Read Books Carelessly: Reflections on 'Reading Techniques for Slow Readers'

Continuing to update my note every day, the wall I keep hitting is running out of ideas.

The general blog I started two years ago failed after 100 days, and the specialized blog I started as a fresh attempt also stopped after 20 posts—all because I ran out of material.

It goes without saying that I can't write if I don't have input.

But if I spend time gathering material, I don't have time to write, and if I worry about not being able to write, I don't have time to read books...

For now, the number of books I've bought but haven't read just keeps growing, and that was also a source of stress.

It was at such a time—I forget whose note it was
[[phN_open]]
(I'm truly sorry)
[[phN_close]]—that I saw an article introducing 'Reading Techniques for Slow Readers' and thought, 'This is it!', so I read it right away.

The author, Atsushi Inami, is a book reviewer who reads over 60 books a month and writes reviews for multiple information sites.

His writing is very accessible and reads like a web article, so I was a bit surprised to find he is older than me.
It was a prejudice of mine that as you get older, your writing becomes harder to read and difficult to understand.

Age has nothing to do with writing style, does it?
I will stop using my age as an excuse, too.

Now, the first thing that made me go 'Wow!' while reading this book was 'Flow Reading,' which is about 'reading books more carelessly and for your own convenience, just like skimming through SNS or web news.'

Flow Reading is 'a reading method that finds value in letting the content written in the book flow through you.'

I see.

Instead of lamenting that I don't have time to read books thoroughly, it's better to enjoy many books in a way that suits my own convenience.

I, too, want to break free from the restrictive 'spell of thorough reading' and read more books.

So, how can one read extensively?

Since 'there are two types of books: those that can be read quickly and those that need to be read thoroughly,' you just need to choose 'books that can be read quickly.'

I understand this extremely well.

When my children were young and we went to the library together to choose books for myself, I would give up on novels that required deep reading and instead read essays or how-to books that I could interrupt at any time. Yes, I was choosing 'books that could be read quickly.'

The me back then, who was reading books to carve out even a little time for myself while busy with child-rearing—you did your best...

Oh, I've digressed.
Back to the topic.

Once you've chosen a book that can be read quickly, how do you read it?

It's the 'Breathing Reading Method.'

Oh, these words truly support the feeling I had when I decided to write a book review on note!

And when writing, it is said that it is good to
consciously weave in many quotes
.

So, I have included many quotes in this article.

Agreed, agreed.

The quote I thought was the most wonderful among them is the
'1-line essence'.

And writing a short note on why you were moved by that '1-line essence' is the '1-line review'.

Now, here are my 1-line essence and 1-line review for this book.

Because reading books is fun.
Because I want to feel the joy of encountering worlds and knowledge I didn't know.
I've come to think that's simply enough.

From now on, I feel like I can read books more carelessly and in a way that suits me.