I used to read a lot. I would get through at least one book every week. This was at a time when I was traveling a lot and I would fill up all those spare moments with a bit of reading. Hence, I got through lots of books, because travel is mostly about waiting for something to happen. In the last few years, I have traveled less, so I have not done so much reading, but I have given some thought to the process of extracting words from a book.<\/p>\n
We do not generally think<\/em> about reading. Once we have learned how to read at school, we just do it – almost like riding a bicycle. But there are aspects of the process that mystify me …<\/p>\n There are two ways of reading: out loud or to yourself. I guess there is an intermediate where you make no sound, but your lips move – this is really the same as out loud. I am not a fast reader, but, like everyone, I read much faster and with less effort when I am reading to myself. This may all seem very obvious, but please bear with me.<\/p>\n Before written languages were invented, all communication was oral. People remembered stories and related them to one another. I guess that poetry and other rhythmic styles were developed to aid the memory. When writing was invented, it would have been a means of recording what people would say aloud. My guess is that early written texts were always read out loud.<\/p>\n But, one day, somebody realised that it was possible to “read” some text without actually forming the words in their mouth – they probably did it accidentally. They could read more quickly and learn more. This was really quite a significant intellectual breakthrough. I have not done detailed research, but a brief investigation has not told me when this occurred. Of course it probably happened in different cultures at different times. I do feel that the discovery of “silent reading” is a great achievement that is largely unrecognized. I wonder if different parts of the brain get activated for the two “modes” of reading. If you know of any relevant research, please email<\/a> me.<\/p>\n An interesting result is that, to really enjoy poetry, you do need to read it aloud – or make like you are. I find that, when I am writing a script, which will eventually be spoken, I can only do effective proof reading if I do it aloud. It feels like taking a step back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I used to read a lot. I would get through at least one book every week. This was at a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71677,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spanish_translation":"","french_translation":"","german_translation":"","italian_translation":"","polish_translation":"","japanese_translation":"","chinese_translation":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[302],"industry":[],"product":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-off-topic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71677"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=368"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=368"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.stage.sw.siemens.com\/embedded-software\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}