# Does any one skim read



## jackokent (Dec 2, 2006)

I have so many books waiting to be read that I have to stop myslef skimming through them instead of reading every word.  I normally skim through long descriptive parts but increasingly I am doing through dialogue.  Occassionally I have to re-read whole bits.  Also it gets worse nearer the end of a book.  I find I am really rushing to finish it even if I'm enjoying it.

Does anyone else do this?


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## elvet (Dec 2, 2006)

I would consider it a bad habit of mine. What served me well in my university years is now ingrained enough that I actually have to work at taking my time with the words. Skimming is good for immediate satisfaction, but very bad for long term retention.


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## steve12553 (Dec 2, 2006)

If I'm reading a work of fiction, for pleasure, and I catch myself skimming, at all, I'll put down the book. What's the point. I'm a generally slow reader but I enjoy what I read or I don't bother. You may get points for having read more books but I don't know how to trade them in for anything useful. Unless you're getting paid to review books, then it might make sense.


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## HoopyFrood (Dec 2, 2006)

I have to admitt that I often find myself skim reading. But I have quite a quick reading pace anyway, so if the book starts to get even mildly interesting I'll start moving into the realms of skim reading without even realising. I still enjoy the book just as much though and still pick up all the little details, even if I'm not catching every single word.


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## Talysia (Dec 2, 2006)

I skim read a lot, largely because I get so caught up in the story that I want to find out what happens.  What I do is read the book twice - once skimming through it, and then once reading it more closely.


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## SpaceShip (Dec 3, 2006)

I used to skim read but found that moving fast was actually moving slow!  The reason was I missed so many important bits out I had to go back to find them to make sense of where I now happened to be in the story because it wasn't making sense - so I force myself to slow down and, thus, I speed up in that I finish the book earlier than if I skimmed!!!!!!!!


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## The Pelagic Argosy (Dec 3, 2006)

No, not when I'm reading for pleasure.  (And I'm always reading for pleasure, even if it's a cereal box or my health insurance policy.)  In fact, I often pause to stare at the wall to ruminate over what I've just read.  ("Hmm...30% of daily protein with a half cup skim milk.  So, Pirates of the Caribbean cereal has the same amount of protein as Cheerios.  Fascinating!")  This could be why I don't get more reading done.

But here's a trick I sometimes employ:  If I'm curious as to whether a particular character is about to die, I flip ahead to see if they appear later in the book.


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## HoopyFrood (Dec 3, 2006)

The Pelagic Argosy said:


> But here's a trick I sometimes employ: If I'm curious as to whether a particular character is about to die, I flip ahead to see if they appear later in the book.


 
Same here! Or, if I see an death coming, I flip ahead to see if it does happen.


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## jackokent (Dec 3, 2006)

HoopyFrood said:


> Same here! Or, if I see an death coming, I flip ahead to see if it does happen.


 
I can't believe you both do this .  It's terrible.  I thought I was bad for skimming through but flipping ahead......  Where is your will power?


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## HoopyFrood (Dec 3, 2006)

I can't help it! I have to prepare myself, especially if it's a character I really like! I don't actually read the part, I just flip to see if their name suddenly stops appearing in the book!


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## jackokent (Dec 3, 2006)

I am shocked at this practice   And will you be taking an early peek at your Christmas presents too?


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## HoopyFrood (Dec 3, 2006)

Oh yeah, I do it every year! 
Actually, I think I'll pretty much know everything that I'll be getting because my mum wil stress and say she doesn't know what to buy, so I'll have to give her ideas. Mainly books, I believe.
And don't judge me! I can't help it if I'm emotionally unstable and wouldn't be able to take the full force of a death! And it's the authors fault...by giving me some kind of clue that someone will die!  Stephen King surprised me by having a completely unexpected death in The Dark Tower. Now _that_ I didn't see coming. And I don't do it so much anymore. I used to have the awful habit of flicking to the end and glancing over the last few lines...even I'm appalled when I think back to how I used to do that.


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## jackokent (Dec 3, 2006)

HoopyFrood said:


> I used to have the awful habit of flicking to the end and glancing over the last few lines...even I'm appalled when I think back to how I used to do that.


