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02 Mar 08 - 07:02 PM (#2277765) Subject: BS: How do you read? From: Slag I watched a few minutes of an infomercial ( a very RARE occurrence in my life, indeed) because of the listing "smarter in seconds!" They were selling a computer program which apparently flashes highlighted segments or paragraphs of a page and you, the reader, just absorb what you can. It also has other exercises which, I assume, work to condition the brain to take in everything at a glance. Interesting. It got me to thinking about how I read and how I learned to read. My desire to read came from seeing the funny papers in the Sunday paper. I would pester my folks to read it to me which they usually did, in their own time. I was about 3 years old so I began to teach myself to read. Got a lot of assistance from my parents. I remember going back and looking at my "Little Golden Books" (which I memorized before I ever knew what the words or spelling meant) and began to decipher the written word. Before, when they were read to me, if Mom or Dad missed a single word, I'd call them on it so I knew what should be there! At any rate, I was a reader before I ever reached school. I was very frustrated at school because they would endlessly go over Dick and Jane which had an insipid story line and a moronic vocabulary. I remember thinking that I was stupid or something. I was missing something! What is it that they don't think I was getting? Welcome to the world of the lowest common denominator. Flash forward. In college I would read a textbook thusly: Publishing information, Table of Contents, Appendices, Bibliography, the last Chapter carefully, the first chapter carefully and then the first few and the last few paragraphs of each chapter. If anything sparked my interest I would stop and read that in depth. Then I would set it aside and read it only as was necessary. I had a 3.74 gpa upon graduation. I think it would have been higher but I was working, married and had a child. Bit of a load. Today I usually read magazines back-to-front. Oh, and on the subject of magazines, if they have stiff fliers stapled in them I rip those out and toss them while intentionally NEVER looking at them. Grrr! And I shake all the "magazine confetti" (advertising postcards) out and into the trash. I hate some advertisement dictating the place where the magazine automatically opens. When I read for pleasure it is straight forward, front-to-back. I read slowly and deliberately. I often read (if it is great prose or poetry) soto voce because I like to see how the words feel on the tongue and hear how they harmonize. Some books which really captivate me, I blaze through and then go back and read again and analyze how the author did what he did. Hemingway and Steinbeck get this treatment. Faulkner is another. Science Fiction has been my genre in the past but I feel that not much new or really creative is being written currently. I hate to hazard $5 or $10 and get a dud. Ah for the days of the 35 cent paperback! 50 cents bought the thick ones! Anyhow, I was wondering how others approach reading and what experiences you may have to share. |
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02 Mar 08 - 07:05 PM (#2277769) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Peace And then there was the books put out by Ace (I think). Ya got two books (paperback) in one. I recall that there were two covers. Always loved those spaceships, stars and strange creatures. I'm with you Slag. Read aloud for some writers--mostly poets. Getting harder as my eyesight dims. |
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03 Mar 08 - 01:50 AM (#2277977) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Sandra in Sydney Fiction I read all the way thru & sometimes go back to an interesting/funny/whatever section & re-read it. I often pick up a book I've read just to re-read something. I read non-fiction differently. Most of my books are non-fiction & around half of the books I borrow from the Library are also non-fiction. Many of my books are reference books & I've never read each & every word, tho I have looked at all the pics, & often studied them in depth because that's why I bought them. When I first look at a non-fiction book I look at every picture & read all the captions. Sometime I'll then read the whole or part of the book, depending on what it is & why I borrowed/bought it. Some are read from cover to cover. I do the same for the magazines I buy & borrow. I can't remember when I learned to read, it might have been before I went to school as I was the first child of a life-long nose-in-book father, & a mother who also read a lot. We didn't get a TV until I was 14, so we all read (apart from my brother who picked up a love of reading in later years) sandra |
