SLOW DOWN | The Mental Benefits of Reading Slowly

so I've been kind of reflecting lately on this dual mentality that I have where I love sinking into a book and letting it completely immerse me and visualize everything that's happening kind of let it take me to a new world but also I'm so excited to read that I can't slow down I have this stack of books that I'm so excited to read and no matter how much I read the stack really never shrinks because I'm constantly adding to it this is a great problem to have and having so many books to read and so many books that I'm looking forward to picking up next and loving reading as much as I do I oftentimes catch myself reading faster and faster because I just want to furiously read all the books not because of some unseen competition not because of wanting to meet some sort of quota or wanting to I I don't know not because of a competitive thing or a perception thing just simply because I love stories and I want to read them all and I can only speak for myself and I can only speak for my own personal experience which is why I would really love for this to be an open discussion in the comments and people talk about their own experiences but for me one of my favorite things about reading one of my favorite things about booktube about creating videos on reading is the discussions that I get to have for them for instance the Vagabond discussions that I'm doing with my friend Philip Chase over on my second Channel where we're digging into each volume and trying to understand the themes and trying to have those discussions that the author is attempting to invoke in us and that kind of discussion is my favorite thing also I had a discussion with my friend Amber Elise several months ago on Monday is not coming which is a literary fiction that had so much to discuss and Tiffany D Jackson tackled so many topics and she and I dug into it really deeply right now I'm currently reading I'm glad my mom died by Jeanette McCurdy and Corey my husband has read this before me and I'm taking in every detail I'm reading it very slowly and taking in every single line and he read it the same way and we're digging into Point by Point Moment by moment that she's talking about things that she may just off the cuff mention that he and I are spending a long time talking about I also might be having a discussion video on this book with Amber Elise on my second Channel as well because she wants to read it too and there's a lot to discuss in it but at the same time I just finished reading a wisdom of crowds which I read in less than a week I devoured this book I read it so aggressively because it was the conclusion to a Trilogy a Trilogy that I was already reading fast because I was so into it I was so gripped by the characters by what was happening by this this voracious need to see what would happen to them who was going to be okay at the end and who I was going to suffer for suffer for loving thanks Joe what a nice author you are so I read this fast I read this very quickly not because of the amount of time I spent reading it which I did spend a lot of time reading it as far as like hours spent not so much days but I also my reading Pace was faster reading this than it has been reading this and that's because of this desperate desire to know what happens next and in I just posted a spoiler review for this as well on the second channel in this reading of this book I know and the trilogy as a whole really because I read the whole trilogy quickly I know that there are some finer details that were slipped in here that I can't discuss deeply or that I may have just completely missed because of my reading speed not because of some competition not because of some numbers game not because of some comparison game but because I needed to consume it for my own well-being I'm being dramatic but that's how it felt honestly I really liked this Trilogy so there's a piece of me that is kind of sad that a Trilogy that I've loved so much and this book that is one of the best books I've read so far this year and and this this Trilogy that I loved and will Proclaim my love for for a long time I'm kind of sad that there are some finer details that I can't discuss because of how how ferociously I read it but at the same time my reading speed for this book kind of reflects my experience with this book and it feels like it was the right choice for me to read it like this and also this book was always going to be available for rereads like it's not going anywhere it's it's gonna sit on my shelves and I can pick it up anytime I want and read it at any Pace I want and pick up any details I choose to focus on but it's this weird kind of dual mentality that I have where one of my favorite things about reading is the immersion one of my favorite things about reading is that I really when I'm reading a book I'm picturing everything I'm picturing the characters I'm picturing the setting I'm smelling and breathing and living in this world it's a very reading is such an immersive experience for me and one of my favorite things about reading is that immersion and again I can only speak for myself but when I read ferociously when I read faster I lose some of that immersion I just do and I also lose some of my comprehension I definitely don't these stories that I read ferociously like this don't stay in my head to the same capacity I don't remember the details the same way so anyway I've been processing this kind of tug and pull that I have as a reader of wanting to stop and Savor a book and take it in and remember every detail and be able to just to discuss it with my friends as deeply as we want to discuss it versus This ferocious need to consume something that is that is that is capturing all of my attention and because of who I am as a person that kind of processing has led me to some research so let's talk about some studies but before we get into that a quick Interruption from ad Murphy to let you know about when swords fall silent this is an assassin themed Anthology with a Twist and 100 of the proceeds for this Anthology are going towards Saint June's Children's Hospital this Anthology has 14 stories from 14 different artists filled with a ton of different Dark and Dangerous Tales From traditional and Indie Heavy Hitters including Michael J Sullivan Terry mancor and more it's wraith marked so you know it's gorgeous it has an illustrated dust jacket a black on red foil case and a custom character illustration for each story plus it comes with this amazing foil bookmark and I have it on good authority that there's a certain character's backstory from a very popular series Royce's shadowy past is going to be in this the kickstart for this project is going to be linked in the description of this video so be sure to check that out if you're