Hiya escapists.
When I talk to people about reading, it seems to me that everyone but me races through a novel (500 page average, perhaps) in a couple of days. Maybe a week or two if it's a long book.
This is not the case with me. I often spend months on a single book (Most recently Knights of Bretonnia, which I read over the course of june and july).
I don't think it has anything to do with reading speed. If this: http://www.readingsoft.com is to be believed, I read at slightly above average speed (263 wpm) with above average reading comprehension (82%).
Apparently, most people sit down and just read continuously for hours and hours and are done with the book in a matter of days.
My reading experience, on the other hand, consists of sitting down with the book, reading ten lines, staring off into space for a while, going back to reading and forgetting where I was so I have to search the page for the last line I read and start from there. Repeat ad nauseum.
Once in a while, I'll manage to read two to five pages without stopping; but each such session of succesful concentration is stopped short by a sudden itch or a realisation that I'm seated in an uncomfortable position, which prompts me to get up and deal with the problem. When I then sit back down to read, I will often neglect opening the book in favour of just daydreaming for a while.
Add to that the fact that I rarely read for more than three hours at a time, and the result is that getting through a book for me normally takes several months.
[sub]Of course, it doesn't help that I only really feel like reading when I can sit outside in the sun and read. (Isn't all that common in Norway.)[/sub]
So what I'm wondering is this: Is other people finishing books in days just a product of my imagination, or is that how normal people read? How long does it take you to read an average 500 page novel?
When I talk to people about reading, it seems to me that everyone but me races through a novel (500 page average, perhaps) in a couple of days. Maybe a week or two if it's a long book.
This is not the case with me. I often spend months on a single book (Most recently Knights of Bretonnia, which I read over the course of june and july).
I don't think it has anything to do with reading speed. If this: http://www.readingsoft.com is to be believed, I read at slightly above average speed (263 wpm) with above average reading comprehension (82%).
Apparently, most people sit down and just read continuously for hours and hours and are done with the book in a matter of days.
My reading experience, on the other hand, consists of sitting down with the book, reading ten lines, staring off into space for a while, going back to reading and forgetting where I was so I have to search the page for the last line I read and start from there. Repeat ad nauseum.
Once in a while, I'll manage to read two to five pages without stopping; but each such session of succesful concentration is stopped short by a sudden itch or a realisation that I'm seated in an uncomfortable position, which prompts me to get up and deal with the problem. When I then sit back down to read, I will often neglect opening the book in favour of just daydreaming for a while.
Add to that the fact that I rarely read for more than three hours at a time, and the result is that getting through a book for me normally takes several months.
[sub]Of course, it doesn't help that I only really feel like reading when I can sit outside in the sun and read. (Isn't all that common in Norway.)[/sub]
So what I'm wondering is this: Is other people finishing books in days just a product of my imagination, or is that how normal people read? How long does it take you to read an average 500 page novel?
