I watched a few minutes of an infomercial ( a very RARE occurrence in my life, indeed) because of the listing "smarter in seconds!" They were selling a computer program which apparently flashes highlighted segments or paragraphs of a page and you, the reader, just absorb what you can. It also has other exercises which, I assume, work to condition the brain to take in everything at a glance. Interesting.

It got me to thinking about how I read and how I learned to read. My desire to read came from seeing the funny papers in the Sunday paper. I would pester my folks to read it to me which they usually did, in their own time. I was about 3 years old so I began to teach myself to read. Got a lot of assistance from my parents. I remember going back and looking at my "Little Golden Books" (which I memorized before I ever knew what the words or spelling meant) and began to decipher the written word. Before, when they were read to me, if Mom or Dad missed a single word, I'd call them on it so I knew what should be there! At any rate, I was a reader before I ever reached school.

I was very frustrated at school because they would endlessly go over Dick and Jane which had an insipid story line and a moronic vocabulary. I remember thinking that I was stupid or something. I was missing something! What is it that they don't think I was getting? Welcome to the world of the lowest common denominator.

Flash forward. In college I would read a textbook thusly: Publishing information, Table of Contents, Appendices, Bibliography, the last Chapter carefully, the first chapter carefully and then the first few and the last few paragraphs of each chapter. If anything sparked my interest I would stop and read that in depth. Then I would set it aside and read it only as was necessary. I had a 3.74 gpa upon graduation. I think it would have been higher but I was working, married and had a child. Bit of a load.

Today I usually read magazines back-to-front. Oh, and on the subject of magazines, if they have stiff fliers stapled in them I rip those out and toss them while intentionally NEVER looking at them. Grrr! And I shake all the "magazine confetti" (advertising postcards) out and into the trash. I hate some advertisement dictating the place where the magazine automatically opens.

When I read for pleasure it is straight forward, front-to-back. I read slowly and deliberately. I often read (if it is great prose or poetry) soto voce because I like to see how the words feel on the tongue and hear how they harmonize. Some books which really captivate me, I blaze through and then go back and read again and analyze how the author did what he did. Hemingway and Steinbeck get this treatment. Faulkner is another. Science Fiction has been my genre in the past but I feel that not much new or really creative is being written currently. I hate to hazard $5 or $10 and get a dud. Ah for the days of the 35 cent paperback! 50 cents bought the thick ones!

Anyhow, I was wondering how others approach reading and what experiences you may have to share.