(no subject)

[sacramentalist]

I found a neat tool which estimates how long it takes to read something:

https://www.readinglength.com/

Of course, it assumes people aren't unfocused and dull-witted. I can easily read several pages, meditating on how fast I can read and then have to go back. Or I'll read the same sentence 5-10 times before the comprehension section of my brain starts firing and I can proceed.

Part of this comes from lack of practice, mental distractions ("why am I reading and not doing what I need to do?"), and personal exigencies, Or it may just be my reading choices.

Joseph Conrad's Lord Jim is not a focused book. It has two-three-sometimes-four layers of narration and skips and hops back as often as it ruminates on romanticism. And I catch myself distracted by vocabulary. It's vexing.

Comments

[lapinlunaire]

This has happened to me too, especially in times when my depression was especially bad. :( It was like I was reading the words but they weren't getting into my brain.

But if that's not the reason why you experience this, maybe you could try just reading without pressuring yourself to read quickly or understand, just set aside a time every day to sit down and read without distractions.

I've never read Lord Jim, are you enjoying it so far? Have you read anything cool recently?

[sacramentalist]

Oh, I finished it. It's wordy for how little plot there is, but it's good. I'm not sold on the layers of narration helps. I'm similarly confused by that aspect of Wuthering Heights (which was my previous read, Emily Bronte's 200th birthday). I'm not sure how it helps but hinders the story. The differences between narrators are too subtle for me to discern.

It's kind of the end of the adventure story. Pretty racist, but everything is. It's like a long Heart of Darkness.

Now I'm on Pere Goriot. I don't read anything cool. I should have gone farther back to stories where these rich assholes get their heads lopped off.

I have the first three Expanse novels in a bound set, but I can't decide if I want to read them or give it as a present.