<p>I have a problem reading books I'm told to read. Last book I read was The Things They Carried this year but other than that all the books before that I've been assigned I've either read half way, read a couple of pages, or didnt even bother to open upon hearing what it was about during class discussions. How did I get by you may ask? Well I went online and I used Sparknotes just to get the summary; I never read their analysis. So I've been doing this since about 8th grade and on. I don't get bad grades in English, I'm constantly getting 85-95 in that class and that's because all the essays are just analysis questions in which you need to come up with some thesis (which to me is like "give me a 100-piece puzzle and I'll connect them somehow even if its by force" and this technique works; it doesn't neccesarily mean I believe what I write in but it gets me the grades). Normally the books I would read are baseball related, non-fictional, or informative. I spend a decent amount of time reading new sites like CNN or NY Times to stay up-to-date on what's going on in the world and as a way to always keep myself reading something. Another thing I like is to read comic books. I used to do it as a kid then stopped but I'm picking it up again because it's just something I enjoy.</p>
<p>So what's the problem you may ask? Well it has to do with the fact that I can't deal with reading books that I'm told to read in school. I just find them boring, just about every single one of them, and I'd say I've had to read a bunch of books of literary merit or classics or whatever you want to call them. I'm the type of person that just would rather see it in the movie theatre (even though it's never exactly like the book since it's just another person's interpretation). How would this affect me? I do plan on reading this summer since I'll have a lot of free time. In fact I just spend about 200 dollars buying books on baseball statistics/management and a couple of comic books. I just feel that I'm at a disadvantage because I just can't read books that most English teachers would consider great works. As a result because I don't read as much as I should have I can't read as fast as many people my age can (I've heard of people finishing books like Harry Potter within 3-4 hrs) and so this may hurt me even more in college. What can I do about this? Btw I'm not planning on majoring in English as you might have guessed but I do understand that English is important in just about everything because you'll always have to read papers related to your field and you're expected to understand them and be able to articulate what you've grasped from such texts.</p>
<p>So I have a problem, I'm acknowledging, now what? Is there anyway to learn how to speed read while still being able to fully understand what you're reading?</p>
<p>this isn't meant in a mean way but ultimately you just have to get over it. We all have to do things we don't want to, and if understanding literature or getting a good grade or reading quickly is important to you then you will do it.</p>
<p>Well the thing is, after your schooling, you probably will have to never look at them again (Or in the process, even like some of them) I had this problem starting Junior year because I already read Scarlet Letter and didn't want to read it again... I read alot, but usually not the books schools tell me to.</p>
<p>Just get in gear for college, and then after it, screw it.</p>
<p>i kinda had the same problem in school -- some books i found boring, others i was irritated with the style the author used -- ultimately i discovered that i liked reading non-fiction more than fiction -- of couse people who can read just about anything win out in being more well-rounded and well-read -- but isn't reading supposed to be fun also? -- if you always force youself to read things that are boring to you, soon you'll discover just the word "read" will become unpleasant -- speed reading is not the answer</p>
<p>HS reading cannot be possibly interesting for all students -- i don't think that all people in your english classes enjoy every singly book they read -- to avoid such future problems and keep youself reading you have to find topics that are interesting for you to read on, so that reading is enjoyable -- for example, some people enjoy reading about psychology, others about wars and weapons, others like history, some love sci-fi -- but if you haven't sampled these topics and just read the HS reading, you'll never know if you might enjoy these</p>
<p>i found college reading to be unlike HS reading in that we read more stuff than pertained to the real modern world and also i had to do much more technical reading since my major was in physical sciences -- i was happy to get away from "Catcher in the Rye" and "Pride and Prejudice" type of material and start reading something more modern -- occasionally i read books just for enjoyment, and even something fictitious if the author's style is enjoyable -- once i find somethind i like, i become an avid reader and may stay up nights just to keep on reading -- but you see the trick is to discover what you like first -- some people are less picky in this part than others and can therefore claim that they are avid readers since they'll read just about anything written in any style</p>
<p>Use cliff notes. I didn't read anything in senior English and still did well.</p>
