I struggled to read, you don't have to.
I struggled to read, you don't have to.
I have just finished reading Mistborn - Well of Ascension. It's the longest fiction I have read - 244,371 words, about 800 pages long. I struggled and I want to share this experience because I think many people struggle quietly and blame themselves for their weak comprehension.
The archer parable
If you have tried archery for a substantial amount of time, you would have noticed that beginners do better than amateurs. This is because the beginner shoots with an empty mind. Meanwhile, the amateur shoots while thinking about shooting, thinking about whether his form is good, thinking about the consequences and ridicule that comes from missing his shot.
In this essay, I argue that reading and comprehension is similar. You comprehend better when you stop overthinking.
Meta level reading hinders comprehension
I can think about something, or I can think about thinking about something. This is called meta level thinking. It hinders comprehension. It causes cognitive overload and you split your attention between processing the content and monitoring the process.
I used to think that as long as I voice out the word in my head, the word will somehow stick in my brain and that's how comprehension works. So I try to sound out every word in my head, and sometimes out loud with my voice. But I still do not comprehend the sentences. I just see alphabets and words that don't mean anything.
To process information, I argue that you must not stay in the meta level. You must to find a way to get back to being one with the story. You must be immersed, absorbed and not be conscious of yourself. You must have one pointed focus. But, you mustn't focus on focusing. You must not think about reading. You must not notice that you are reading.
So what should we do instead?
Mental image and flow
While there is no one cure for all, but I think most people can understand better with images than words. Hence the saying, a picture speaks more than a thousand words.
About 150,000 words into the book, I ran an experiment - to try picturing the scene in my head as I read. When the author describes a place, a character, I allow myself to take a moment and build out the mental image. I add details, such as lights, texture, posture, as if I was watching a movie in my head. The projector and screen are all in my head. As my eyes track the next words, I no longer hesitate about seeing what was written. Instead, my focus was on building out the scene in my head. The brain became a clean processing unit that decode the words effortlessly and create images.
I did not instruct my brain to do this. I simply focus on building the image and letting the brain do its work in comprehension. I stop telling it to do what I think it should do, and just trust that it knows how. I finished chapters after chapters without the pain and struggles of comprehension. It just flows.
What about non-fiction?
In non-fiction, you can't build a mental image from the argumentative and logical paragraphs. Instead, you can think of the book as a conversation. Each paragraph is trying to explain a concept. Instead of building a scene, build a conversation.
Being cognisant is a slippery slope. Over-analysing might put yourself back in the trap of being in meta-level again. Analysing instead of comprehending.
The advice here is to keep it simple and just keep a north star question in your mind - "what is the author trying to mean?" The simplicity of the question pulls you back to a comprehension mode instead of over-analytical mode.
Caveats
This essay only covered one part of a deep-seated gnawing problem in society. Some of us gave up along the way. I figured out a humble fix and I hope it helps you read better.