interested again 100 profits to St Jude's Hospital great cause check it out in this video I talk about the benefits of reading for the brain what it does to the brain and one of the things that I talked about was that reading has been shown to decrease the uh to be a stress decreaser to be a stress relief more so than nearly any other Hobby and there is additional evidence to suggest that reading more slowly decreases stress more effectively as well as more quickly I use the word suggest specifically because we don't understand the mind at this point we don't understand memory we don't understand how the mind learns and processes so there are um disputing ideas out there so suggest because everything in research has caveats but based off of the information that we do know about memory and about information retention and about the way our brains learn and the way our brains process information there are quite a few studies out there that heavily indicate that speed reading or reading really quickly more quickly than your mind would naturally naturally read is not helping they talk about the different techniques that are suggested for speed reading or increasing your reading speed and how those things that are suggested are the very things that would kind of break down reading comprehension and potentially hinder actual retention of information and immersion in what you're trying to learn or experience there's a couple of smaller studies which I've probably put on the screen by now but there's also this article I think it's like 10 pages long just kidding it's 31 page there's this study that's 31 pages long that breaks down what it looks like what what we understand so far about how the brain works how the brain learns how the brain retains information and breaks down the different the different facets of speed reading and how that is a direct contradiction to how the brain understands and processes in information it's a really it's I'll have it linked in the description it's a really interesting read if you're interested or if you just want to validate yourself as as a slow reader this article strongly advocates for slowing down and reading slowly which since I'm referring to all this elephant in the room I made a video a few years ago about how to increase your reading speed I did say in that video that I don't use these techniques hardly at all and that's still true and I probably use them even less now because as I said in that video I find that picking up my reading speed breaks my immersion and makes and reduces my comprehension and because of that I don't really like to pick up my reading speed very often I just use those tricks if I'm enjoying a book but I'm in a part of a book that I'm not enjoying and I just need to get the information get what the gist of what's being said so that I can get past that part and start enjoying my reading experience again again I don't use that technique often but because of who I am as a person I I found it interesting to learn what speed reading was about learn the techniques and talk about it it's not it's not a technique that I personally enjoy but I don't know some people probably like it but even though I said all that in the video I do feel like it needs to be acknowledged that I did want to make that video since now this video is talking about reading slowly and kind of breaking that down as well as talking about how speed reading is potentially a little bit less effective than we maybe want it to be anyway now that we've talked about some of the research and we've talked about some of that let's talk about reading slowly in this video that I made recently I talked about comparison and about how reading beings such a social thing because everything is social now because we have social media and that's just what life is now reading being such a social thing or a potential you can engage in a more social side of reading that does sometimes invite comparison which can be a real bumsky for some people's reading life so let's talk about that a little bit let's talk about comparison because we've already talked we've kind of touched on the fact that there's research that suggests that reading slowly is potentially a more immersive and offers better retail tension better longevity and remembering content everybody's an individual don't feel attacked but okay all right so we've talked about that side of it so now let's talk about the numbers thing because with reading being something that we share with other people numbers statistics it's something that a lot of people like and it's something that a lot of people share so let's talk about numbers if you read every single day 365 days a year you make time to read and you read 10 pages a day every day of the Year by the end of that year you will have read 3650 Pages say you read 30 pages a day that's nearly 11 000 pages in that year let's go wild let's say you read 50 pages a day by the end of that year that's 18 250 Pages reading slowly and methodically and taking your time to savor every word and to savor every moment doesn't necessarily mean reading fewer books truly the biggest factor in reading a lot is reading consistently it's carving that time out of your day every day to make sure that you read 10 pages it's also worth mentioning that some books just take longer to read if you're going to read a classic with older language that's going to take longer than reading a recently published why a novel if you're going to read an Epic Fantasy with Big World building and a lot of characters and a lot of perspectives to keep track of it's going to take longer than a romance that doesn't mean one is better than the other it doesn't mean that one is of higher quality or you are a better reader higher Merit blah it doesn't mean any of those things in fact a lot of snobs think that nonfiction Is Better Than Fiction point blank no discussion this book is so much easier to read than this book even though I devoured this one it's just written in a very easily consumable way okay so we're not talking about quality we're not talking about Merit we're just talking about just facts some books are faster and easier to read than others and just facts some people just read faster than others I I don't really know the science behind it I don't know what sort of biological makeup it it is that causes one person to just read really quickly and can comprehend really well in the next person to in order to really soak in what they're reading they have to take their time I don't know what it is I know that practice is a factor like if you just consistently read it will strengthen that muscle but some people are just naturally fast readers I don't understand it that's just life which is why when I did my Little Numbers Game I talked about Pages read not time red because