People frequently comment on how quickly I read. Part of that is just me – I’ve always been a voracious and relatively quick reader since my mom used some flashcard program to teach me to read when I was three. (I had library priviliges in kindergarten and was sent to the library while the class was learning to read because I was disruptively bored.)
Another part of it is a class I took in community college to fulfill a requirement. That class, Efficient Reading, used the technology of the time (1986) to improve our reading speed, comprehension, and retention. (Efficient Reading and Typing were the two most useful classes I took in community college. I’m so happy to be free of my two index finger typing.) The final part of the speedy reading was grad school – after slogging through textbooks and academic treatises, reading popular literature and nonfiction can’t help but be faster.
If you’re interested in improving your reading speed and retention, you might try a program such as the free SpeedRead (Windows only).
Reading Update
Stars: Hidden Star & Captive Star (Book 1 & 2 of the Stars of Mithra Trilogy); Treasures: Secret Star (Book 3 of the Stars of Mithra Trilogy) & Treasures Lost, Treasures Found; and River’s End by Nora Roberts. Truly, the woman has written a seemingly infinite number of books.
The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman. Audio. I love Alice Hoffman’s style of magical realism and listening to this book made the trip to and from the cabin fly by.
Cry Wolf: An Alpha and Omega Novel by Patricia Briggs. First off, don’t even bother reading this book unless you’ve first read the short story in On the Prowl, because that short story is really the first chapter or two of this book. It was a decent read – there is some character overlap between this and Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series.
Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4) by Stephenie Meyer. I was equally annoyed with Bella and Edward during the early parts of the book, but the last third of the book redeemed it all for me.
Storm Born (Dark Swan, Book 1) by Richelle Mead. This is an extremely compelling, well-written, and racy paranormal romance. Highly recommended, although I must admit that I’m a little afraid of how the series will develop, as the heroine seemed a combination of Meredith Gentry and Anita Blake. But, hey, CarrieK, there aren’t any vampires! 😉
Fearless Fourteen (Stephanie Plum) by Janet Evanovich. These are always fun, but they also feel sort of stuck in a holding pattern…
Knitting Update
Back in May, I won some lovely Wollmeise from Cathy-Cate; I started knitting a pair of Tidepool socks from it at the beginning of August.
“Gee, Mom, you sure haven’t made much progress on those socks in nearly a month, have you?” -Mayhem
Um, no. I started the sock on my usual KnitPicks 0s and realized the yarn was thinner than your average fingering weight. A-ha! A chance to try my Addi Lace 00s!
Ouch. Within a few days, I had poked painful holes in the tips of both my index fingers with the brutally sharp points of those needles. And then I started the Noroesque socks, which have occupied my somewhat limited knitting attention since (I’ve started the second sock!). I know I’ll get back to them, because I love how they’re turning out.
“Sure you will, Mom. I’ve heard that before.” -Mayhem
