Slow Reader Book Club discussion

“Fast reading of a great novel will get us the plot.
It will get us names, a shadowy idea of characters, a sketch of settings.

It will not get us subtleties, small differentiations, depth of emotion and observation, multilayered human experience, any sense of context, any comparison with other novels, other writers.

Fast reading will not get us cadence and complexities of style and language. It will not get us anything that enters not just the conscious mind but the unconscious.

It will not allow the book to burrow down into our memory and become part of ourselves. It will not develop our awareness.

Read parts of a newspaper quickly or an encyclopedia entry, or a fast-food thriller, but do not insult yourself or a book which has been created with its author's painstakingly acquired skill and effort, by skill and effort, by seeing how fast you can dispose of it.”

—Susan Hill

Reading isn't a sport or a competition.
It is a pleasure. Something to savor.

What do you think are some benefits of reading slowly?

I think that is the whole point of reading, isn't it? To ruminate on the words and the story and what we can learn from it, like a cow chewing on cud while watching the solitary road on which only a handful of cars pass by on a single day.

That is so beautifully put. BUT...when I am addicted to a novel I read REALLY fast (I completed the Percy Jackson series in four days) and I enjoy the book to the fullest. So according to me, how much you enjoy a book actually determines your speed. And you will enjoys and find the "subtleties" of the books you read very fast if you enjoyed them. Because enjoying a book is in itself an experience which is paralleled by none.