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03 Mar 08 - 05:27 AM (#2278046) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: GUEST,Shimrod "Science Fiction has been my genre in the past but I feel that not much new or really creative is being written currently." Sorry to pick out this little bit from your interesting post - but I feel the same about contemporary SF as you. There is one great exception, though; have you read Walter Jon Williams? I feel that he is the true successor to all those great writers of the 50s/60s/70s. His books are not just soap opera with added pseudo-science but a genuine evolutionary development of the SF of the past. He's got a new book out this month called 'Implied Spaces' - can't wait to read it! |
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03 Mar 08 - 11:27 AM (#2278287) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Little Hawk Wow, Slag! I learned to read exactly the same way you did. Comics, in my opinion, are THE best tools for teaching a young child to read, because they combine print with visual action which makes the meaning of the dialogue quite clear. Like you, I taught myself to read prior to going to school. I was irritated by the moronic "Dick and Jane" stuff foisted on me in the early grades just like you were. I also, of course, quickly got a reputation as a "brain" because of my precocious reading skills, and I was picked on unmercifully by the 'underachiever and proud of it' farm kids around me... ;-) Did you suffer from that problem in school as well? |
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03 Mar 08 - 11:37 AM (#2278293) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: John Hardly I look at the pictures. Actually, most of the books I read are read to me. I listen to several dozen recorded books a year. Magazines I read from favorite writer to favorite writer and then topically. I knew Dick and Jane would never make it. Even back then they struck me as incompatible and only putting on a brave front for the reader's benefit. I figured Jane could sublimate for only so long before she reached a boiling point. Dick was always just so oblivious. I think Prine said it best when he said... "how the hell can a person Go to work in the morning, Come home in the evening And still have nothing to say?" |
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03 Mar 08 - 12:06 PM (#2278315) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: GUEST,number 6 Interesting thread. Much like you slag, I read slowly, deliberately from front to back. The words painting pictures in my imagination. One of the reason I like photography is to attach my photos to specific lyrics, poems or quotes. LH ... some of the most intelligent people I have met are farmers. Man do they know how to read nature, naturals at fixing fences, tuning tractors, even remeding sick animals. Never had the problem of bing 'picked on' as such, but I was deeply disturbed by how the underacheivers were ridiculed by classmates and teachers. I usually took the stand on their defence. biLL |
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03 Mar 08 - 03:12 PM (#2278501) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Rapparee Left to right, front to back, usually. Except when I don't and I read right to left and/or back to front. Or even start in the middle and read both ways. I can also read upside down and from the side. I can also read the front side of a page from the back if the type on the front shows through. I don't remember when I could NOT read. Whether it was comic books (which I agree is the best thing to teach reading!) or REAL books withOUT pictures and LITTLE BITTY print I would read it (as would my siblings and parents). More, we could comprehend what we read. As for that computer program -- heck, we had a projector in high school back in 1960 that did the same thing. It only went up to 1600 wpm though and I (and most of my classmates) read faster than that. |
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03 Mar 08 - 05:20 PM (#2278612) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Little Hawk For sure, number 6. I never said that I think farmers are unintelligent. What I said was that a specific group of aggressive kids, most of whom happened to be farm kids simple because we lived out in the sticks at the time, bullied me unmercifully in Grade school because I was known to be "a brain". I don't think they did it because they were farm kids, I think they did it because they were bullies. I would have run into the same problem in the city, maybe worse. In retrospect, though, having lived in and around small towns for many years...I would say that the farm kids on average were a bit tougher and grittier than the town kids...but it mostly depended on what their family life was like, I guess. |
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03 Mar 08 - 06:03 PM (#2278676) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Rapparee I saw a bumper sticker that read "My Honor Student Just Downsized Your Bully." |
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03 Mar 08 - 06:43 PM (#2278739) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: number 6 One of the most arrogant of Canadian bullies who happens to be from a wealthy family and a well read scholar at that, went to jail today (5 to 6 years). Farm kids have to be tough L.H. ... but no excuse to be a bully. Now ... back to the subject of this thread ... I question the benefits of comics ... but then again they probably do incite one has no desire to read, well to read. Rapaire ... you can read a book upside down??? biLL |
