Reading brain fade..

[ZappaDanMan]

Anyone else get it while reading. I spent an hour and half today and got through 15 pages of my new book 'Vulcan's soul: Exodus'; after finishing 'Book I' of the trilogy last night. Haven't experienced this in a while, might rest it for a few days (or anyone else got strategies).

It's not like book II isn't interesting, it's already off to a cracking start: after 4 years in space (after leaving vulcan), only 7 of the great ships are left in the convoy. Others that are sick of traveling so slow, decided to upgrade to augmented drives and use themselves as guinea pigs; wham! straight into a planet (i'm guessing, it alludes to it).

The te'Vikram clan decide to mutiny on a ship, that suffered delta radiation (killing half instantly and rest a slower death) than taking it back to vulcan, only for a few remaining rebelling against them and destroying the engines and the ship...

... and now what to do with the convoy that's tired, angry and lost cohesion, while trying to stop rebellions and unrest, on what could be the last survivors of vulcan (as far as they know).

And yet I can't get past one paragraph without my mind wandering about .

 

[Kilana2]

Hmm. I just ordered Vulcan's Soul book II without knowing book I and III. I will order them later on. I'm a collector. You really make me put them aside and read them later (in two or three years).
I don't have a strategy. Either you force yourself through or you put it aside. The only ST novel I ever put aside was John M. Ford's Final Reflection. I forced myself through Ship of the Line and Red Sector by Diane Carey..... It's up to you. You can put it aside and read it later, though.

 

[EnriqueH]

How often does this happen to you?

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Back in the days when Oprah's Book Club was shiny, new and free from controversy, the featured author -- Toni Morrison -- was her guest and she fielded questions from Book Club participants in the audience.

One reader stood up and said, "Page 34 is giving me problems. I've tried to read it, again and again, for days and I don't understand it. Do you have any advice that'll let me get past this one page?"

"Yes," Morrison said without missing a beat, "turn to page 35 and start reading that."

If a particular paragraph or section is impeding the flow of your reading, ZappaDanMan, then bounce over it.

The greater story should help you fill in any blanks that skipping this portion leaves in the narrative and it may just help you focus on the omitted section, should you choose to revisit it later.

 

[vegaslover62]

Oh, that happened ALL THE TIME when I was fighting my way through New Earth: Rough Trails, written by the collective known as LA Graf. The whole book was basically people talking. Paraphrasing David Warner's sarcastic line in Time Bandits, it was so mercifully free from the ravages of action.

I anticipated it would probably be the same with the Vulcan's Soul trilogy, so that's why I sprung for the audiobooks.

 

[ZappaDanMan]

How often does this happen to you?

Quite a bit at the moment. My friend suggest this 'slow reading movement' thing, the premise being, that in an age where you're constantly skimming very fast news articles and bouncing around to new ones and abandoning them just as fast. sort of retraining your brain to read a certain way.

and i'm find that it's true, my mind and eyes so badly want to skim fast and read ahead, i'm loosing focus and getting frustrated.

So he suggested just retraining to looking at each and every word, one word at a time and Sloooooowww down. And it's working a bit, lol my mind is jumping around in frustration when i practice this. But i didn't stop and start, or go back for 5 pages and comprehended it all, which is amazing for me, even though it was very slow going (but compared to the rate I was going at, i wasn't getting any reading done and was just frustrated).

well see how I am in a week of practicing this

 

[Disco]

I normally just take a break for a day or two when this happens and then I'm hungry to read again.

 

[ZappaDanMan]

I normally just take a break for a day or two when this happens and then I'm hungry to read again.

and thank you for your response, it's probably it... lol.. first world problems, 'I can't read for extended periods'.

I like your avatar, I will 'definitely check myself, before I wreck myself', providing, it is within the defined parameters of logic and that of self destruction. Though I will need an external agent of checking of my agent, before internal combustion.

 

[Relayer1]

I found the whole trilogy really tough going. I got through it, but it took ages.

If you're enjoying it (I didn't) you may just need a break, but it could just be the writing style.

 

[Kilana2]

I found the whole trilogy really tough going. I got through it, but it took ages.

If you're enjoying it (I didn't) you may just need a break, but it could just be the writing style.

