03:56 pm - doubletaking my way through life I read extremely fast. I never took any speedreading courses, but upon examining the contents of a couple of them later in life, it turns out I just sort of naturally learned to do the same thing they advocate: I read entire words at a glance by shape recognition rather than piecing them together letter-by-letter individually. In fact, I can't look at text without reading it; to see is to process.
While this is a great talent to have in normal circumstances, it does lead to some staggeringly weird impressions when I glance across something with text on it without really looking directly at it: the text pops into my head automatically whether I wanted it or not, but if the glance was really fast, sometimes it will pop in wrong.
Case in point:
what my icemaker really says
what I saw when I looked at it just now
Sometimes I kinda wanna live in the world my brain appears to be trying to fabricate around me. It might be less immediately useful than the real world, but it sure as hell would be an interesting one.
I read really fast too, although I can't remember ever realizing that I got a word wrong outright. I suppose that if I thought there might be cake ice, it would seem a little weird. :)
I read long books on two hour flights. It's an expensive hobby.. makes me really glad for that read and return policy they've got going on these days :)
I misread things with hilarious results all the time. Some that have stuck in my head - Furry Catamarans (actually Fury) and a particular church in Encinitas, CA is now and forever will be a CATHOLE CHURCH.
My mom once looked at a billboard that read "the answer lies through meditation" and read it as "the answer lies through medication."
It was considerably funnier at the time it happened, 'cause it was in the early 80's and thus well before, well, FUCKING EVERYONE was on prescribed behavioral mod drugs.
