SOCIETY/CULTURE: The Need for Speed

<body bgcolor="#993333" link="#FFFFCC" vlink="#99CC99" alink="#000000" text="#CCFFFF"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tr> <td valign="TOP" align="CENTER" width="178">  <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="170"> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/logo-map.html"><img src="../../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/logo.gif" alt="Tripod Map" border="0" height="58" width="170" ismap></a></td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="100%"> <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/universal2-map.html"><img src="../../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/universal2.gif" alt="Member Services Map" width="170" height="59" border="0" ismap></a></td> </tr><tr><td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="170" bgcolor="#999966"> <img src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/tripod_zones.gif" alt="tripod zones" width="81" height="17" border="0"></td> </tr><tr> <form action="http://www.tripod.com/bin/redirect" method="POST"> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="170" bgcolor="#999966"> <select name="URL"> <option value="/">Choose one:</option> <option value="/cars_trucks/">Cars&Trucks;</option> <option value="/computers_internet/">Computers/</option> <option value="/computers_internet/">       Internet</option> <option value="/entertainment/">Entertainment</option> <option value="/fun_games/">Fun&Games;</option> <option value="/health_fitness/">Health/Fitness</option> <option value="/home_family/">Home/Family</option> <option value="/jobs_career/">Jobs/Career</option> <option value="/money_business/">Money/Business</option> <option value="/shopping/">Shopping</option> <option value="/society_culture/">Society/Culture</option> <option value="/sports/">Sports</option> <option value="/teens/">Teens</option> <option value="/travel/">Travel</option> <option value="/women/">Women</option> </select><input type="IMAGE" src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/go.gif" width="24" height="20" border="0" align="ABSMIDDLE"> <img src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/trans.gif" width="1" height="3" border="0"><br><img src="../../../../img/www_subdomain/p_member_comm.gif" alt="pod member communities" width="146" height="11" border="0"><br> <a href="../../../../www_subdomain/adm/imagemap/pods-map.html"><img src="../../../../img/nav/www_subdomain/pods.gif" alt="Pod Map" width="170" height="18" border="0" align="top" ismap></a></td> </form> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" width="170">  <tr><td></td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER"> <center> <a href="#"></a> </center> </td></tr> <tr><td align="CENTER"> <center> <a href="#"></a> </center> </td></tr> </table>  </td> <td valign="TOP"><base target="_top"> <table cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="TOP" width="170"><center></center> </td> <td valign="TOP" width="100%"> <basefont size="3">  <font face="ARIAL," verdana, helvetica> <br> <font size="+2" color="#FFFFFF">My name is Dan Reines, <br>and I'm a slow reader.</font> <br><br clear="ALL"> I'll say it again, for those of you who blazed right through that and didn't quite catch it: I'm Dan. I read slow. <br><br> I'm not dumb, not so far as I know; I got a degree from one of the nation's top public universities, for what that's worth (not much, perhaps). Nor am I dyslexic, or ADD, though I'd desperately love an excuse like that to latch onto. Then I could just be a guy with a problem, and a curable problem at that. Instead, I'm just a guy who reads slow, and in our society "reading slow" is, with painful frequency, equated with "being slow." <br><br> Think about it. You come across a guy who reads as slowly as I do, your first thought is "ESL." Only, English is not my second language, so there goes that one. Then, likely as not, you'll think dyslexia, which as I've already covered is not applicable. Then, in a fit of charitability, you'll proclaim that, because I read slowly, I probably absorb more. Yeah, that's it  you read at a normal pace, but you probably don't remember the names of all the characters, right? And since I take my time, plodding along through a text, it's safe to assume that I'm making all sorts of mental notes as I go, and I probably get more out of my reading, and� <br><br> Thank you for that. You're very generous. But you're wrong. I don't, as far as I can tell, get all that much more from my reading than you do; I just get less from my time. Which leads you to the next logical conclusion: brain trauma. Which is also wrong, thank God. <br><br> You see, it's not that I'm taking my time when I read, just plodding along. Put it this way: When Carl Lewis runs the 100 in 30 seconds, he's taking his time. When I do it, it's because I'm slow. Same thing with the reading. It just takes me a while to drag my fat eyes across the paper, that's all. <br><br> How slow am I? I'll show you. <br><br> <center></center> <br><br> Let's run a little experiment. Find yourself a stopwatch, or any kind of watch with a second hand. <br><br> Got one? Good. Now get ready. When the second hand sweeps around to 12, start reading from "GO." Keep reading until I tell you to stop, and then figure out how long it took you. Don't try to read fast, or slow, or whatever. Just read, like you normally do  like you're reading a letter from a friend or something. Ready? <br><br> <center></center> <br><br> If you've ever read a magazine over someone's shoulder, you know that people read at different rates. If you're lucky enough to be a fast reader, you can read entire articles over someone's shoulder and never miss a word. If you're a fast reader reading over my shoulder, you can do so while reading your own magazine at the same time. And cooking. And studying for the MCATs. <br><br> A few years back, I spent a day in the park with a friend, reading. I mean an entire day  from about 10 a.m. 'til 4 or 5. When we started, I had about 150 pages left in "The Day of the Jackal," a light-reading classic by Frederick Forsyth. She, on the other hand, was just beginning a 300-page book by, I don't know, Nietzsche? Sartre? Whoever it was, it was a lot deeper than Frederick Forsyth, and it was most likely translated from some non-Romance language. <br><br> And you can see this coming. Not only did she finish before I did, but she made the sandwiches at lunchtime, and she spent the better part of her last fifty pages taunting me. Which, needless to say, did wonders for my self-esteem. <br><br> <center></center> <br><br> Ok, how long did that take you? (I know, I know, you got absorbed in the drama of it all and forgot to time yourself. No sweat  just go back and read it again. But pay more attention this time, ok?) Because the passage that you just read contained 198 words. You probably cruised through it in, oh, 25 seconds? Maybe 30, if the phone rang while you were reading? <br><br> You know how long it takes me to read 198 words, on average? A minute. One entire minute. <br clear="ALL"><p align="RIGHT"> <a href="/"></a><a href="/"></a> <br><br> </font>  </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body>