast majority of readers will hate my book. Oh, and they'll let me know...emails, letters, stopping me in the grocery store.

But I know what you mean. We obsess over details that most people don't notice. I think it's the same with musicians, illustrators, architects -- doctors and lawyers, too. But I think sweating the details makes a difference. Even if the reader can't tell you why, they know a good book from a bad one.

Birol · Jun 18, 2005

Mistook said:
Does anybody share my nightmare that after slaving over a manuscript for years, and grieving over every last word, you publish your novel, only to have a speed reader breeze through it in half an hour?

No. I have to say, this is one paranoia I haven't experienced. 'course, as a reader, I know that the more I enjoy a book, the faster I read it, to the exclusion of everything else. The same is true of my reading but non-writing friends.

Kallahan · Jun 18, 2005

I read my books on the john, it tends to add yet another careful buildup of suspense. I also read in my bed, which I might add is a horrible idea, I never get any sleep. Sometimes I read on a couch.

The issue at hand, however, has neer been a concern of mine. Rather I wonder wether or not they enjoy reading my book.

edit: I used "tends to" twice in the same sentece, time for sleep.

katiemac · Jun 18, 2005

No. I have to say, this is one paranoia I haven't experienced. 'course, as a reader, I know that the more I enjoy a book, the faster I read it, to the exclusion of everything else. The same is true of my reading but non-writing friends.

I'm with Lori here. The faster I read, the more I like the book. I've always been a fast reader, anyway, and will gladly down a novel a day if I have the time. It's great feeling. Plus, all the details are fresh in my mind so I can run off and tell people about it when I'm still excited.

maestrowork · Jun 18, 2005

My concern is not whether my readers would read it fast... it's whether they would read it again!

The sound of rapid page turning could be a very pleasant one...

LloydBrown · Jun 18, 2005

Mistook said:
Does anybody share my nightmare that after slaving over a manuscript for years, and grieving over every last word, you publish your novel, only to have a speed reader breeze through it in half an hour?

Michael Stackpole (author of I, Jedi and Once a Hero and dozens of others) said in a seminar at GenCon something close to "If you write a novel that is what they call a page-turner--that is, a book that people stay up all night reading because they can't put it down--they'll say it's a great book even if it isn't."

So that's my goal. I don't care if it's a great book, as long as the reader feels compelled to read it through in one sitting.

PattiTheWicked · Jun 19, 2005

Mistook said:
Does anybody share my nightmare that after slaving over a manuscript for years, and grieving over every last word, you publish your novel, only to have a speed reader breeze through it in half an hour?

No. My nightmare is that they'll read through the first half really fast and decide it sucks, and never finish it.

Seriously - I read very quickly, and can finish most books in a day or two if uninterrupted. It doesn't take away from how much I enjoy the book. I'm usually reading three or four books at a time, and some books I read simply BECAUSE I know I can finish them in a day or two.

Bottom line is, if they like it enough to finish it, I'm happy with that.

karenranney · Jun 19, 2005

I've often sighed when a reader tells me

that she read my book in one sitting. Or something like, "I kept reading a straight six hours until I finished it!"

Okay, on the one hand, it's a great compliment. On the other, I do wish they'd take longer.

KimJo · Jun 19, 2005

One of my beta readers told me he read the second novel in my YA series in 45 minutes. (It's about 40,000 words.) Obviously a shorter YA is going to be a faster read than, say, a 700-page novel, but still. He also said that he couldn't put it down till he finished it, which I took as a good thing.

mistri · Jun 19, 2005

I read fairly quickly, and yes, there are times when I wonder if I read *too* quickly (I sometimes have to go back and read a section if it didn't sink in the first time, but then again, maybe that's because it was written awkwardly). At the same time, I think reading so quickly enables me to see the book as a whole more easily (when I used to read books on a short commute to read it'd take me an age to read one) and thus I get more involved with the characters, the story, the emotions and so on.

AdamMac · Jun 20, 2005

Mistook. Maybe you could try writing a novel aimed at speed readers. A multi-layered epic fantasy of a goodly 8,000 words. Delete every third word and avoid anything but nouns and verbs.

Nah. On second ..., ... doesn't ... appealling ... me.

``Speed reading'' sounds to me like an oxymoron, as do ``sailboat racing'' and ``working holiday.'' I just can't understand how somebody can enjoy racing through a novel and be entertained. Surely speed readers must miss something. Do they also watch movies on fast forward?

Still, I would rather have a speed reader skim my writing and enjoy it than a reader digest it only to decide it's not very good.

sunandshadow · Jun 20, 2005

Adam Mac said:
Surely speed readers must miss something.

