Hmm. Well, I’ve just read Order of the Phoenix again. Took it much slower this time, spaced the reading out over a couple of days… of course, by much slower, I mean that it took me, oh, about fifteen minutes longer than before. And yes. With the proper atmosphere, the death is far more emotional. I did a speed reading experiment with the book too, for kicks. I estimated it’d take me a maximum of two hours to speed read (read: skim) the text. Of course, speed reading doesn’t take in much of the information, but I wanted to prove I was better (well, numerically, I didn’t read the whole thing) than some fourteen year old British chick. ~_^

Anyway, I actually timed myself properly. Started out, nice and comfortable. Checked the clock, turned the timer on, and started reading. I’d decided previously to stop after reading fifty or so pages, to get a preliminary feel for how I was going. Anyway.. I stopped first after about eighty pages. Sue me. I was enjoying it. ;-)

I looked at the clock after reading eighty odd (79 for the pedantic) pages. I’d taken eleven minutes. Just over seven pages per minute (7.18, actually). Now (for the mathematical) we’ll apply that average to the rest of the book.

7 pages per minute spread over 766 pages equates to 107 minutes. In hours, that’s around 1.7 hours. I continued on to check I could keep going, and after a further fifty pages I was reading at more or less the same speed.

So eat that, BBC-trained speed reader! Nyah! Totally self taught (admittedly probably better, more widely and longer read) and faster!

There. I feel better now that’s off my chest. ;-)

I might as well explain that a bit further to you.. at least how I can read so fast. I first learned to read when three, and was reading (relatively) competently when four. When I was six, my Grandad gave me a present. He’d spent a month, on an off, reading “The Hobbit” by J.R.R Tolkien onto cassette for me. Six cassettes to be specific. So, there I was, six and a half years old and following along the Hobbit with my eyes, learning some of the more difficult words, etc. After listening to it, I read through it myself. And, by now, I’d gotten to the point where I could read faster than my Grandad could talk ( ~^ ) so I quickly finished the story. I read other books, on and off, for a year or so. Then, when eight, I read the Lord of the Rings. I followed that by the Elenium (Eddings) at nine, the Belgariad at ten, the Silmarillion at eleven, and I began the Wheel of Time when twelve. (Only highlights here. I wasn’t only reading these books, you know. ^^ )

By the time I started high school at twelve, I had read thousands of books. A lot of that was caused, of course, by being a bit of a loner, and books are a kind of retreat from that. Anyway. As you can no doubt guess, reading books like Lord of the Rings at eight etc, plus thousands of others along the way tends to exercise and hone reading talents. And so, I’ve definitely been honing. :-)

At any rate, I think I’ll finish here for now… I think I will post a bit later tonight though, I just don’t feel like continuing now.

-Andiyar