 
It gets worse!! 

But seriously, I've done the oposite.  I've skimmed a book so fast I haven't realised a character has actually died cause I missed it.  When it slowly dawns on me I am devestated and have to go back and find where it happenned.


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## HoopyFrood (Dec 3, 2006)

I don't think I've ever gone that fast...unless a death occurs so quickly that you have to double take to make sure. I haven't flipped ahead while reading for a while now, but then I've been reading books that don't have much death and chaos in (mostly been P.G Wodehouse's Imperial Blandings series...so funny!) so perhaps I've broken the habit


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## Pointfinder (Dec 3, 2006)

I'm in the "no skimmming" camp.  I can judge a books quality solely on my urges to skim.  I'm reading a book by my uncle now (I'm obligated to, cuz I'll surely be quizzed later) and I find myself skimming constantly, but if I find myself doing this with a book I chose to read then I'll put it down and move on to the next in the cue.  BTW, when I read Tolkien I might spend 5 or 10 minutes on a single page because the writing is so rich and descriptive I dont want to miss a thing, and I want to absorb as much as possible.  Very few other authors have that same effect on me.


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## HoopyFrood (Dec 3, 2006)

Ah, I'm afraid LOTR was skim city for me...Especially the council of Elrond chapter...ugh. But as I said before, it doesn't stop my enjoyment of a book. My pace of reading is pretty quick anyway, so sometimes I just start skimming without being aware. But as I usually re-read most of my books, whatever I missed the first time, I'll be sure to pick up the second times.


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## SpaceShip (Dec 3, 2006)

Hoops - I'm afraid I do the same as you when I think someone might just about be being bumped off!  I sort of rose edge the pages some dozen or maybe more pages ahead to see if I can see their name mentioned, without actually seeing any other words on the page - well, I don't want to be accused of reading ahead now, do I.  But sometimes I nearly reach the end of the book and still don't see their name - now that is scary, especially if I don't want that character to die!


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## Tau Zero (Dec 3, 2006)

I don't skim because i always find i missed something and then have to go back and read it. If a book is absolutely fantastic, i find myself skipping a paragraph (to see what happens) but then going back before i turn the page. Sort of reading the paragraphs out of order.

As a child, i got into the habit of reading the end of a book. This went on until i did this with Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians, in which the last 2 words of the book reveal the murderer. I never did it again!


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## HoopyFrood (Dec 3, 2006)

I learnt my lesson when reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...there was a big hype around this one because it included the 'first' death (as in of a character everyone knew) and I was flicking through and I happened to catch a glimpse of that very line of the death (of all the lines, I had to see that one!) so after that I was less inclined to flick ahead!


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## Teir (Dec 3, 2006)

While I don't flip ahead, I do do quite a bit of skimming through sometimes...and then re-reading whole sections lol.
It happens when I'm getting really into a book or just desperately want to find out what happens. Its really bad though! lol...learned my lesson when I decided to read a Harry Potter in a night...very possible...but not wise. You miss out on too much detail if you rush or are too eager . Now i try to space out my reading time so i absorb it better


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## Allegra (Dec 4, 2006)

I don't skim read. That's why I'm a slow reader and have over 400+ un read books looking down on me from the shelves and causing me great anxiety! I only skim read when the story line gets very, very tense that I really can't wait to know what's happening next, which is usually towards the end of the book but then after I'm done I have to go back to re read the part I skimmed. Most of the time I like to savor every word so as to appreciete the good writing and not miss anything. After all to know what's happening is not the whole point of reading.


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## Mouse (Dec 4, 2006)

I do tend to skim read, and flip ahead, though I really should stop! I'm reading This Forsaken Earth at the mo by Paul Kearney and sometimes I finds myself just looking at the words and not really taking them in at all (course then I usually end up reading the same passage 20 times!) 
If a book has lots of poems or songs in (the redwall books or LOTR for example) then they always get skipped too!! I know, slapped wrists!