What is the definition of speed reading, anyway? I read about 50 pages an hour, so if I have nothing else to do that day I can read a 600 or 700 page novel in a day, and a shorter novel in an afternoon/evening. Is that speed reading? I can assure you that I don't miss anything, my scores on reading comprehension tests have always been very high. That's just my natural reading speed, the speed at which I can take in well-written prose and convert it into meaning in my brain. I once met a girl whose reading speed was amost twice mine, and she also had a very high comprehension level of what she read.

It's not like we're forcing ourselves to read faster than we should. Some people are just faster than others. If I were to speculate I would say that fast readers are probably those who started reading at a very young age and always read a lot, which attunes your brain to reading, the same way playing music as a child attunes your brain to music. Also, fast readers typically are better at blocking out distractions in their reading environment, so they lose less time from breaks in their concentration.

maestrowork · Jun 20, 2005

I look at it like cooking... or specifically, my dad's gourmet cooking.

During an important event (like New Year), my dad'd slave for two days in the kitchen preparing dish after dish of exquisite food for the family banquet. Sometimes even as we gather at the table, he'd still be working in the kitchen (because some dishes, such as fish, needs to be cooked just right, down to the seconds). The work he'd put into making these dishes is incredible. The details. The processes. The ingredients. The time and effort.

Then there's the eating. All it'd take is an hour for us to devour everything. The better the food, the faster it goes. And my dad gets the utmost enjoyment seeing how we enjoy the food and how quickly we chow down everything. The sounds of our slurping, munching, or our bowls and plates clanking are like music ot his ears.

I'd like to be my dad some day. My writing is my food. And you, my guests!

LloydBrown · Jun 20, 2005

sunandshadow said:
What is the definition of speed reading, anyway? I read about 50 pages an hour, so if I have nothing else to do that day I can read a 600 or 700 page novel in a day, and a shorter novel in an afternoon/evening. Is that speed reading?

Average reading rate is 200-250 wpm. I read casually at about 650 and can manage up to 1500 wpm without any substantial loss of comprehension under certain circumstances.

My father, an editor/journalist with nearly 50 years at a newspaper, can apparently read a page of type like I can sight-read the total of a pair of dice. It's mind-boggling.

Mistook · Jun 20, 2005

When I think of speed-reading, I think of special courses a person can take to learn how to read at break-neck speed. A speed-reader of this kind usually holds their fingers under the current sentence and scans the page with both hand and eye.

Supposedly if you master this method, you can whiz through a 400 page novel in about twenty minutes.

I don't have any problem with naturally fast readers, though I have to admit I don 't understand them. My mind is always wandering, and I find it quite difficult to focus on reading a book. I ponder as I read, which slows things down quite a bit. When I find myself really enjoying a chapter, I usually go back and read it again before moving on. I guess you could say I'm savoring it.

I do the same thing with music. The more I like a song, the more I'll hit rewind to hear it again from the start - each time focusing on a different facet of the music and pondering how it all works together.

AdamMac · Jun 20, 2005

Sunandshadow and Lloyd Brown,

I, like mistook, think of speed reading as a special technique used to skim, digesting only key words. I read a book on it once with an eye to use it to study in university. It would probably be very useful for that but I can't imagine it would be very enjoyable. In other words, speed reading, to me, is forcing yourself to read faster than you should.

I envy the ability to read naturally at three times the average speed and still retain a high level of comprehension. That said, I also enjoy pondering. A particularly powerful image or poignant line will leave me staring off into space as often as it has me flipping the page. And then there's the notes. I can't get through a chapter of any book without picking up pen and notepad at least once to jot down collateral ideas.

Niapri · Jun 21, 2005

Mistook said:
Does anybody share my nightmare that after slaving over a manuscript for years, and grieving over every last word, you publish your novel, only to have a speed reader breeze through it in half an hour?

Honestly, I have to admit to being one of those referred-to speed readers.

I, personally, don't "breeze" through any book...it's just that I sort of get caught up in the story and the only thing in my mind is "What's about to happen?!" When I finish, I don't move onto some random other book...I just sort of sit there and think, sometimes talk about the book to my friends.

Speed readers can appreciate your novel, even if they spend less time reading it. The majority of us speed-readers just don't think about the time it takes to read, just the story and the characters. (Not to mention the fact that most of the ones I know - including myself - re-read the books multiple times.)

Show the speed-demons some love!

KTC · Jun 21, 2005

As Dr. Seus once said, "You have to be a speedy reader, because there's oh so much to read!"

My only hope is that they read my book. Whether they read it fast or slow is beyond my worrying about.

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