Confession of a slow reader

I am a slow reader.

You would not have guessed this in 2nd grade when I was the only student to read 50 books in our annual reading contest. If I only read kids books, my slow reading wouldn’t be a problem, but it takes me forever to read adult books. Depending on the layout, how many words are on a page, and the complexity of the prose, I can read about 35-50 pages an hour. A 350-page book takes at least a 7-8 hour investment of time for me. This sometimes makes me feel disabled, particularly when I have a friend who can read a Baby-Sitter’s Club book in less than an hour and coherently relate the plot afterwards. She doesn’t even skip the part where they explain where Kid Kits are and how weird it is that Claudia eats lots of junk food but never gets fat or has pimples.

I only have about 2-3 hours of free time in a day, if you account for the time I spend cooking, exercising, paying bills, and [...]

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