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## bruno-1012 (Dec 4, 2006)

HoopyFrood said:


> I don't think I've ever gone that fast...unless a death occurs so quickly that you have to double take to make sure. I haven't flipped ahead while reading for a while now, but then I've been reading books that don't have much death and chaos in (mostly been P.G Wodehouse's Imperial Blandings series...so funny!) so perhaps I've broken the habit



Not quite the place for this discussion but I always struggle to read the Blandings novels.  I'm even worse with the Jeeves series and Ukridge.

Uneasy Money
A Damsel in Distress

are my choices for rereading together with In Alcala - a short story that indicates he didn't only have the skills to write 'fluff'

Find myself browsing the book shelves to see if he's written anything new recently.....

well only to see if they have re-published anything I haven't got


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## Cloud (Dec 4, 2006)

yes, I skim in almost all books, a least sometimes, particularly long-winded descriptions.  If I miss something, I merely go back and re-read.  I skim a lot in books I re-read, too, focusing on the parts I like the best.

I frequently peek at the last page, too.  I like to see how things build toward the ending.


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## Frozeninja (Dec 4, 2006)

I try not to skim read, but I have a habit of doing it without noticing. I used to skim read quite a lot but then I realised it meant I was missing out on a lot of minor (and sometimes not so minor) details which helped the story fit together, so I try to stop myself now whenever I notice. I do confess that I sometimes skim if I'm near the end of the book and I'm short on time, and want to finish it before I have to go and do something else.


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## Joel007 (Dec 4, 2006)

With the rereading I'll skim over the parts i vividly remember, and focus on the bits i'm not so familiar with. I'd never look at the end of a book before reading it, my wife does this with all the potter books, and then gets fed up with the story going so slowly when she actually reads it, as she already knows the ending. I prefer to enjoy books.

Skimming is an insult to the author's work!


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## HoopyFrood (Dec 4, 2006)

But I only skim because I'm enjoying it so much that I get caught up in the action and become so involved in the text that I just get swept away...I'd say that's praise for an author


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## Paige Turner (Dec 4, 2006)

I did that with _Lord of the Rings_. I just checked the last page and thought, 'Oh, well, I see Sam gets home all right. Now I don't have to bother with the intervening 900 pages.' I realize a lot of other stuff probably happens along the way, but as long as it ends well, that's what's important.


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## The Pelagic Argosy (Dec 4, 2006)

HoopyFrood said:


> I learnt my lesson when reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...there was a big hype around this one because it included the 'first' death (as in of a character everyone knew) and I was flicking through and I happened to catch a glimpse of that very line of the death (of all the lines, I had to see that one!) so after that I was less inclined to flick ahead!



This post contains spoilers for Harry Potter. 










My husband, who has no shame, told me about Dumbledore's death when I was in the middle of Goblet of Fire.  But then, he also told me that Frodo dies in Lord of the Rings, so you can see how I didn't totally believe him.  So, as I read along through Order of the Phoenix, I was so concerned for Dumbledore that Sirius Black's death caught me completely off guard. 

There is a death in my favorite story, Gene Wolf's The Book of the New Sun, that was so sudden I think I was in shock for the rest of the day.  I had to put the book down and mourn for awhile.


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## HoopyFrood (Dec 4, 2006)

**** Spoliers for the Dark Tower. ****





I think I've mentioned this before but Eddie's death in The Dark Tower was a complete shock and I think I had to pause for a moment for reflection! It was incredibly unexpected (I knew a death would occur, but I didn't think it would be him first and not so abruptly!) That's a section of a story that made me re-read it many times just to get the full impact of it.


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## Cloud (Dec 4, 2006)

Skim reading is a necessary skill in school and business. People who DON'T know how to skim are at a disadvantage in life.  I refuse to feel guilty about it.   When I read for pleasure--it's my choice what I want to focus on.  

For instance, when I re-read LOTR, I always skim over the parts I don't like much--like the whole beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring until they meet up with Strider, and the parts where Frodo and Sam are slogging through Mordor.   I linger over my favorite parts.  After all, I  I've read the thing so many times I practically have the passage memorized--why not?


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