Normally I enjoy (ST) novels other people found boring and the other way round. Shocks of Adversity (TOS) kept draggin' on and on, while I enjoyed Losing the Peace (TNG) very much. So I hope for the best, as I recently ordered one of the Vulcan's Soul novels......

 

[drc]

I found the whole trilogy really tough going. I got through it, but it took ages.

If you're enjoying it (I didn't) you may just need a break, but it could just be the writing style.

I was not a huge fan of any of the Vulcan's (noun) series, mostly because of the writing style. It certainly put me in a minority of vocal fans when they were first released. The first two felt rather flat to me even though they were dealing with very *important!!!* stuff in the lives of the characters.

I think I read Soul Part 1 and then dropped the series.

 

[ZappaDanMan]

I read an interview about the series, before I started reading it; in regards to the writing style. Each of the 2 writers took control of one of the two timelines (ancient vulcan / post dominion war), then played as each others editor.

 

[EnriqueH]

How often does this happen to you?

Quite a bit at the moment. My friend suggest this 'slow reading movement' thing, the premise being, that in an age where you're constantly skimming very fast news articles and bouncing around to new ones and abandoning them just as fast. sort of retraining your brain to read a certain way.

and i'm find that it's true, my mind and eyes so badly want to skim fast and read ahead, i'm loosing focus and getting frustrated.

So he suggested just retraining to looking at each and every word, one word at a time and Sloooooowww down. And it's working a bit, lol my mind is jumping around in frustration when i practice this. But i didn't stop and start, or go back for 5 pages and comprehended it all, which is amazing for me, even though it was very slow going (but compared to the rate I was going at, i wasn't getting any reading done and was just frustrated).

well see how I am in a week of practicing this

Let me know.

I hate it when I realize I've been staring at the same damn page for 5 minutes, and thinking about something else entirely.

 

[publiusr]

I used to have shorter hours and could read more. Now long form reading is more difficult for me.

 

[ZappaDanMan]

How often does this happen to you?

Quite a bit at the moment. My friend suggest this 'slow reading movement' thing, the premise being, that in an age where you're constantly skimming very fast news articles and bouncing around to new ones and abandoning them just as fast. sort of retraining your brain to read a certain way.

and i'm find that it's true, my mind and eyes so badly want to skim fast and read ahead, i'm loosing focus and getting frustrated.

So he suggested just retraining to looking at each and every word, one word at a time and Sloooooowww down. And it's working a bit, lol my mind is jumping around in frustration when i practice this. But i didn't stop and start, or go back for 5 pages and comprehended it all, which is amazing for me, even though it was very slow going (but compared to the rate I was going at, i wasn't getting any reading done and was just frustrated).

well see how I am in a week of practicing this

Let me know.

I hate it when I realize I've been staring at the same damn page for 5 minutes, and thinking about something else entirely.

Yeah it worked. So this is what I've come up with, and have been doing it for a week and a half:

1. Slow reading speed right down and read each individual word (1 eye movement per word, no peripheral vision)

2. if you're fading and drifting off to other thoughts, skip what you've missed and keep going. This helps against frustration. There will be times you've missed important points, but a lot of times you can pick the pieces of what was missed in the next paragraph or 7 chapters down the line. Keep moving forward.

3. every half page increase your speed slowly and increase eye movement per line in increments, to whatever you were comfortable with (for me (and depending on text / page size) it's about 3-4 eye movements per line (with peripheral vision))

4. once the fading starts to become common place again, go back to step 1. Rinse / repeat

I also did a 5 minute breathing/mindfulness meditation before a reading session, to help calm my speed gonzales mind down (http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22).

I'm not back at what I use to read at, but I'm not frustrated anymore; I'm getting better at not fading / wandering; I'm reading a lot more at this pace than I was when frustrated and am having fun.

So I don't know if that would work for anyone else, or in what combination or what steps worked most, but I'd thought I'd share.

Cheers

 

[vegaslover62]

Come to think of it, it was also that way for me when I was reading A Stitch in Time. Yes, Garak's had an interesting life, but he comes from an alien race that has eidetic memory, so when he narrates his life, he relates every single detail...