Comments on: Slaughterhouse-Five

By: Dad Who Writes

Dad Who Writes — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 16:49:26 +0000

This was a book I wrote about in my BA dissertation so many years ago! I must go back and dig it out again. I was deeply moved by it at the time.

Reading – I’ve always been a pretty fast reader but I do find that as I get older, I’m consciously slowing down. I suppose I’ve got different motivations for reading no. Apart from corporate policy documents.

By: OmbudsBen

OmbudsBen — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 00:05:23 +0000

This book, and Vonnegut’s “Breakfast of Champions” had a very big influence on me when I read them as a teenager. I’m really glad you liked “Schlachthaus funf” (what he’s taught to say); the movie is okay, too (if you can find it) and it does justice to the book (in its own context) but the book is wonderful.

About speed reading — half a century ago self-improvement programs like this were quite popular. And yes, there were classes to try and teach it. Plus people who were freakishly fast. So in one instance I know of, they would have someone stand on stage, open a new book and flip through it, then be able to answer questions. As I say–freakish. The truth is, you can learn techniques to improve how you assimilate information, but most of us could no more read that fast than we could hit home runs as often as Barry Bonds did.

By: J

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 15:26:32 +0000

Starshine, this was more like that ‘Evelyn Woods Speed Reading’ that they used to show ads for on TV. Skimming, really. Nothing whatsoever to do with English, just trying to make getting through books easier on the kids who hated reading, I guess. The teacher was nice, but it was a real waste of time.

By: Starshine

Starshine — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:54:47 +0000

You can actually be taught how to speed read? Wow! Never knew that! Brian reads very speedily and I read average, I guess. It doesn’t make reading a book “together” very enticing, though, because he is always finished long before I am.

Happy Thanksgiving!