I appreciate your fear. It's been well trained by the school system. At the same time what the schools actually require of you when reading such literature is difficult to achieve given so many other assignments a student often has.
For novels there are two basic different approaches. One is for critique and the other is personal enjoyment. For these both you want basic enjoyment and the whole book as the author presented it.
The Correct way to read a novel for critique as taught and expected by standard school system is Slowly read the book from beginning to end. (for most readers that can be anything between 6 and 18 or more hours for a book) Read it a second time quickly in about 1/2 the time you spent the first reading. so you add another 3 to 9 hours with the book. Third time you skim. Taking about 30 to 90 minutes with the book. So you spend 9.5 to 28.5 hours with the book
With PhotoReading you reverses the process. PhotoRead 2 to 6 minutes. Activate 30 to 90 minutes. Then Rapid Read 90 minutes to 3 hours depending on the details.
During Rapid reading and dipping and even skittering I subvocalise. It satisfies my conscious mind that I got it consciously as well.
With novels for pleasure reading PhotoRead and then rapid read. Naturally it takes longer and there are books to be savoured. To Rush through them in mere minutes is like having a great ice-cream pumped directly into your stomach or sculling a good beverage bypassing the taste-buds.
What's the point of PhotoReading and then rapid reading them?
Have you ever watched a movie a second time and got a kick out of noticing the little things in the scene that you didn't notice the first time because you were too busy following the dialogue? Apparently The Simpson's have enough that you miss the first time to make watching it again rewarding.
When you PhotoRead you are handing over the processing to your preconscious processor. So it becomes like watching the movie a second time. In my experience I discovered I pick up clues and cues better. Little subtleties that I might have missed with traditional reading. In fact I inadvertently discovered this by re-reading a novel that I read before PhotoReading. This time I PhotoRead it first. And then activated with rapid reading. I was surprised with how much I missed. Of course I assumed it could have been just because I re-read the book. So I grabbed another novel and just read it rapid reading. I figured now that I know how to read better I should get it more right the first time reading word for word. Then read it a second time again after PhotoReading it and discovered I missed a whole lot again. Still it could be because I had read the book.
So the next book I PhotoRead and then rapid read. The details of the story is so much more vivid. So much clearer for me and I enjoy it a whole lot more and a darned sight faster than with traditional reading.
I stopped reading novels because I had the habit of reading them in one sitting. Pulling an all nighter spending 12 to 18 hours with a book. Now I'm enjoying them again because I can get through them in a more reasonable time.
Just because you PhotoRead a book doesn't mean you cannot enjoy it in detail. AS for subvocalisation. Research agrees it is necessary to some degree it hasn't been an issue for me as a PhotoReader I still selectively sub-vocalise.
I don't think you're betraying the intention of the author. If your mother has ever asked you to clean your room, Well if she had to ask you missed her intention and if you didn't agree with her that it was important you're not really betraying your mother. You're expressing yourself, being who you are, and being an occasional non-conformist makes you who you are. I'm not sure how an authors intention in a story is more important than so many other things in your life where you express conscious choice?
AlexK
