The habit of reading is so easily lost; not so much,
perhaps, the power of enjoying books as the actual power of reading at all. It
is incredible how, after not being able to use the eyes for a time, the habit
of reading fast has to be painfully regained. The power to read fast is much to be desired, and the
people who read every word are left sadly behind by the people who read from
full stop to full stop at a glance. This power is what our children are gaining
at school, and this power is what we are losing when we refuse to give a little
time out of our lives to "Mother Culture." It is worth anything to get and to keep even that; and to
do it, it is not a bit necessary to read "stiff" books.
I've always been a fairly fast reader and used to feel
guilty about this and sometimes wondered how much benefit I was getting from my
reading. But over a long period of time it does all add up and this article
from the Parent's Review encouraged me that although I'm not a great scholar and my education was on the woeful side, my mind has been activated
by reading and I have grown in the process.
Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.
- Richard Steele
3 comments:
Thank you for sharing this. I sometimes feel guilty (well, not too much, but still) that I spend time reading.
This passage is very interesting when compared to Beth's passages from LIT. I tend to read fast also and then there are audio books. Sometimes I miss a passage because I lose my focus on the book but then I keep going and still feel I have a good grasp on the book. I wonder what that means.
I'm intrigued about with what they say about the person who reads every word vs. the person who reads in a glance. My husband reads slow and has to read every.single.word. and it sucks the joy out of reading. A few years ago we discovered my daughter's eyes weren't tracking correctly and I have a hunch that he struggles with that too. I keep encouraging him to read, but it is an uphill battle.
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