In his Ted Talk praising the virtues of slowness, author Carl Honore describes the moment he became aware that he was racing through his life. It was bedtime, his only time each day with his young son, and Carl found himself speed-reading through The Cat in the Hat.
We are in the midst of what Honore calls “road runner culture.” We like things fast. There are advantages, for sure. But there are also consequences, especially in how we read. As a writer, editor, teacher and word lover, I see the impact of this every day.
Each week I assign a published essay for discussion and urge my students to read it twice. Because life often gets in the way of a second review, I allow time for us to read the piece aloud when we are together, taking turns with each paragraph. It’s usually after this second read that I hear writers say, “I didn’t like this piece when I first read it, but I get it now” or “Now that we’re talking about this, I see a structure I didn’t notice before.”
We all do so much necessary skimming of email, texts and headlines that I believe we’re losing practice in efficient reading.
And we’re missing a lot.
I discovered the power of a slow read when I began to study Torah several years ago. Reading the Old Testament line by line can sometimes be an excruciating endeavor – it’s not the easiest read – but when you unpack sentences at the word level, you can see the wisdom or the questioning in the word choices, the emphasis in the order or how words can shed light on the gray areas. And for those of us who read via screen, it feels good – even grounding – to touch paper and turn pages.
I’m also noticing how much we don’t see — word wise — in my personal life, too. Even the shortest texts and emails are frequently misread. I’m amazed at how many what-when-where-how-and-whys I receive in response to email or texts that specifically provide these.
There’s no getting around the fact that we like things speedy. But there are counter-movements growing. You may have heard of theslow food movement, a global response to fast food by organic farmers and foodies. There’s also the slow city movement (more park benches and public gathering spaces) and even a slow sex movement (from a 30-second orgasm to slow–motion tantric sex).
I’d like to make a case for the slow read.
Whether it’s a passage from the Bible or Koran, a poem, an essay or short story, magazine feature article or chapter of a book, a good, slow read is the best chance words have to resonate with us. It is, after all, what words do best.
I’ll go one step further and say that I believe that a slow thoughtful read keeps our listening skills whole. Whole body listening keeps us plugged into the moment. It allows an organic flow to and from our feeling chambers. When we rush through reading – a symptom of our overscheduled time – we keep ourselves from our feelings which can take a toll on important human character qualities like tuning in to ourselves as well as empathy and intimacy for and with others. We can easily get out of practice in feeling these. I recently read about a study showing that while screens allow us to read faster, we don’t understand or retain that information in the same way as we do from a printed page.
So it isn’t such a leap to say that reading can positively impact emotional, spiritual and even physical health.
Save the fast read for street signs, social media feeds, last night’s scores and blog posts like this. Give yourself the pleasure of one slow read a day.
Hi Ellen, what a beautiful piece! Couldn’t agree more with everything you’ve said. But no, I did not save my fast read for this post!
Yes, some of us take longer to read than many others do (I believe most of us who write do so). We take in every word, every sentence, go back and reread sentences, paragraphs. The experience of holding a book/newspaper, turning pages is unparalleled. Thanks for this great read!
Thanks so much for writing to say so, Shanti! I wholeheartedly agree that writers tend to take in words in a deep way. Which is what makes us writers! And I’m so glad you didn’t zoom through this post….
This is a great post and a great reminder. I know you said we could read blog posts like yours quickly, but I made sure to read it slowly and didn’t skim. :)
Lovely, Catherine! So you got your slow read in today! Many thanks for reaching out.
Your blog was 100% worth a slow read.
Delighted to hear this! Thanks for writing to say so, Ms. Einbender.
xoxo
What a lovely slow story. Thank you.
Thank you for writing to say so, Nikki! And many thanks for reading!
I was always a “slow” reader when I was young……and I still enjoy reading a hard-bound book….enjoying touching and feeling the paper as I turn the pages. Your story makes me feel happy to have lived long enough to find out that someone else can appreciate a slow read.
You are a wise woman and David is blessed to have you for his wife.
Yes to the slow read! Many thanks for writing, Karen! And for your very kind words.