The Forums › Forums › Tools, Techniques & Treatments › Other › Reading Comprehension › Re: Reading Comprehension
LOL about colouring in the os. I do that too!
Some things I find helpful:
Keep a pen/pencil in your hand to jot down ideas, underline things etc as you’re reading. Making it more interactive really helps me.
If it’s something I need to remember, I have some blank card that I write salient points on, with page numbers so I can go back to them.
I don’t listen to music that I find myself singing along to and I don’t do well in complete silence. Music that I like but not that much seems to be a good compromise, as is having a tv show I’ve watched lots of times before on in the background – I am comforted by the chatter but not distracted by it.
There are some things I just have to read over and over – mainly novels. If I’m doing it too much I put the book away and do something else for a while.
I seldom sit with one book. At least 2, often 3 or 4 in front of me helps me dip in and out.
The last one is obvious, but difficult to find. In 2 years I’ve only found 2 books that have done this for me and I read a LOT. If I’m REALLY into it, I lose myself in it and I don’t have to keep rereading. The first was The Poisonwood Bible and the second was Pompeii. With both, the story shifts perspective as different characters have different stories going on. That doesn’t always work for me as the same applies to Small Island. I enjoyed it but it did take a lot of reading and rereading and going back a few pages because I’d forgotten what had happened etc.
For me, the more challenging the book is, the more able I am to focus on it.
Finally, non-fiction is much easier than fiction. Maybe because I can jump back and forth in it and I’m not desperate to know ‘the end’. (I ALWAYS look!)
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