The value of reading is constrained by how one chooses to read aside from what one chooses to read.
Reading is anti-evolutionary. Neither our brains nor our eyes were designed to excitedly decipher small symbols printed on a paper. But then reading is much more than deciphering symbols. Words provide wonderful abstract worlds in which we can embody the characters that are described in the book. But to live with them, in them and empathize with them, we need to spend time with them and nurture them carefully in our minds. A character in a novel is truly subjective (it is often left deliberately open to manipulation). The emotions, the pitch of the scream, rationality of action and the sinister atmosphere are all amplified or mellowed, tampered with or abandoned in our minds. The true pleasure of reading lies in reading slowly to go over the nuances and the phraseology. Of course, not all novelists and all passages invite this cohabitation. In fact, some novelists will go out of their way to create atmospheric dread that pushes you away from the analysis but then you are living through the temporary paralysis of emotions that comes when environment overwhelms you. But then you need to pause and introspect for that is when you can empathize with the character.
Reading slowly can help one introspect and come to a better understanding of oneself and the world around us. If one chooses to look at a novel merely as a teleological progression towards the resolution of some quibble, then it merely becomes a tool for entertainment.
Perhaps a more important virtue, as compared to reading slowly, is reading critically. A novelist imposes his or her world view on you and you need to be able to critically think through the points that s/he makes, and separate out the chaff from the wheat.
The lost art
Today, reading slowly is a lost art. Leisurely reading a passage and then mulling over its contents seems archaic. Inarguably pointless drivel camouflaged as writing has taken much away from the pleasure (and motivation) for reading slowly. The other obvious villain is television with its increasingly crazed editing. Once upon a time a shot lasted 90 seconds, now it lasts for less than 6 seconds on average. The reader today needs a more action packed story that relentlessly moves across scenes, countries, and emotions – all in a hurried progression to the ‘end’. So not only are novelists concocting stories that encourage hurried reading, readers are actually reading books the same way as they watch telenovellas or sitcoms – mindlessly.
Let me end with a caveat – I am not saying that speed reading is necessarily bad. In fact, there is good reason to believe that it is a very important tool for academics and few other people who need to consume a lot of information in a very limited amount of time.