Getting the most out of your reading...Slow down and share.

The current mania for reading quickly and getting only the gist of what is being said rather than trying to re-read, think about and savour is an invention of the last hundred years. It came about in the early 20th century, when psychologists realized that those who read silently scanned text more quickly than those who read out loud or sub-vocalized.  It soon became accepted practice in school to train students to read silently, while before it had been best practice to teach reading out loud.  Indeed, the McGruffy reader was an oral reader.  

Throughout much of the 20th century, good reading has been equated with fast reading, and it wasn't until scholars went back and began reading diaries and trying to recover the reading practices of the world prior to the reading revolution of the early 1920s that we realized that much of the writing you are reading this semester wasn't meant to be read quickly or silently.  Indeed, our reading practice of reading silently has encouraged us to consume more and more but appreciate and enjoy less.  Think here of super-sized fast food as opposed to a good sit-down meal.  Just as there are different speeds and ways of eating, one you use when you are rushed and one use employ when you have the time to enjoy, there are different ways of reading.  The texts you are reading in most of 241 are not genre novels, school texts, or magazine articles meant to be devoured. 

Here's one trick we know went with reading in the past: Take the time to share what you enjoy, and you'll enjoy it more.  As you stumble across passages, quotes, or ideas you enjoy, share them with your committee and explain why you enjoyed them.  You are learning to articulate why you enjoy the reading your tastes led you to enjoy, and--just as a good meal is better shared--a text is more enjoyable when discussed and when you've taken the time to enjoy it with conversation.  Emerson knew this. This was why he published these lectures, so his audience could slow down and take the time to understand and discuss with others his thoughts.