There’s a new phenomenon: the slow reading movement.
I love it.
Slow reading means reading for at least half an hour without being distracted or interrupted by anything else—especially smartphones. Not only will it completely relax you and bring down your stress levels, it will also positively affect your reading comprehension. A study found that a multimedia presentation mixing words, sounds and moving pictures resulted in lower comprehension than reading plain text did.
As many of us can affirm, online reading has impacted our reading habits. We’ve become skimmers, fast trackers, scanners. I seldom read a full article online; I merely scan it and zoom in on the interesting parts.
As a result, many have lost the ability to fully enjoy and even finish books. That’s not the case with me, as I read over 150 books a year (though admittedly, with non-fiction books I do skip parts that don’t interest me) but I can imagine where this is coming from.
But researchers think it has more effects. It may have impacted our ability to process lengthy texts, combine facts, see the whole picture. It has certainly had an effect on our ability to concentrate.
Reading in the sense of completely losing yourself in a book and forgetting the world around you seems to become a lost art. The slow reading movement wants to counter that by organizing silent reading parties, slow reading book clubs, and more.
Sign me up!
How often do you spent at least 30 minutes slow reading?
(P.S. If you’re looking for great books to read, check out our Saturday Morning Book Reviews!)
[Photo Credit: Jens Schott Knudsen on Flickr, Creative Commons]
Eric Dye says
Hardly ever—yikes!
Rachel Blom says
Well, maybe something to try and do more of, especially in the summer! 🙂
Andrew Fallows says
Last fall I made a concerted effort to read more books (real, physical, paper books), and I managed to stick to it by giving myself a couple rules:
* I will read one book at a time. I will not read another book until I’m done the one I’m reading.
* I give myself permission to say “I don’t like this book, I won’t finish it” or to put it off for later because now isn’t the right time.
* I read for 20-30 minutes before turning out the light at night.
Not long after I made those rules for myself, my commute changed from a drive to a train ride! Now I read at least 20 and sometimes as much as 100 minutes a day.
Last year, all told, I probably read 4-5 books before I adopted those rules.
So far this year I’ve read 30!
Rachel Blom says
Great rules Andrew! The second one resonates with me especially. I used to ‘force’ myself to finish books I didn’t really like, but about two years ago I stopped doing that. There are so many great books, why waste time reading one I don’t like?
Greg says
I hardly ever read longform anymore. I’m making a concerted effort to change that. To do so, I’m starting with classics where I can get lost – books by Mark Twain for example. I agree that our media saturated culture makes us all MADD (Media Attention Deficit Disorder). We’re all looking for the next NEW thing.
Rachel Blom says
Ow, I like that term, MADD. Very apt.