Reading aloud is absolutely a part of how books have always been read, including solitary reading aloud. If you prefer it it's fine.

In school, very early, we learn to read by sounding things out. But then, because reading out loud in a classroom of 30 kids would be unworkable, we are taught to sound things out silently which leads to silent reading. I think silent reading is preferred just because it's a must in the educational environment. But when you're home, why not read aloud if it makes more sense to you? If I'm puzzling out an emotional passage, I'll read it out loud, playing with different emotional emphasis to see what feels right or what else I might discover if I read it differently.

I'd like to share the “Rights of the Reader”, by Gabriel Pennac, with you. In particular:

> 9 The right to read out loud.

I often read aloud because it helps me focus better

If this how you read and you're enjoying reading, that's all that matters. How you do it, silently or reading out aloud is irrelevant.

FWIW I would focus more on what makes me happy, than what anyone might think.

I’ve got this problem and I find that once I get on a roll with reading, I can maintain that voracity. One thing that helps me is to wear reading glasses. I’ve got 20/20 eyesight but I think the magnification helps to sort of harness my eyes to only look at the book.

Edited to add: “listening” to white noise on headphones is also helpful for me to focus on reading.

Thank you for sharing this, I'm often curious about what other people's reading experiences are like. I've always been a slow reader, and when, as a kid, I tried to learn more about "speed reading," or asked friends how it was possible for them to read a novel in one day, they'd describe reading somewhat like you do. I.e., they would sort of scan the page, taking in a line of text at a time, basically. This is possible because you can understand all the words and sentences without actually having to say them in your head. So I'd try this, read a page or two trying to scan quicker than I can speak, and would realize after 2 pages I had no idea what I was reading.

I don't know if it's a cognitive issue or what, but I simply cannot read text faster than it would take me to say it. So, I don't move my tongue in my mouth or anything, but I essentially read words as though there were a voice in my head saying them. And, maybe for this reason, I really enjoy reading out loud, and find (as OP describes) it helps me focus and get absorbed in what I'm reading.

Faulkner should be read aloud. And it's best when read in a genteel Southern accent (think Kevin Spacy in "Midnight in The Garden of Good and Evil.")

I remember reading somewhere the Faulkner was extremely particular about word choice and phrasing. Every sentence is a complete thought- a statement, if you will. There's a part of "Go Down Moses" where the narrator repeatedly says "And McCaslin" - if you don't say that out loud, ponderously, you miss the impact altogether.

Faulkner's writing makes you imagine the author himself reading the book aloud to you, even when you're doing the reading. Or at least, that's been my experience.

I have the same problem and I blame social media. I've given up and just reread the page I skimmed through while I was thinking of something else. Sometimes, I'll find the audiobook version and read along but I find myself drifting off anyway. You're right though, it'll probably only get better with practice, most efficiently if you (we) lock yourself in a room for weeks and just read without a phone or computer to distract you or enable you having a short attention span.

Fun fact though, when you read something silently, the muscles in your throat actually articulate the words that you're reading and produce sound that's imperceptible to your ears. But if someone put an amplifier against your throat you'd be able to hear the words that you're "reading silently". Andrew Huberman talks about it in one of his podcasts, I forgot which one.

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Dramatic reading is fun. There are many books that are so much better read out loud. Plus you're focusing more on tone and the sound of words, you probably have a better grasp on when things are supposed to convey some extra nuance with vowel acoustics or rhythm.

But if it bothers you, you could try a reader app where you only see one word or one line at a time 🤷 Stops you from scanning and skimming stories like they were articles you want information from.

In my opinion, it is actually a lot better to read out loud. Tone of voice is super important for meaning, and you literally can't hear the tone as the author intended if you're reading things silently. So personally I think it's the other way around, I think reading silently is vastly inferior. People can swear up and down that they can read a million words a minute silently, but then they are just missing the point of reading, which is to hear the writer's voice.

The author is basically speaking to the reader. When you read a book out loud you are hearing the author.

Of course there's a time and a place for everything. Usually if I can't read something out loud, I will at least whisper the words quietly to myself. Furthermore, I think it's the silent readers who should practice reading out loud, which is a basic thing that every good reader should at least know how to do, even if they don't do it all the time. I think you should be comfortable doing both, but like I said, it's a more powerful experience reading out loud.

People always read aloud until medieval (in Europe) times.... even worse, there often wasn't even punctuation or even spaces between words!

Tons of info about that all over the internet, but if you are especially interested in the history of original aural communication by poets such as Homer and his Asian equivalents shifting gradually into writing, then eventually into books, then even later into printing presses etc.....I recommend Papyrus: The Invention of Books in the Ancient World by Irene Vallejo.

One of my favorite books everywhere -- AND you can get an audio version!

I love to read aloud. I think it's mostly because my parents did that a lot with me partly because I am blind and at the time had less access to books there was a statistic that said that only 5% of books were available in 2000 but I am sure thanks to Ebooks that statistic has changed.

I had a relationship where I read my good friend Braille books over skype since she lost her sight at 18 and could not read Braille so we listened to Audible and I read her like 10 novels.

I would love to have a similar relationship where I read you books and you read me books. Hit me up?!?!

I read my college textbooks aloud for better processing and concentration, but I never considered doing this for fiction. Thanks for the tip!