What Types Of Things (If Any) Do You Do To Help With Reading Comprehension? (11/8/20)

[Marc]

We all read at different speeds, for different durations, etc. What types of things do you do or have you changed to improve your reading comprehension (rereading passages, notetaking, varying your speed or the environment in which you read, etc.)? Are these things you've always done or slowly adopted over the years? Assuming one can assess such a thing themselves, would you generally say your reading comprehension has improved or declined in the last few years?
(This question was inspired by the Bookriot article, "How to Improve Your Reading Comprehension As an Adult.")

[Sam]

Without meaning to sound too glib, the biggest aid to my comprehension is being able to stay awake. So, I usually have a drink at hand or small snack and I will break up my reading with short walks outside as I feel drowsy. With age my reading has comprehension has slowed a bit and sometimes I find myself looking up the meanings of words I had learned once but have now forgotten, but the real toll of aging has been on my writing and speech rather than my reading comprehension.

[Robert]

When I was in my 20's I hated experimental novels because I liked instant comprehension. Around my mid 30's I started to gravitate towards more difficult books because I had the patience to reread passages until I get them.

Now,as I'm in my early 40's ( 42 on Friday!) I discovered that if I read 10 pages of a difficult novel everyday my comprehension is fantastic! Sure it takes 3 months but I really don't mind.

[Nadine in California]

On rare occasions, I'll read something challenging in the physics vein, like A Brief History of Time. I'll go slowly and carefully and I feel like I'm understanding it, but as soon as I set the book down I have no idea what I just read - my understanding lasts a nanosecond.

[Bretnie]

A handful of years ago my commute drastically changed and my audiobook listening ramped way up, along with my overall number of books I read per year.

At first I loved it. I was finally actually getting to books I wanted to read! But after a few years of maniacally fast reading, I realized my comprehension was slowing down.

In the last year I’ve really tried to notice when an audiobook is losing me and switching to print. The pandemic, sadly, has helped since I now have no commute (working from home full time) and a lot more time to read in print.

Hopefully what I’ll learn from this is some books just work better for me in print, and not to rush just to knock another book off the list.

[Dorottya]

I am an avid note-taker - pen and paper style. I also look words up on an Internet dictionary if I have a feeling I might now know their exact meaning. I also take breaks / change environment sometimes while reading, because I learnt that my mental state and also, the weather and humidity has a huge affect on my comprehension.

[Jerry]

Thanks, Dorottya, for reviving this thread. I'm a little surprised that such an interesting question has given rise to such a small number of responses, especially because I'm sure most of us engage in various practices, have certain habits, to facilitate our reading comprehension. But perhaps introspecting about such things is not something we're inclined to do.

Anyway: I have taken to reading most things on electronic media such as my Kindle. One big reason why I do this is that it enables me to read more complex or confusing or unfamiliar literature. For example, if I'm reading a long book, or a book with a large cast of characters, or a book with characters that have names unfamiliar to me, I am able to tap on the name when I encounter it, and do a quick search through the book for other passages where that name occurs. This practice all but eliminates problems I would otherwise have "keeping track" of different characters in a book. It's not unusual, once I've (say) found a reference to a character on p. 500 that was previously mentioned on p. 100, for me to do a quick reread of the passage on p. 100 to refresh my memory of the character and his/her role in the story.

In the ("pre-Kindle") past, when I would encounter a name well into a book that "rang a bell" but didn't raise a more specific recollection, I would often drive myself crazy searching through the book "the analog way", wasting a good deal of time and energy on the way and disrupting the flow of my reading in the process. Now I no longer worry about such things, and my understanding and appreciation of what I am reading is well served by this change in my reading resources and habits.

[Lily]

Jerry wrote: "...I would often drive myself crazy searching through the book "the analog way"..."

It's oft ironic how our habits develop. Although my bookshelves and my eyes and checking definitions and noting highlights would all prefer kindle, I still often buy hardcover so as to be able to more readily check back on earlier events or characters when reading a novel! Back tracking on kindle sometimes drives me nuts -- it's like nothing stays stable. Thank you for helping me think about that -- I'm trying to write a short essay on the evolution of my own reading oeuvre and techniques -- for my granddaughter?

[Marc]

I've discovered that if I read 2 to 3 novels at the same time, but only allow a limited number of pages (say 15 to 20 of each), it causes me to keep better track of each story (as opposed to plunging ahead for 30 to 50 pages in any one). It's like I have to remind myself where in the story I was, who the characters are, etc.

