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here’s some reading science in a dancing metaphor
There’s a small central pit of closely packed cones in the back of our eyes near the center of the retina. It’s called “fovea”, and it’s responsible for the sharp central vision (or the “foveal vision”). When you fixate your gaze on a single point, the thing you see most clearly and sharp is what you see with your foveal vision. Whatever is outside, a bit blurred perhaps, but still visible and somehow readable is called “peripheral vision”. Both foveal and peripheral visions are essential for many human skills, specially reading. But you know what? When we read, those visions work together more like dancers in between special movements of…
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What We See When We Read
Dear reader, You know, it’s like the pictures were projected on the pages, and the scenes and characters and worlds suddenly become clear in my head. Everything around me just disappears, and before I realize, I’m flying over the story. The words, I mean the ink and lines, they just fade out, and I hear the narrative and dialogues, I see through the paper, and it’s like I’m over a hill, or I’m a fly on a scene, I’m inside a mirror, I’m a lamp, or the button of a shirt. You know what I mean? There’s this book called What We See When We Read, by Peter Mendelsund. You…
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How to read and why
“It matters, if individuals are to retain any capacity to form their own judgements and opinions, that they continue to read for themselves. How they read, well or badly, and what they read, cannot depend wholly upon themselves, but why they read must be for and in their own interest.” Harold Bloom The book is How To Read and Why. Harold Bloom starts by advocating for deep reading. Reading classics or reading great works that enrich our culture and mind is basically the reason we should read. Then Bloom goes through the works and authors he believes to be the best for this quest, this adventure and journey of reading…
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Read out loud for better concentration
Read this if you want to improve your concentration and focus while reading.
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Reading is a superpower and we all can use it
This might change your life. I’m writing to you, who had this insight. That you should read more this year. You said it, 2021 will be the year I’ll read more. But you don’t know where to start, do you? Or you tried it but it didn’t work? Maybe reading is not for you? It’s not that. Let me help you. You have to relearn how to read and put it in your head, once and for all, that reading is easy. Reading is a superpower. Everyone is born with it. The only thing is that we can’t use it until we learn a few things as a kid, like…