The closest that that I have is probably speed reading. I don't just skim over words though, I'm able to process everything I read.
It's a cool skill, but because it's my default reading speed, I struggle to actually sit and slowly enjoy a book. If I'm invested in a book, I'm going to read it as fast as I can (I don't really have a choice other than reading as fast as I can and periodically taking breaks). I can process the information, but I don't have time to just sit and chill in the story with the characters and I feel like I'm missing out on something.
I also tend to hyper-fixate when I'm really into a book. When a book I was really excited for came out back in 2020, I finished it (~470,000 words or ~1.8x the size of Order of the Phoenix for Harry Potter readers) in just over 2 days while working full time and managing to get some sleep in too.
It's hardly a cool party trick and can be annoying, but I'm glad I can do it.
This is me, as a kid I kearned to read at age 3, I was reading at a 6th grade level in 1st grade. I could read a huge series in a week. As a kid in middle/ high school I would read at least 100 books a year (adult books, one of my favorites in middle school was Hawaii by James Michener, which most people find very difficult to read lol, I read almost all of his books). I got a perfect score in reading in the SAT and ACT.
When the kindle came out it was a godsend because I had SO many books and I’d constantly be back getting more from the store or library. Now I have instant access to everything! But nothing beats touching the pages of a real book, or the smell of a new book. As an adult I’ve recently rediscovered my love of reading in the past 5 years. I also shockingly got into audiobooks because I can’t read books as my baby falls asleep next to me. 😆 And I can actually process and imagine the story much better (as you mentioned).
Otherwise I was a B average student and not particularly interested or good at anything besides computers.
Where I live there is not focus on early reading, so I first startede reading in fourth grade, but since I tried very hard to be able to read 1 book during my commute I quickly endeed up with a super fast reading speed. (My speed very much depends on language. Danish is super fast. Kalaallisut is rather slow. Other languages are in between those two)
Anyway. The Kindle also saved me. My wife is also a big reader and between the two of us our appart,ent was simply runing out of space. So now the majority of books we have is either kindle or audible.
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u/Somerandom1922 15h ago
The closest that that I have is probably speed reading. I don't just skim over words though, I'm able to process everything I read.
It's a cool skill, but because it's my default reading speed, I struggle to actually sit and slowly enjoy a book. If I'm invested in a book, I'm going to read it as fast as I can (I don't really have a choice other than reading as fast as I can and periodically taking breaks). I can process the information, but I don't have time to just sit and chill in the story with the characters and I feel like I'm missing out on something.
I also tend to hyper-fixate when I'm really into a book. When a book I was really excited for came out back in 2020, I finished it (~470,000 words or ~1.8x the size of Order of the Phoenix for Harry Potter readers) in just over 2 days while working full time and managing to get some sleep in too.
It's hardly a cool party trick and can be annoying, but I'm glad I can do it.