<p>try your best to do the reading and if it takes too long, spark or cliffnote it. just try. and if you can, try to appreciate what you're reading. i find it kind of sad when people tell me they don't like reading. it's like a whole world that they shut out (or something shuts out) of their existence.</p>
<p>I like reading, but I don't have the attention span for it. I don't have ADD, it's just that I don't like to sit still for that long.</p>
<p>although it's something I want to do it's only because of how it may affect me in my work life (and major). And it's not about reading quickly for me. I want to be able to read quickly AND understand what I'm reading. That's what speed reading is so I've been told.</p>
<p>practice practice practice</p>
<p>It's hard to get in gear when you never had the foot on the pedal to begin with. I'm going to make a big effort to read everything I'm assigned, and to do so on time as well.</p>
<p>I've taken college courses while in HS. One every semester, including the semester, since my junior year. I remember the first class was Psychology and the teacher as a monster assigning us like 20 pages or more. I was keepign up in the first two weeks but then I couldn't anymore and just had to go by what she said in the lectures. Then my next class was an English Writing class and that didn't have long readings so I ended up doing all of them. Then Theatre and Economics which somehow never gave assigned readings. My economics professor was a repetitive machine, and if it weren't for the fact that I actually read parts of the textbook (he never assigned stuff from it) the entire class would have been worthless. And Philosophy my last class this semester gave us about 10-15 pages to read but it was a great class and I always kept up on the work, only missed one paper all semester in fact. And I did all the readings like a couple of hours before class time but I'm guessing that's because I enjoyed what I was reading and looked forward to the class discussions. I still say he was being to nice with the readings he assigned since most professors would assign twice or three times the pages to read.</p>
<p>I know these habits won't work in college though because the idea that I have to worry about 4+ classes makes it just that much tougher. I need to learn how to do work on time, instead of procrastinating and doing everything at the last minute.</p>
<p>When you say senior English, are you referring to college or high school. I don't care about high school since that's over with. But I would think that colleges would want you to know more than just the summary so I don't think cliffnotes or sparknotes would work in that case. I still don't want to cheat myself because that's what I'd essentially be doing if I didn't read any of the material assigned. I would figure, I'm paying for my education or at least I earned the grants I got to get an education where I'm going (not many people can say that, well on this forum yea but in general) and I would like to take advantage of the opportunity instead of doing what I did in HS all over again.</p>
<p>I have actually tried doing that. In fact I remember I did that for Huck Finn. I read like half way through the book, I'd say a little bit more than that, and then I just kind of lost interest and got the rest through sparknotes. I ended up doing one hell of an essay for it though lol. What scares me about doing this though is that I know sparknotes doesn't have EVERYTHING and so there will be times that I'll just have to read so it's like trying to do something that you think helps but in the end it's still a bad habit because it'll bite ya in the butt when you can't find the summary online.</p>
<p>This is what I'm talking about actually. I do try reading sometimes but I swear I just can't focus. I start looking around, listening to other stuff. Heck even when there are things that are turned off I just can't focus. I always thought it was like some small case of ADD but I've seen students with ADD and I'm glad I don't have that.</p>
<p>How would you suggest for me to practice? I mean like I said I did buy a bunch of books recently to read this summer although they aren't the kind you'd read in a English class.</p>
<p>then read in small chunks. read till you can't read anymore then take a break then read again. Ultimately you have to want it. If you don't care then you won't do it no matter what anyone here says.</p>
<p>What could I possibly start with? Right now I'm actually reading The Dark Knight Returns. Yea I know it's not a book but I'm loving it so far. What could you suggest that I could start off that I could relate to (meaning something modern)?</p>
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How would you suggest for me to practice? I mean like I said I did buy a bunch of books recently to read this summer although they aren't the kind you'd read in a English class.
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<p>Just keep reading the books your assaigned. Don't not read them and read sparknotes. Just keep readin the books your assaigned and you'll get more used to it and you'll get faster.</p>
<p>Go into a bookstore and browse. Find books that appeal to you that are over a certain amount of pages. Maybe read some short stories and find an author you like and then try to build up the number of shorts you can read in a row. Flannery O'Connor is very good. So is David Sedaris and Tim O'brian's The Things They Carried.</p>
<p>Also if you still have some of the books you were supposed to read, go back and read them.</p>
<p>School year is over basically so I'm trying to prepare myself in time for college.</p>