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03 Mar 08 - 06:50 PM (#2278745) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Bill D I just discovered a reading test based on the concept of a 'tachistoscope' ...a device which flashes text at a certain rate to measure perception. At this site, you can choose a file of text to read and the rate at which it is projected, as well as the font and size. They have a few sample files, and I was up 220 WPM and still following "The Detective" just fine. (Note..the program is JAVA based, so you would need it installed to run the test.) |
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03 Mar 08 - 06:59 PM (#2278750) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Bat Goddess I couldn't wait to learn to read -- and also found the Dick and Jane readers unbelievably boring and stupid. Had a running argument from age 6 on with the local public library. First of all, they wouldn't let me take out more than 3 at a time, which meant I was there EVERY day. And within a couple years, they still confined me to the children's section on general policy despite the fact that I was reading at a high school level. In fifth or sixth grade I was encouraged by a teacher whose name escapes me to learn speed reading and I was the fastest reader in the school as well as reading at an advanced level. But speed reading isn't fun and is definitely not for lovers of books. Reading aloud is fun and after Tom's heart surgery four or five years ago, I started reading him to sleep with the Harry Potter books and continued with the newer ones as it was a way for both of us to "read" them at the same time. Not all books work well being read aloud. Others include the two "Bachelor Brothers Bed & Breakfast" books. Poetry, too, is best read aloud. Some books need to be savored. One of my favorite all time books is "Tristram Shandy" but I've never actually been able to read it all the way through. I get so wrapped up in the language and never seem to finish it. I read to get into the day (I wake up early so I can read for an hour or more before getting up) and I read to get out of the day -- no matter how late I go to bed, I need at least a half hour, preferably an hour or more, to read before going to sleep. And, until I broke my arm several months ago, my every other day R&R was reading in a nice bubble bath -- a book (usually a mystery; definitely a paperback) in one hand, a margarita in the other, and a cat on the bathmat so I could read significant passages to him or her. Alas, my knees are shot and my arm is not sufficiently healed or strong enough to push me out of the tub (or lower myself into it, for that matter) which means I'm stuck with showers -- no margarita and no book. Sigh. (But my surgeon assures me that I'll someday be able to take baths again.) I also keep a book that can be dipped into in the car for reading at odd moments when away from home. And back in the old days (now over 10 years ago) when I took a lunch break at work instead of eating while working at the computer, I'd keep a book going at work so I could read while eating. That's books. I also read a number of magazines (Vanity Fair, the New Yorker, shelter magazines) and trade pubs (GraphicDesign:USA, etc.) not to mention waaaaay too much reading online. And I write down quotations and interesting turns of phrase on 3x5 file cards and file them (unsorted for the most part) for later enjoyment. And I read passages out loud to anyone in earshot, including cats, and if no one is available, I read to the walls. Linn |
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03 Mar 08 - 08:11 PM (#2278821) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Sandra in Sydney Bat Goddess, Vanity Fair is one of the magazines I read entirely (after skimming thru). I spent much of my career working in Info Services/Library areas of Govt Agencies where the only journalists we heard from had deadline in 5 minutes or something similar & always wanted info IMMEDIATELY! so it's a pleasure to read long interesting stories written over weeks or months. I even read the stories about things that are boring in themselves (company takeovers, strange sports, familiar sports!) and I also collect quotations tho mine are scrawled on slips of paper & scattered around, never filed! rustle, rustle, noise of pieces of paper being moved about to find the latest gem - but I can't find it! sandra |
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03 Mar 08 - 08:32 PM (#2278838) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Joe_F What is that device that flashes words on the screen? That is a tachistoscope. Who is that person who is operating it? He is the tachistoscopist. Why does he operate it at random intervals? He is a statistical tachistoscopist. Why does he take such pleasure in the discomfort that causes subjects? He is a sadistic statistical tachistoscopist. Why is he wearing a mitre? |
