Lois & Clark Forums Forums General Discussion Fun with Polls How do you read long fanfics

Well, I devoured that particular Harry Potter pretty fast, myself. Thirteen hours sounds like the time I needed, too. MIght have been fifteen to sixteen, though. I didn't acutally measure the time. Plus I read it in English, which is not my native language.

So, how comes I read that fast? Practice has a big part in it. When I was in the middle of first grade, I practiced reading on the expressway. Three months later I managed to read tose signs from top to bottom before we had passed them. Boy, was I proud!

Another factor is the number of interruptions. I had to find out that I need some time (about twenty minutes) to get to top speed. Depending on the size of pages and fonts, I can read between 50 and 75 pages per hour (in English - in German it's more like 60 to 90 pages). Anyway, when I read during the fifteen minutes I spend in a train each morning, I manage about ten pages only.

One of the most important factors is the familiarity of words. When I started reading English, I was pretty slow. Not nearly half as fast as I read German back then. Some time ago I was told that people (who read a lot) don't usually read the whole word letter by letter. In fact, you only skim it - and are able to recognize a word even if the first and last letters are where they're supposed to be. I've read some short German texts modified like that (middle letters all mixed up), and I had no problem understaning it.
This also explains why it is so hard to read non-fictional, learning- or work-related texts. They're often full of terms you don't encounter on a daily basis, including formal language. Additionally, the sentence structure is often complicated. And you have to read everything at least twice to completely understand it on top of all that.

It's really easier to read something where you don't have to move your eyes too far. I, for one, read faster if the lines don't occupy the whole lenght of my monitor...

Oh, and last but not least, there is a motivation factor. If I read something dull or boring (Ever been forced to read something on cleft sentences? Something of twenty or more pages?), I'm much slower than if I read something interesting, exciting or thrilling.

Like Darcy, I'm well able to picture the scenes or hear the words in my head. That's why I'm completely lost to the outside world when I'm reading. In order to get my attention, you really have to be persistent. Well, giving me a little shake usually works just fine...

Something sort of related, but not:

Whenever I'm reading something longer than a few pages, if I'm REALLY tired, sometimes my mind goes off on tangents. I'll be reading (and visualizing) the story, then all of a sudden, I'm visualizing the same characters, only with events I KNOW would not be in the story--basically, I'm "dream reading." And when I shake myself awake, I have to go back to where I started visualizing my own thing, or else I miss part of the story.

Anyone else ever had that happen to you?

Usually, that sort of thing happens to me after the reading. I'm "dream reading" several what-if scenarios. Or continuing the story. That sort of thing. Sometimes it's really hard for me to figure out what I really read and what was just my imaginiation.

When I'm really tired, the words get all blurry, I miss lines or read the same one again and again. I know by now that there's no use trying to read on.

That also happens to me too--especially if I know that the next part of the story isn't written/finished yet.

Like you said, in my case, that’s not so. Like I said, I’ve been in love with reading since I was three. And I read voraciously. But I can’t read as much as I’d like because I can’t read faster. It's a bummer.


Me, too.


Me, too. I once was reading a book that I just couldn’t put down and I wouldn’t go to bed. My mom came in and turned the light off and took my flashlight. She threatened me with punishment if I turned the light back on. She didn’t take the book, though. Well, my bedroom window was close to street light. I just read the book by the street light. (And that wasn’t so easy because it was far enough away to still be somewhat dark.)


I sometimes find myself reading the same thing over and over. That’s probably a sign that I’m too tired to be reading.

What’s GWTW?

Yes, so am I.


Yes, I say that’s where part of the idea of fanfiction came from.

Thanks, guys.

We had similar mothers, Nancy. (Oddly enough, my mother's name actually is Nancy!) But mine *did* take the book away. No matter. I just got another off the shelf, laid down on the floor next to the door and read by the light coming in through the crack underneath it.

Gone With The Wind

Never could get into Gone With The Wind for some reason. I tried, I really did. My aunt even presented me with a first edition. I still couldn't read it. I didn't even watch the movie until I was probably 35, and then I only half paid attention. Interestingly enough, though, I did enjoy the movie Scarlett. Never read the book though.

Until more recently, I guess I've mostly tended to read the sci-fi genre. I might have to give GWTW another try...

The first piece of "fanfiction" I ever wrote was when I was maybe 8 or 9. At that time the bag/pouch used to bring us the magazine "Good Housekeeping" which had an abbreviated novel in each issue. On this particular occasion, the ending to the novel irritated me so much I couldn't handle it. I got out a piece of paper and rewrote the ending. Then I tacked it onto the story and passed the magazine to someone else. Who knows what happened to it, but I consider it my first published work

Lol - I feel a little bit odd here since I've never checked my reading speed.
I guess it's a little faster than how my friends read due to the fact that my english improved a loooot since I've begun reading fan fics.
Anyway, it's probably pretty slow compared to yours

But honestly I don't mind - often I get frustrated when a really good and intriguing story is over so soon
I hardly find time to read for several hours - my normal time is about half an hour before forcing myself to sleep and about 15 minutes during my lunch break at work or at university.
I'd really love to curl up in my bed and engross my mind into a great and long (which means 500KB+) story, reading sloooooowly and re-reading every sentence several times

Best,
Jana

Good God, putting down a book is torture to me! Well, ok except textbooks. :p Anyway, it doesn't matter what I open; it takes about every disaster in the world to get me to put down a book before it's over. I order Harry Potter off Amazon, so I received it in the mail either the day of or the day after it came out. 8 hours later, I get a phone call from my friend. She says, "JD, you're an embarrassment to society. Put down that book and come hang out with us!" So I did. Little does she know I finished HP when I got back to my house.

I read and type a lot slower these days. That's partly to do with work and school. I used to edit school handbooks before I went to grad school, so I'd have to analyze 67 pages per book down to the last font, layout placement, and spell check. (And it's sooo why I'm back in school.) Sadly enough I still analyze everything I see from fanfic posts to my sister's space camp certificate that I see in her old room this week. It's a default of the trade. :p

JD

I ordered Order of the Phoenix from Amazon. The day it was released, I was reading another book, so I kinda didn't mind this next part, but by the time the UPS truck came with my copy of the book (around 3 or 4 in the afternoon), my dad was getting home from the bookstore with HIS copy.

I pre-ordered Half-Blood Prince from one of our local Waldenbooks stores, and even though I didn't get to the mall right at midnight when it came out, I still got it faster than my dad got his.

I picked other. I chose this because depending on the story depends on how I read it. If I'm pretty sure it is really going to grab my interest then I wait for a time I can read it straight through. If I'm not sure then I read them in pieces as I have time.

I know I'm not a particularly fast reader because of my years as a secretary in Biochemistry. Then my years as an accounts payable clerk. In both jobs I had to be very accurate in what I did.

Because I read every word I was a much more accurate typist and had several professors that requested me as their typist. I'm still so bad about that I wind up making corrections to the fanfics as I read them. I'm constantly picking up typos and mispelled or misused words.

Part of my job in accounts payable was to count the deposits for 2 major hotels where I live. Without even trying I could pickout counterfeit bills when I was counting the deposits fast. I was so good at it that (before the test pens) I picked up one that everyone at the bank said was good but got kicked back by the Federal Reserve.

So there is some way that my brain works that doesn't allow me to read fast but it picks out detail.

I may read fast, but I find myself doing that too, kmar.

Then again, I edit myself as I write too, no matter how fast or slow I do it.