Well, since book reviews will appear less often here in the future, I thought that I’d talk about the differences between reading quickly and reading slowly. A few days before preparing this article, I worried that I was losing interest in reading again.
After all, when I got back into reading regularly a little under two years ago, I’d enthusiastically read and review novels in about 2-4 days and, although – thanks to the magic of having a large “buffer” of pre-written articles – I’ve been able to keep this review schedule up, I found that I’m not really interested in binge-reading books quite as quickly at the moment.
In fact, the thing that temporarily shook me out of this “losing interest in reading again” mood was abandoning the fast-paced thriller novel that I’d originally planned to read (since these usually “work” when I’m not interested in reading) and instead reading a slightly slower-paced, but more richly-written, sci-fi novel at a slower pace.
So, I thought that I’d compare reading quickly to reading slowly.
1) It affects how you think about books: If you binge-read, then books feel smaller than they do if you read slowly. They go from being these substantial things that demand hours and weeks of your time to being more like DVD copies of films or something like that. This is really hard to describe if you haven’t experienced it yourself, but regular binge-reading really does change how you think about books.
This is both a good and a bad thing. On the one hand, being able to blaze through a novel in a couple of days feels really impressive. It makes you feel like a reader and also results in a much more focused and intense experience of the story. Likewise, because you’re reading the whole thing in a couple of days, the plot and characters are much fresher in your mind when you’re reading, which makes the story a lot easier to follow.
On the downside, you’re constantly worrying about what to read next. Piles of books also seem smaller, because they don’t last as long. Plus, unlike reading slowly, you don’t really have as much time to really build up a relationship with a book (to the point where it becomes a familiar companion for a while) and you don’t really have as much time to savour the writing and bask in the atmosphere of a well-written novel.
2) Book fatigue: Although there are techniques you can use to minimise this (eg: not reading two books by the same author in a row, reading several different genres etc…), one of the problems with reading quickly is that you can develop “book fatigue” after a while. This is a jaded feeling that you’ve “seen it all before”. That books are no longer the magical, complex and interesting storytelling medium they once were, but are instead as “ordinary” as TV or the internet. This “books are ordinary” feeling can seem really cool at first, but this doesn’t always last.
In other words, binge-reading regularly can actually make you bored of books. It’ll make you think longingly about watching films instead, even though you know that novels are a much richer storytelling medium. It’ll mean that any excuse to get distracted from reading by a computer game feels absolutely heavenly.
Reading slowly doesn’t really have any of these problems. Because you’re only reading a few chapters a day, books still feel “fresh” and interesting. It also frees up more time to explore other storytelling mediums too, meaning that books will feel more distinctive in comparison to things like films, games etc… They will feel a bit more “magical” and a bit less “ordinary”. On the downside, it means that you’ll read less books though.
3) Quality: One of the great things about reading quickly is that it makes you think about quality a lot more. Because you’re reading so many books so quickly, not only do “less impressive” books not last as long but you’re also able to get much more of a feeling of what is and isn’t a “good book” because you’ve been exposed to more books.
If you have a regular binge-reading reading schedule, then this also means that it’s easier to abandon books that you don’t like. If you want to keep up with your schedule, then not only is it more important to choose books that you know you’ll enjoy, but ditching a book that doesn’t interest you after a chapter or two is much less of a big decision. After all, you’ve invested less time in it and it’s just one book out of of many that you could read.
So, binge-reading is useful for avoiding the dreary pitfall of wasting weeks reading a book you don’t like out of a feeling of obligation. On the downside, when you find a really great book, then it won’t last as long. It’ll be over in a couple of days or so and, unless you’re lucky enough to have another great book on stand-by, then the next book probably won’t seem as good in comparison.
4) It doesn’t have to be one or the other: Reading speed is a personal thing that will depend on a number of factors like time, experience/skill and even the way that the book you’re reading is written. What I’m trying to say is that you don’t have to only binge-read or only read slowly. It’s possible to go through phases where you read lots of books quickly and phases where you slow down and savour them a bit more.
Both ways of reading have their advantages and are suited to different situations. So, I guess that the lesson here is to trust your own instincts. I mean, back when I used to spend at least a week reading a novel, I would still occasionally binge-read a book in a day or two if it really impressed me.
The important thing in all of this is to actually enjoy reading. If binge-reading is fun at the moment, then do this. If reading slowly is fun at the moment, then do this.
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Anyway, I hope that this was useful 🙂
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