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03 Mar 08 - 09:33 PM (#2278873) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Rapparee BillD: Yes. Either the book or I can be upside down. I prefer the book be that way because otherwise the blood rushes to my feet when I blush. He's wearing a mitre because he's a bishop. Or maybe just a joiner. |
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03 Mar 08 - 09:40 PM (#2278878) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Bill D tsk..I'm only Bill #2.695.... bILL is #6....but I knew a guy who could read upside down. |
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03 Mar 08 - 09:43 PM (#2278881) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Rapparee I often forget my Bills. Then I get nasty letters. |
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03 Mar 08 - 09:57 PM (#2278889) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: number 6 I knew a guy who could jug-a-lug a bottle of beer upside down. biLL .. the real number 6 (no decimals) |
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03 Mar 08 - 11:07 PM (#2278911) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: GUEST,Mike in DC The only thing I remember from my early childhood is The Pokey Little Puppy. A few years later though, my parents subscribed to the Colliers Encyclopedia. I devoured each volume as it came in, probably about once a month. I've had wide ranging interests ever since. Mike |
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04 Mar 08 - 12:59 AM (#2278937) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: katlaughing I have eye fatigue now, BillDarlin'! That is a very interesting little program! |
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04 Mar 08 - 04:26 AM (#2278980) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Slag Yes LH. I got the label, more or less, but not so much bullying then, as I was by far, the biggest kid in the grade. That, however, can make you a target nonetheless. I fought a lot in school. Was in trouble a lot. Was alone a lot for a while until I figured out the game. But the game wasn't me so, as time went by, I found a smaller group of close comrades and more genuine relations. Shimrod, thanks! I will check out Mr. Williams and his new release on your recommendation. I'm holding you personally responsible! Oh, by the way LH, I grew up in Delano CA. Some of you may have heard about that place. A farming community primarily, at that time. It now has a great prison industry and County Line Road (between Kern and Tulare Cos.) I am told, is now the line of demarcation between the prison gangs of Northern and Southern California. Farm kids were the most of us in one way or another but bullies can be of any rank, any class. Criminals all in my opinion. Rap, I hadn't thought about nor did I mention it in the initial post but I too will read the middle out in either or both directions and all combinations. I "edit" or critique as I go along and think about not only what the author is trying to get across but how he could have done it better or differently and sometimes I just take off with an idea and the next thing I know a few minutes have lapsed and I haven't read at all. Just lost in thought. But isn't that what a good book should do? Also didn't mention that I love reading dictionaries and lexicons. Mike in DC: I too, devoured an encyclopedia, The Britannica. I still have it, though it is quite dated. That makes it even more interesting. |
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04 Mar 08 - 09:25 AM (#2279149) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Rapparee As I said, my family reads anything with print on it. Even things like "Put firecracker on ground. Light fuse. Get away. Do not hold in hand." or "CAUTION: Bullets can be dangerous. Range one mile. Be careful." or "Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram; multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem, inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum, Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae." Even if we don't understand it we read it. Ingredients lists. Computer chip specifications. Flour bags. Those huge long sheets of teensy print that come with medicines. Books on post-natal mathematics. We read by sun and candlelight, and after we die we'll probably read the labels on the inside of our coffins (although putting a couple good books in with us would a nice gesture as the plot on a label runs thin after the six hundredth reading). |
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05 Mar 08 - 06:56 AM (#2280013) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Jack Campin Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. |
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05 Mar 08 - 07:29 AM (#2280024) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: RangerSteve I used to pester my father whenever we went anywhere to read signs for me. One day he said "You know the letters, figure it out for yourself". It worked. Like a few people above, I had to suffer through Dick, Jane and Sally, amazed at the kids who stumbled through those books. |