I underline, write in the margins, circle words I'll look up later, etc. If it's not my book, I'll flag passages and jot down notes when done. I'll usually type up notes, passages, etc. when done and use those for reviews, group discussions, or just to bring closure to the reading experience. I'm usually aware if my attention is drifting or a passage just didn't quite make sense... however, sometimes I go back and give it another try and sometimes I'm lazy and just forge ahead blissfully ignorant.

Still prefer to read paper books, but getting more comfortable with the note/search/etc. features on the phone or tablet. My memory is improved by actual manual writing and the varying tactile experiences with physical books (different sizes/paper/smels/font/etc.) vs. screen reading.

[Whitney]

Lily wrote: "Jerry wrote: "...I would often drive myself crazy searching through the book "the analog way"..."

It's oft ironic how our habits develop. Although my bookshelves and my eyes and checking definitio..."

I discovered this schism early on when I started reading on ebooks. Like Jerry, I find it much more convenient to search a name to find where a character previously occurred. My friends who don't like e-readers tend to be more like Lily, able to flip back and find where something happened previously in the book fairly easily (which I can't do to save my life). I suspect there's some element of how well people process visual information involved.

I also find that being able to search text in general is invaluable when really trying to dig into a book for themes and meanings. When I'm in a book discussion here, I'll usually download an e-copy of a book for that reason, even if I originally read it in analog.

[Jerry]

Marc wrote: "I've discovered that if I read 2 to 3 novels at the same time, but only allow a limited number of pages (say 15 to 20 of each), it causes me to keep better track of each story (as opposed to plungi..."

That's a really interesting strategy, Marc; I'd not thought of it. Given that it is very much my habit to "juggle" multiple books simultaneously (I don't even have the self-control to limit myself to 2 or 3), I could certainly benefit from an additional tactic to help me keep track of things in each one.

I would imagine, though, that in addition to limiting yourself to "bites" of a smallish number of pages in each book, you probably also limit yourself (implicitly or explicitly) to a smallish number of days between successive "revisits" to a particular book. And it is this issue that is likely my undoing in my attempts to be a better reader. If I'm juggling a half dozen books (as, for example, I'm currently doing), I will sometimes leave a book for over a week while I am reading other things, and this is generally too long for me to be able to count on picking right up where I left off without feeling some sense of disorientation. So I do a fair amount of backtracking ... which I don't mind doing! but still, I could do without the disorientation part. Not sure there's any good solution to this, other than "don't try to read so many books at once!" ("I'm getting too old for this sh*t!"), but there are other reasons why I am very attached to this "juggling" reading practice, and I don't believe I will be giving it up.

I will, however, give your idea a try of using shorter "visits" ("bites") to each book in the rotation and see how that goes for me.

[Whitney]

Jerry, we may be related, again I have the same issue. One thing that I've found helps is to take a minute to mentally rehash what I just read in a book right after I put it down.

[Marc]

Jerry wrote: "I will sometimes leave a book for over a week while I am reading other things, and this is generally too long for me to be able to count on picking right up where I left off..."

Yes! This would be too long for me, as well. How do you balance out the books you're juggling in terms of genre? For example, there's no way I could read 6 novels at once or even 3 really dense novels. I try not to let a novel go for more than a day or two at most without being read. The limiting of pages read is relatively new for me. It was based on how many pages I thought I could manage per day without much stress/pressure (40 to 50) and then I started with the books I wanted to read by a certain date (say, for an upcoming group read)... so I was reading 25 pages of one, 16 of another, and 12 of one other. And then the other two books were if I had desire/energy to get to (also, one of those is nonfiction and one of those is poetry so picking up where one left off is not as important, or, apparently, as hard for me).

Normally, 2 to 4 books is much more manageable and enjoyable for me, especially if they are a mix of genres. I'm finding certain books make it much harder to put down and pick back up (ending on chapters is much easier, but then there are writers who don't use chapters or don't even end their sentences and this complicates things).

This page-count thing would drive me nuts if it was something I did regularly in a very regimented fashion, but it helps if I've got too many going at once. I can't seem to help myself from eventually slipping back into "too many going at once."

[LindaJ^]

Currently I'm always reading 2 books at a time - one in audio and one in print (paper or Kindle). Before I retired, though, I would read at least 4 at a time -- audio in car using CD, audio for exercise using Audible, print at home and print in office. On occasion, it takes a few minutes to remember a particular book!