On Reading Slowly
Speed is a fine way to find a text. It is a poor way to keep one.
Most of our reading today is a search. We skim to find the sentence that answers a question, then move on. That is a reasonable way to use text, and it is not the only one.
Two kinds of reading
Searching treats a text as a container to be emptied. Slow reading treats it as a place to spend time. The difference is not speed alone; it is what you expect to come away with. A search ends with an answer. Slow reading often ends with a better question.
Searching ends with an answer. Slow reading ends with a better question.
Making room for it
A few things help:
- Read on a page that does not compete for your attention.
- Keep a pen, or a highlight, close at hand.
- Stop at the end of a section and say, in a sentence, what it was about.
This is why the pages in this journal are built the way they are: generous type, a calm measure, and tools that stay out of the way until you need them.