Realized I was reading all my book club picks wrong for a year

Tbh, I was speed reading through every novel before our monthly meetups in Portland, just skimming for plot points to talk about. Last month someone mentioned how the author's pacing in 'The Night Circus' built the romance slowly, and I realized I'd missed all the subtle character moments because I was rushing. Has anyone else caught themselves treating books like homework assignments instead of actual stories?

2 comments

2 Comments

angela_kelly26d ago

Wait, did you catch that episode of the "Book Riot" podcast where they talked about how our brains literally process skimming different than deep reading? @claire999, that thing about remembering the random details is so real. I started forcing myself to slow down after I realized I couldnt even describe the main character's house in "Where the Crawdads Sing" but I had the whole plot memorized. Now I try to sit with one chapter a day max like its a tv show I dont want to binge.

claire99926d ago

Ugh yeah I used to totally think skimming was the smart way to get through books faster until a friend pointed out I couldn't name one character's favorite food or something random like that. Now I get why people rave about the little details.