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05 Mar 08 - 07:52 AM (#2280032) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: GUEST,Appaloosa Lady We had 'Janet and John' books. I can still remember how, before we used to pick them up, we all had to tie 'imaginary' 'thinking hats' on our heads (honestly) ...doing them up in imaginary bows, under our chins. This, allegedly, so our teacher reassured us, helped enormously in reading skills. She was obviously right, as I shot through 'Janet and John' books in minutes, no trouble in reading at all. My trouble came in remembering. Right now I've not a clue what Janet did to, or with, John, or vice versa. Maybe I had my bow done up wrong? Maybe my 'thinking hat' was all askew? Hey, I've just found, on googling, that they're bringing them back, but updating them for the 21st century. Janet & John - The Sequel Now they could prove an interesting way to learn to read, if the 'experts' have 'updated' them for present day children (below is said with the merest drop of humour): "'Ere John mate, you comin' down the club tonight then?" "Yeah, Ok Janet Babe. You buyin' the f'in booze tonight?" "Yeah John and la'er on we can go back to my place and have hot sex before bedtime" "'Ere Janet, you gonna wear those Britney 'jamas I bought for yer?" "Yeah! Babe!" The mind boggles... As an adult, without my 'thinking hat' I've not changed at all. I love to read, I just don't recall very much of what I've actually read, which is incredibly frustrating at times. It goes with dyslexia though, which runs like a river through my family. I now know that I remember things when I hear them, so if I need to learn something I get my daughter to talk to me about it, she's a mine of information, indeed a mind of information. The good news is that I can read, then re-read good books, or superb short stories, over and over and never get bored, for each time it's like reading them all anew, so I get double the pleasure. (Bit like Janet and possibly John!) A....B.....C "C...C...Come over 'ere Janet!" ;-) |
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05 Mar 08 - 08:09 AM (#2280042) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: John MacKenzie Yup I think Apaloosa Lady is our old friend LC. The blue clicky compulsion was the first hint, although there wasn't the usual plethora of punctuation marks. That last post confirms my suspicions, especially with the smiley ending. G |
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05 Mar 08 - 08:20 AM (#2280055) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Rapparee We read "David and Ann." They lived in a nice house with their parents ("Mother" and "Father") and a dog and a cat whose names I have forgotten. They drove a new car and Father wore a hat and suit to work. However...most of our families lived in either old houses or in ones that were still being built. Our cars were anything but new, and fathers worked in a factory or in the building trades or as mechanics. Oh, and both Ann and David were cute and blond and never ever did something like climb down a storm drain to see what was down there. I'd finished D&A in less than a week, thought they were twits, and went back to reading whatever I could get my hands on. |
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05 Mar 08 - 09:25 AM (#2280106) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: GUEST,Shimrod "Shimrod, thanks! I will check out Mr. Williams and his new release on your recommendation. I'm holding you personally responsible!" Oh dear! Well, I hope that WJW's new book is as good as I hope it's going to be. I don't get excited about much, these days, but looking forward to WJW's latest book is, for me, feels a bit like looking forward to Xmas when I was a child. I can think of no higher recommendation! Oh yes, I could never get on with 'Janet and John' (presumably the UK equivalent of the US 'Dick and Jane'?) books either. When I was at what we called "Infants' school" (up to age 7) we ploughed relentlessly through these stupid (colour-coded) tomes. I'm not sure, at this remove, what it was that I didn't 'get' about them but my mother was told that I was a poor reader. I then remember that at "Junior school" (7 - 11) the first book that I was supplied with was about circuses. It was mostly print with a few black and white photographs (a much higher ratio of print/pictures) and I found that I could read it perfectly well. In another couple of months my mother was being told that I had the reading age of an 11 year old. A couple of years after that I was reading great chunks out of our local library. An article that I was reading in today's newspaper suggests that modern methods of teaching kids to read may be even more stupid (at least in the UK) ... ? |
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05 Mar 08 - 09:59 AM (#2280133) Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: Peace "Subject: RE: BS: How do you read? From: John 'Giok' MacKenzie - PM Date: 05 Mar 08 - 08:09 AM Yup I think Apaloosa Lady is our old friend LC. The blue clicky compulsion was the first hint, although there wasn't the usual plethora of punctuation marks. That last post confirms my suspicions, especially with the smiley ending. G" You got nothing better to do, John? For krissake, give it a rest. |