I have ADHD, I think it’s possible I had some other form of reading disability when I was younger, but I’m not sure. Just a hunch, my therapist has. One thing I do all the time, that really slows me down, is subvocalizing. If I’m not subvocalizing, I feel like my retention and comprehension are almost nonexistent. For easier literature, it’s not a big deal, but wanting to read more theory, I find myself struggling.
I think, according to some reading tests I was taking today, I read at about 144 wpm which isn’t great. That’s me mostly subvocalizing. If I stop, I can get to 270, but my retention and comprehension goes down quite a bit.
Any advice, tools, websites, services, you might be aware of that can help me unlearn a lifetime of bad reading habits? Everyone wants to sell you a tool or service for STEM shit, but when you’re looking for adult assistance with reading, all I seem to be finding is stuff for Elementary and Middle School level reading.
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I have one piece of less conventional wisdom. I relate very strongly to what you’ve described. When I was in elementary school I was given colored overlays a special bookmark to block lines I wasn’t reading. Physical tools to keep me focused on the current sentences, and to limit my perception of the negative figure ground relationship that forms “rivers through words”. As an adult I’m distracted by a lot more things than just the pages themselves.
My suggestion is, for what I’ve found to work— don’t be afraid to warm up and pay attention to your retention (1) don’t be afraid to use a bookmark for a few minutes to get your eyes & mind concentrating on the only line you’re reading. (2) read slowly and deliberately, and don’t try to read faster than you’re able to in the first 20-30 minutes— don’t be focused on beating 144wpm. And if you’re not retaining what you’re reading slow down further until you get used to the voice and flow of the writer. This is especially true if you’re jumping into something dense, old, translated or technical (3) warm up with another read on the same topic, or a different translation of the same work. For example, I needed to read a particular translation of Marcus Aurelius. I was reading slowly and losing my concentration for paragraphs at a time. I wasted hours and couldn’t even grasp the narrative voice never mind the content! I was Going back, subvocalizing, and re reading over and over again. I discovered a great trick. I got 3 other translations and read them simultaneously and that was so effective. I was reading the same concepts in subtle different ways— building a deeper impression, once I was in the flow of it, I was much better able to follow any of the translations. I later found it helpful to include easier reads, or more narrative reads to warm myself up when reading technical stuff.
You might wanna give this a shot:
The idea that there is “only one bionic reading” is obviously bullshit to try and monetize an idea that they had, so I believe there are other solutions out there that do this, including many that work on PDFs and web pages, but I don’t know the names of them off the top of my head
e: here’s a FOSS version of it, it’s a chrome extension https://bionify.xyz/
