Why Slow Readers are Great

I’ve always seen myself as a big reader but sometimes my kind of reading can mean being stuck on the same book for months. I’ve recently been finishing my studies at university which has massively taken a hit to my reading speed. I’m someone that on a good day can get through a book super quick, other times it’s a snail's pace. I know I’m not alone in feeling a bit unsure about my reading speed. It’s easy to feel insecure when you see others on social media posting about getting through hundreds of pages a day. I think a lot of us are slow readers though, or at least more of us than we realise. A poll on my Instagram revealed that 61% of you guys are slow readers! 

I personally feel that I follow the plot better when I take my time reading. 73% of you agree. Sometimes if I’ve left about a month between picking up a book this doesn't apply but the point still stands. The longer you spend reading a book the more time you have to really get to know the characters, settings and themes. You might read slower because you’re taking in these details and really admiring them in ways you might not have if you’d rushed through. 

66% of you said that you had felt you’d gone through a book too quick. Again, this is something I agree with. I’ve really been enjoying books before but had the attitude that I should read  quickly because of the speed I’d seen others read with. In the end I didn’t actually get to enjoy the book as much as I could have. There were even moments of the book I hadn't really noticed because I wasn’t reading in a way that felt natural to me. 

For some reason, us slow readers often feel a bit insecure about our reading speed. Social media has set these weirdly competitive standards that bleed into real life. When you think of your giant TBR pile that pressure seems to double. What if you can’t get through them all? Well…what if? Would it be so awful to not have read every book because you spent a bit longer really getting to love a few? Take the pressure off yourself. Remember you read because you love it. I’m not always a slow reader but I’m still proud when I am and you should be too.