Comments on: >Do you skim?

By: gail

gail — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 01:50:23 +0000

>I refer to certain books as "skimmers." They're books I feel I need to be familiar with for some reason but really can't bring myself to read word for word because the writing is plodding or too improving for my taste or I have some other objection.

Sorry to be coming in so late.

By: Ashley Hope Pérez

Ashley Hope Pérez — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 16:14:30 +0000

>Please, please, please teach me to skim. I succeed at it occasionally, when compelled by extreme boredom or time constraints.

But in most cases, I'm a compulsive reader, and I read from beginning to end, whether it's Proust, YA fiction, a scholarly article, a shampoo bottle, or all the warnings in all the languages on a changing table in a public restroom.

This must be pathological.

http://www.ashleyperez.com/blog

By: Roger Sutton

Roger Sutton — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:50:40 +0000

>Skimming does take confidence–you have to not be afraid of the book you are reading (or reading in general). I also skip quidditch matches and any kind of sports (or sex) play-by-play generally, although I am loving what Lionel Shriver does with tennis AND sex in Double Fault,. When I'm reading for fun, I figure it's the book's job to make me want to read every word.

By: mb

mb — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:20:59 +0000

>Skimming is why I read Moby Dick at age 12 and thought it was a terrific book.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 01:59:02 +0000

>I fast forward through quidditch matches.

By: Jeannine Atkins

Jeannine Atkins — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 00:54:23 +0000

>This is slightly off topic (which I point out lest you think I skimmed your blog), but when I talk to students about doing research, I advocate skimming. Really, how else are you going to find the one image you want in a 500 page biography? Most students "learn to read" in English classes, and the lucky ones are reading works in which every word counts. But life is bigger than, say, "Mending Walls" or "Charlotte's Web." And time is short. Skimming is an excellent skill.

By: marfita

marfita — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 00:04:11 +0000

>Heh! If I'm not sure I'm going to like something, I'll start 1/3 of the way in (gets rid of all the tiresome exposition). If it really grips me, I'll go back and start from the beginning. I have to admit to trying this with Hesse's Out of the Dust, thinking ever-so-wrongly that a novel in verse would be ghastly. It captured me very quickly and I avidly whipped back to the start to see how we got to that point.