everybody's time is not the same and people can make time for different amounts the point is that you're reading if you want to if that's an interest of yours I also think it's worth noting that I am somebody who reads a lot of books that is because I I spend a lot of time reading I put my daughter to bed at seven and my son goes to bed around 8 30 and then I stay up till midnight and unless I have a video that I'm working on which basically all my time last night was spent on this video doing that research reading those articles it was really interesting but most nights that huge chunk of time I spend almost exclusively reading I usually spend two to three hours a day doing nothing but reading for a lot of people that just doesn't interest them for a lot of people spending that massive chunk of time doing nothing but reading isn't appealing they want to read maybe 30 minutes maybe an hour tops for a lot of people they just have a lot going on and carving that much of their time out of their day just doesn't look realistic or you've just got a lot going on and that huge chunk of time just isn't realistic or get this some people have many hobbies many interests not just like two which is essentially what I have I love hiking and exploring and finding new places new trees to walk through and I love reading those are like my two personality traits again I'm being dramatic I have there's more there's more interest in the world for me but those are the two things that I really choose to sync my time in for a lot of people they have a lot of things that interest them and I think that's just gonna have to be okay and that's why I hate comparison so much because different people have different lives so to look at one aspect of someone's life and say man I feel like I should be doing that is just not reasonable anyway let's bring it back to the emotions of it all because again the thing that I get the most out of reading is that immersion and those emotions those feelings I'm a very emotional reader and uh getting those emotions is a huge part of what I read for I love how much reading affects me not just in the way I think but also it just it takes me to another place I experienced so much with it so that sounds cheesy but whatever it is what it is again I can only speak for myself and I can only speak for my own personal experiences which is why I would love to hear from you but when I read it's like the author gives me a floor plan for a building and they built they wrote the structure of it they wrote the floor plan but I build the walls I choose the color of paint on those walls and I fill in the corners they told me what to imagine but I'm the one that gets to build those walls I'm the one that gets to create it in my mind and while we all get the same floor plan we all get the same book we build up those walls in different ways which is why based off of your own world view or life experiences different people read a book in different ways different people experience that story and process it in different ways which means that we all get something different out of the books we read and I think that there's something really special about that and for me again I can only speak for myself but I'd love to hear your perspective there's just something different that I get out of books when I read them very slowly so it's kind of like this discussion that a lot of people have all the time about just kind of slowing down in life you know with social media with the internet with entertainment with um you know work with everything it's like we live such fast-paced lives so there's a Resurgence of importance on slowing down not being entertained going for a walk without a podcast or cleaning the house without playing music whatever it is just taking the time to eat your food without a show like just focus on what you're doing and appreciate the slow cadence of life and I think that there's also something really special about the slow cadence of reading reading a book just takes time it's just a long-form activity watching a movie takes two and a half hours to no matter how deep or shallow that movie it is it will take approximately the same amount of time books just take longer and there's something really special about the slow cadence of reading even if you are devouring A Book Like I sometimes do it still just takes time and there's something special about that anyway hopefully it's obvious but I feel the need to say it anyway that this video is not an attack on Fast reading or trying to make fast reading look bad or I don't know whatever talking positively about one thing is not inherently talking negatively about another in fact in this very video I talked about my enjoyment of reading ferociously about how much I still got out of this book and how reading it the way I did felt right to me but anyway this isn't saying that if you're naturally a fast reader you're doing it wrong because again I read a lot of books it's more about just taking the time to appreciate the art of reading slowly but I would really love to hear from y'all I want to know do you consider yourself a fast reader or a slow reader what's your experience with that do you kind of have this dual reading life like I do where sometimes you consume a book really quickly and just can't stop can't slow down your pace because that's just the kind of book it is and other books you take slowly and Savor and do you have different experiences with those two and are you pretty okay with that or do you just do one or the other and are you okay with that I really don't think that there's a wrong way of reading as long as you are loving what you're reading enjoying your experience feeling like you're getting something out of it I don't I don't know I don't subscribe to this type of reading is the right kind of reading and that kind of reading is wrong but in our fast-paced world and in our uh easily easy to compare world that we live in on social media I have been reflecting more on the value of reading slowly and the difference of experience that I get in the different ways that I read and because of who I am as a person that meant that I had to research it and I had to talk about it so let's talk I post videos every Monday and Friday on this channel Tuesdays and Thursdays on the second Channel where I do weekly reading Vlogs if you use spoiler free updates on what I'm reading as well as spoiler reviews for some of my favorite things that I read that'll be linked in the description if you're interested I'll see you again soon bye

Channel: Merphy Napier | Manga

Views: 68,957

Keywords: read slowly, video essay, slow down, brain, research, articles, a case for reading slowly

Id: 6j2zQONLvas

Length: 21min 10sec (1270 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 10 2023