Bookworm. Book dragon. Bookaholic.
The French have a name for us too: ink drinkers. The Greeks call us book eaters. No matter what name you identify with, the truth is the same. There’s something in us that has always been drawn to the written word.
And while that can feel like a badge of honor, I think it can also lead us somewhere we don’t always notice. We start reading too fast.
Now, I’m not suggesting there’s such a thing as reading too much. But there is such a thing as reading too quickly. I know because I’ve done it myself.
When reading speeds up
We get pulled into a story or a series, eager to reach the next chapter, the next turning point, the next book waiting just ahead. And somewhere along the way, we begin to skim.
Our eyes move faster than our attention, taking in just enough to keep us moving forward. Words and sentences pass by, but they don’t always have time to settle.
We keep going, always moving forward.
But what does that do to the experience we’ve given ourselves? And what happens to the words that were so carefully chosen, written, and placed before us?
The world we move through
We live in a world that moves quickly. There is always something next. The next project, the next meeting, the next item on an ever growing list.
And then there’s social media, where the pace is even faster. We scroll without thinking, moving from one post to another, looking for something that holds our attention, if only for a moment.
So it’s not surprising that sometimes, without realizing it, we bring that same rhythm into our reading.
Even in the quietest parts of our day, we can find ourselves rushing. Reading in the margins. Reading at the end of the day, when everything else has been taken care of. And still, we push forward, as if reading is something to complete, another item to check off before we move on.
What happens when we slow down
But when we slow down, something begins to shift.
When we become more intentional with the time we give to reading, it starts to feel different. The noise of the day softens, and the thoughts that have been circling begin to quiet.
The world on the page opens up, and instead of simply following the story, we begin to step into it.
We notice the way a sentence lingers. The way a moment unfolds. The small details that would have been missed if we had moved too quickly.
Slowing down doesn’t just change how we read. It changes how deeply we experience what we’re reading.
Finding a slower rhythm
So how do we slow down?
It begins with how we enter that time. Reading doesn’t need to be something we squeeze in between everything else. It can be something we step into, a small pocket of the day that belongs only to us.
That might mean setting your phone just a little farther away. Not as a rule, but as a quiet choice. It might mean pausing when something stands out and letting a sentence sit with you for a moment before moving on.
For some, it might look like underlining a passage, writing a note in the margin, or keeping a small journal nearby to capture a thought before it disappears. Not because you have to, but because it invites you to stay a little longer.
Reading has never been about how fast we get to the end. It’s about what happens along the way.
And sometimes, slowing down is how we find our way back to why we read in the first place.
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