wispfox

You're swift of eye! I was at 200-250 a minute - only average. I find that I loop a lot in my reading, reading parts of the sentence over again to see that I registered the proper meaning.

Then again, maybe my reading-brain-muscles are just weak. I've never been much of a reader, save for magazine articles, the news, and books about the mind or social interactions.

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You're swift of eye!

*nod* Yeah. Always have been. And actually reading every word individually was a strange thing to have to do, for the really boring fiction thingy. I tend to skim when reading boring stuff.

It's part of why my email volume can be so much higher than most people's - I read, and type, quickly.

I find that I loop a lot in my reading, reading parts of the sentence over again to see that I registered the proper meaning.

If I'm doing _that_, I'm too tired to be reading. Why would you doubt your ability to have read it right the first time?

maybe my reading-brain-muscles are just weak. I've never been much of a reader

I think I read as fast as I do _because_ I read so much, and did so much more as a kid.

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Why would you doubt your ability to have read it right the first time?

Sometimes rereading happens with complex texts, but usually it just means I'm tired/bored.

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Right. Which is what I said immediately before the stuff you quoted. 'If I'm doing _that_, I'm too tired to be reading.'

I guess the question I was asking should have been 'if you're not too tired or bored or something to be reading, why would one feel the need to re-read something while in the middle of reading it?'

Although, yes, I do agree with complex texts as another possible reason. :)

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[Cognitive Psychology] Looping is one stage of the "learning to read" process. Eventually, people become so accustomed to reading that the loops become smaller and unconscious. But everyone loops on a small-scale, but may not be aware of it until it becomes larger. [/Psych]

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books about the mind or social interactions

Nonfiction and thinking and peoples, eh?

Let me know if you want any book recommendations, especially if you want to try some good fiction.

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First (House bo-ring)

You read between 450 - 500 words per minute.

Second (Address. Shorter sentences, somewhat less boring, but politicky)
You read between 600 - 650 words per minute.

The scrolling definitely slowed me down. Also, having a narrow column of text on a larger screen.

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Let me know if you want any book recommendations, especially if you want to try some good fiction.

I probably should start reading again. Ok - here is your challenge, fiction girl. Pick one book out of all the books that you would recommend - just one - and I will read that book. On my honor.

Oh... sssshhh! sssshhh! I think we're chatting in

wispfox's lj again. *glances around nervously*

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Yeah. The politicky part didn't help my speed, either.

And yeah, on the scrolling. That might be why I thought I read better with paper.

Not sure I noticed the narrow column so much. Hmm...

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chatting in wispfox's LJ again

Yay! Chatty people!

*bounces*

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*hands you a bouncy ball for extra bounciness*

http://www.personal.psu.edu/users/w/x/wxk116/romeball.html

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Yes. You should. Everyone should read. *nods firmly*

One book? Oh, that's really ~~easy!~~ really hard. Thus, I have a counter-challenge for you. You must give me a short list of things you like in books (length, intended audience level/age, plot, character, setting, themes, fluff/seriousness, etc). It's easy to give recommendations, but I try to give recommendations that the person will actually like, based on what they already do like.

I have a few books in mind though, if your interest in the mind extends to psychic powers/magic, especially how possessors and "normal" society interact.

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*nods* People read demonstrably faster when it's something they're interested in. (Of course, that can also mean that they know bits of it and can skim too.) This interest=motivation is a significant problem for English classes (let alone any other class with textbooks), when people don't care about the topic they're reading about...

Paper can help, yes. To an extent, larger typefaces (with sufficent spacing) help electronic reading. Also, appropriate column width (i.e. user-adjustable).

Scrolling could be seen as analogous to turning the pages, for instance.

The worst ebooks are the ones that try to simulate the page model too closely, especially on-line. They should provide an option for scrolling and an option for a one or two-page spread.

Acrobat is the best I've seen for preserving print typography, illustrations, footnotes, and other formatting. But it has its problems too (spacing, font size, etc). Also, editing Acrobat documents is a major pain. It's about as easy to regenerate them from an edited source document...

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whiterabbitt.livejournal.com

You read quickly. I read a lot (mostly on computers, without much continuity... that is, I haven't read an entire book in a long tie), and I've always had the sneakins suspicion that I read somewhat slowly. When I push, I can read every word at 400-450, but unless I concentrate hard, I lapse into 200wpm reading, which is only three times as fast as I can type in the first place.

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Hrmmm... let me see. Well, I've enjoyed fantasy more than Sci-fi, though stories set in modern times work fine with me (even alternate reality modern times). I tend to like authors that are fairly richly detailed. I'm not above some comedy, but tend to be more drawn to the serious. I like well-developed cosmologies, that have an intrinsic logic that could (in some ways) map over onto our own reality. Characters need to be consistent to their own logic, and they have to maintain character throughout the writing, save changing via natural development (which they should also do - damn you, Robert Jordan!)

It's interesting reading what I wrote above - it's my writing environment. I guess I could just read my own chapters. >:-)

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Young Adult or Adult?
Series or Non-series?

*snickers about Robert Jordan*

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Adult.
Series or Non-Series, either can be good. Whichever.

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Okay.

*picks semi-randomly from pool of good adult books*

Song & Silence by Elizabeth Kerner

(I also picked something that's still in-print and easily available via Amazon, if not a library. Aren't I nice? :P)

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I'm assuming it's "Song in the Silence" by Elizabeth Kerner. I'll procure it tomorrow at lunch.

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Oops. Yes. Song in the Silence by Elizabeth Kerner. I looked it up to confirm title wording (as I knew Song & Silence is D&D), but forgot to change title in actual comment.

Let me know if you don't like it, and tell me why, and I'll find you a better one.
Let me know if you do like it, and tell me why, and I'll find you another one (for after you finish the trilogy).

*steeples fingers* So basically, let me know how you like it. :P

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I _totally_ didn't know this. Neat!

Where did you get that info from? I'm all curious now and want more to read along similar 'how people's minds work' lines.

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From my Cognitive Psychology class last semester.

We minimally used Robert J. Steinberg's Cognitive Psychology (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0155085352), but the class really relied on lecture and articles. I can dig up a list of articles about reading at some point, if you remind me. (The book was often too easy and simplistic, but the articles were rather long and jargon-filled though.)

I also recommend Steven Pinker's books on language, Howard Gardner's theories of multiple intelligences, Mel Levine's A Mind at a Time, Donald Norman's books on usability...

Some more books on usability (http://nmc1.kent.edu/iakm/html/Textbooks.htm)

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