I want to learn how to read
No, I’m not illiterate
I’ve had this wish for some time, I want to learn how to read.
I don’t mean that in the literal sense, I can physically read yes I'm not illiterate, but I don’t know how to read read, you know.
When I read, the things I remember from a book are very special things.
I can sometimes give you a rundown of the plot and a few major events, but usually, I remember nothing.
The things I remember are the things that get me to physically react like laughing, or I might just be sitting there confused by the events that have just conspired.
When I read, it’s not really reading, like half my brain is sitting there reading this book and the other half is thinking about something else.
The book always needs a moment where I can bring my attention back to the book.
One example of this is the book I'm reading now.
There's a part in the book where the main character's sister is being held by a guy who broke into their house.
The guy is holding a knife at her throat.
The book is written in Malay and my knowledge of Malay is embarrassing.
So I read the line as “he cut her throat” and I was very confused.
I didn’t think they’d actually kill the main character's sister, and I was right because she was revived in the next line (I misunderstood the line)
When I read, I don’t really read until I come across something that made me react.
Like when I was reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Greg opened someone else's car door instead of his car door. It is something that I remember well from the book because the same thing happened to me months after reading that book.
We remember things that resonate with us.
My friends who “know how to read” do this thing where while they're reading they make annotations, highlights, and notes on the book and use these sticky notes to come back to them.
One of my friends colour codes it like romance, action, etc.
That’s what I mean when I say “I wanna learn to read”
I want to read like them, I want to feel like I'm actually reading rather than scanning a page.
But at the end of the day, she only annotates the parts that resonate with her.
So maybe I do know how to read, I just do it cheaper.
Conclusion
- You remember what resonates with you
- More memories means more events that you find special
