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I read extremely slowly compared to most, but seem to come up with more insights as well as debunkings. A relative of mine is a natural born speed reader. She
by droithomme 7y ago
I read extremely slowly compared to most, but seem to come up with more insights as well as debunkings.
A relative of mine is a natural born speed reader. She can read several 500+ page dense works a day. This is suggested to be impossible. I've personally tested her on her recall after having her quickly digest a work she's never seen before. She has perfect recall and can tell me what page a given passage appeared on, and recall from memory what comes next.
It's a savant ability. Probably less than 1 in a million, or perhaps billion.
She can't do anything with the ability. It's useless to her practically. She works minimum wage jobs, is married to an unemployed guy, and is always poor. She doesn't have any marketable talents. She continues to read huge amounts of material when she can find it. She long ago read all of the books in her small town library's fiction section. Discussing a topic she can cite references to it as if she is a search engine, but like the search engine, she doesn't have any insights into what any of it means.
I've suggested to her she try to market the ability, do a tour and show off. But she hates attention and craves nothing more than a quite reclusive life free from other people. Being publicly acknowledged as a freak would be the worst possible outcome for her, as far as she is concerned.
- LargoLasskhyfv 7y agoI can somehow relate to that feeling of hers. One thing other people tend to do if they recognize this ability IS using you as a 'search engine', which over time is a burden, because it is distracting you from whatever you are doing at the moment, and when you complain, you are accused of being unhelpful.