Monday, March 02, 2009

Musing Mondays-- Skimming: Good for Fat, Bad for Books


When reading do you read every word? Do you ever skip chapters or skim over parts?

I have to admit that I'm not conscious of exactly how I read, which means I take it entirely for granted! I must read almost every word because misspellings, missing words, or the wrong words make me stop and take a second look.

There are times when I do skip chapters or parts of a book, and that's always a bad sign because it means the book isn't holding my interest. I've been known to be reading a mystery when a character is first introduced, stop and think to myself, "That's the killer", and then skip to the ending to see if I was right. If I'm right and nothing else about the book grabs my interest, I stop reading that book and start another. Other times that I've been reduced to skimming is when the book puts me to sleep because of the writing style or lack of interesting characters and action. Skimming is usually a sign that I should stop reading that particular book and choose another!

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11 comments:

  1. If I am skipping sentences, skimming over what I am reading, it is a sign to move on to another book.

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  2. I'm with Nise' - if I find myself skimming, it's time for me to move on to another book.

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  3. I've never skipped whole chapters, but I have skimmed through parts of books. I tend to lose interest in descriptions get to be too involved.

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  4. If I find myself skimming, that means that I absolutely loathe what I'm reading and I just want to get it done.

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  5. I don't skip! But I do sometimes skim.

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  6. I'm not a skimmer in general - if I do - then the book is not holding my interest and I should put it down.

    I hate to admit this - but sometimes if a book has a really suspenseful part - I might look ahead to see how it turns out - then go back and read what I skipped - I know that is so wrong - but sometimes the suspense just "kills" me - LOL.

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  7. I'm like Nise, if I find myself skipping chapters and whole sections, the book has got to be bad and not worth finishing. My post is up now.

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  8. I'm like Yvonne, I will skim or skip paragraphs if they get to be too involved or are describing in detail something I'm not interested in. Can't skip a chapter, and I have trouble NOT finishing a book.

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  9. Kara--there's nothing wrong with what you do. It means that what the author has done is working!

    Erin--there's something freeing about being able to stop reading a book that you don't like. Give it a try! :)

    Skimming and skipping is a bad sign. 99% of the time, when that happens, I stop reading the book and go on to the next. The other 1% of the time means that I'm reading an ARC, and I do feel obligated to finish those.

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