Oh my god this perfectly describes it. It's like the main reason I read so slowly because I don't realise I'm doing that other weird kind of reading where you process and register the word but no the group of words arranged in to meaning. Suddenly I realise that started happening several pages ago and have to go back and start over.
yeah, this really took me out of reading for a long time. Just base-level "reading" where you kind of process the words as an activity, without actually absorbing anything.
started medication recently, and hope that it'll help with this. i miss reading ;.;
Have you tried audiobooks? I have a far easier time with them and most everything you'd want to read is available in audiobook form
I have a really hard time absorbing people speaking when i'm not interacting with them, and being understimulated and not knowing what to do with my hands when i am able to focus on audiobooks. I want to love them and podcasts, but they just aren't it for me D:
I'm glad they work so well for you and others, though!!
Audiobooks are fantastic for me while riding a bike or walking on a treadmill - something to physically do and something to mentally do.
I can't just sit and listen to them though.
EDIT: Oh and repetitive tasks - I got back into audiobooks when I started making chainmail again. Which reminds me... I haven't finished that thing I started a year ago...
Me reading a poem.
Me rereading a poem.
😡 me giving up on reading the poem.
I've accepted at this point that I have to make notes in order to remember things from books. Not just textbooks but theory as well. I think "reading without understanding/memorizing" can still be a nice activity if it's something unimportant like fiction where the point is just the activity of doing it without necessarily needing to remember any of the detail.
It didn't work for me in school because of this: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/5000178 💀
i just read them twice if i liked them. three times if i really liked them. that seems to help :)
I can never remember all the shit i have to do until i sit down to do some important reading
The only way to completely snap out of it for me sometimes is to start reading out loud or at least move my mouth with the words to reinforce them. Although it doesn't always work, I do realize quicker if I have no idea what's coming out of my mouth than if it's just in my head. It also forces my brain to slow down a bit.
