I'm afraid I missed yet another Sunday Salon this week. Sure I 'read' and yes I was online, but I didn't post anything or visit anybody else's blogs, so I missed it. Nothing to do now but put up mental post-it notes to remind me to participate next weekend (I don't use real post-it notes because 1. the Post-It company test on animals and 2. I feel they are just a big waste of paper).
Any-who, I've been going through a box of 'favorites' in the hopes that I can release a few into the wild and thus make some more room on my shelves. Yes, for more books. Makes sense, doesn't it? Release the old, bring in the new? Yes, well... As I was saying, I was going through my 'favorites' and had to refresh my memory on a few. When I do this I skim read (skim read = reading dialog, select scenes and skipping most of the book) because it's just faster. I can enjoy the book, see if I still like it or the author's voice, and go through many in a very short time. This got me to thinking. Is this really the right way to read? As an aspiring author it makes me think: "Will I be spending the next 6 months poring over words and staring at my monitor so some reader can just skim through it?" Hum. Should I really even care that some one is skim reading my book (it is being read, and bought!, after all)? Is this some sort of cheat-reading, much like speed reading? I consider speed reading as cheat-reading because the mind doesn't have time to digest emotions fast enough and I would assume the reader can't enjoy the book's full potential. Really, though, I wouldn't know as I can't speed read.
I guess it all comes down to: Does it matter? Reading is becoming such a lost-art, especially among young people, does it even matter how they read? Speed, skim, chop, backwards. If somebody is reading, should one really care how?
Oh, and if you haven't figured it out yet, I DID redesign the blog and I think I'm going to be sticking with it for a while. I found my old layout that went with my old website, but I don't want to try fixing the coding right now. Not while I'm working on The Gilded Pen... Ug.
You sound so much like me...making room for new books by weeding out the old. I really have a hard time getting rid of any books, but sometimes it just has to be done. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the luck, I'll need it. When I think I've gotten rid of enough, I find another stash under the bed, in the closet, or in storage!
ReplyDeleteI was never much of a reader growing up but when I started using speed reading I think the fact that I was reading so much faster made me enjoy reading for once.
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