I loved the idea of "Slow Reading," but I found the book to be a little dry, a bit too academic for me. It was apparently written as the author's Masters thesis, so the tenor of it is, perhaps, understandable, but I think I was hoping for something a little lighter. I'm a fairly fast reader, but I've discovered that for books that I really want to take my time with, reading them on my iPhone on eReader or Kindle forces me to take my time, to read with more consciousness, and I find I get a lot more out of a book that way. "Slow reading" is, to my mind, something very worthwhile. I've never been a fan of speed reading unless it's absolutely necessary. When I read for pleasure, I like to take my time. ( )

Skip it, most likely...
It's got some interesting thoughts, but unless this is specifically your area of interest, you're probably not going to get a lot out of it.

http://reviewingwhatever.blogspot.com... ( )

As I write this, I find that my relationship with the work is entangled in multiple ironies.

1. "Slow Reading" is a title that I took to heart: although the text weighs in at a mere 65 pages, I spent a good three months getting to the end of it. This review is, consequently, appearing rather later than it should be. Perhaps the author would be pleased.

2. Slow reading, we learn, encourages a measured, perhaps leisurely, approach to the absorption and ingestion of a piece of text. It can involve stopping to question or even argue with a work, mulling over its meaning, challenging the author's assertions or being challenged by them in return. It is, I felt, a very necessary reminder in today's world of information overload and ever-faster living. Thus, ironically, I had to make an effort to follow Miedema's advice — not because I was unaware of the need (how could someone read a book like this without being continually aware, every moment, of what the act of reading entails?), but because I agreed with so much of what was being said that it was easy to slip along without pausing to consider the arguments in detail.

When I did bring myself to concentrate, I could perhaps quibble with some of the assertions made. (Every computer is connected to a printer? No, I don't think so — and yet, he says it twice!) But these were minor details. I find myself in agreement with, and approval of, the overall message. Having been conscious for several years now of my own reading style and attention slipping away in favor of the multitasking, quick-skim approach encouraged by online tasks, I could hardly fail to approve. Perhaps this book may serve as a wake-up call to those who experience the same gradual loss.

3. Although the book characterizes print as a "superior technology" for deep, complex works, a "fixed" and enduring medium, the binding of this particular edition is exceptionally poor: several pages came completely unglued from the spine during a single pass through the contents.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5 stars. ( )

Haven't gotten around to reading this short book just yet. Too busy slowing reading the rest of the stack, but I plan to read it after I get done with Franny and Zooey. Review pending.

I picked this book up at ALA and failed to take its advice; I read it on the plane home, on the short flight between Chicago and Minneapolis. I like the link it makes between reading thoughtfully and the 'slow' movement, and the fact that print has certain qualities that e-books don't; that e-books are 'metadata' for print books. (The Myth of the Paperless Office does a good job of explaining why paper offers 'affordances' not found in digital texts.) He points out the interesting fact that reading slowly is, one the one hand a sign of deficiency in children but, when pressed into critical service, is seen as a more 'professional' (if often implicitly joyless) kind of reading. I would have liked to see more attention to the author's claims for slow reading in connection to ludic reading (as Nell terms it); I wasn't convinced that the way he describes the practice of slow reading works with that feeling of being 'lost in a book,' so totally absorbed you are not aware of reading at all. I am also curious about the popular perception that enjoyable books are ones that can be read quickly: page-turners. I've had students whose highest praise for a book is that 'it was a fast read.' I'd like to have seen that perception addressed more thoroughly. But that's just because this little book left me thinking, and ready to keep thinking after reading it.

As an aside, I really love the cover.