do you take notes? do you read slower? do you bust out highlighters and tabs?

when i was young and we’d get pulled out of class to assess our reading, i was well aware of the timer in my teacher’s hand. i could read quickly and fluently, but when it came to the post-reading quiz, i realized i didn’t retain much of anything.

fast forward to current day me, predisposed to the quick dopamine-laden yet numbing nature of social media—i’ve read 30+ books this year, and i doubt my abilities to describe to you what each was about. i can’t really do it with my most recent reads either. (i have suffered from great memory loss, undiagnosed, but i suspect from depression, but i still think i can afford to slow down and soak in the words on a page).

i also think i’m too hard on myself with reading (and anything i do lol) so i involuntarily add pressure to the hobby, and then i get frustrated with myself.

please help 🥲