I started reading again this year after a good 3 years of not reading any books and noticed my reading pace is much slower. My love for history has been reinvigorated so I have been reading again. I used to be able to read a 300 page book in 10 hours or so. I know this because during covid I still worked(was lucky enough to retain a job) and early on the building I was in was completely empty. So I was the lobby person for 12 hours before the building was demolished. I read a whole 300 page book in about 10 hours.(can’t leave building for breaks so basically paced around reading for 10 hours).
Now I noticed today I struggle reading 22 pages in an hour. So that’s 100 pages less if I was to read for 10hours. I’ve read 4 books this year almost done with #5 and the pace hasn’t picked up at all. I’m only 29 so can’t be cognitive decline right? My sight is fine I wear contacts. Just feel like I am taking things in slower and skipping words as I type had to reread this post multiple times before posting it. Am I overthinking and overacting to this? What is everyone else’s reading pace or do you not care or pay attention to that?
Lastly, since this is a book group here’s the books I’ve read this year if you are a history nut and want to check them out:
The Buffalo harvest by Frank H. Mayor
Spearhead: An American Tank Gunner, His Enemy, and a Collision of Lives in World War II by Adam Makos
A view from the turret by Bill Close
Washington’s Spies: the culper ring by Alexander Rose
Road to Surrender by Evan Thomas(currently reading)
And a whole book shelf of others in queue.
Reading speed is not constant across genres and styles. I use a lot the kindle estimate time, I love word count estimates for books, I know how long it takes me to read something on average, but I know if I am reading some kinds of fiction I read much faster, others (if dialogue is more cryptic, if the worldbuilding more complex) I am definitely slower. It depends on phrase construction, vocabulary, how much is understated or stated explicitly. And that is just for fiction, if you are reading non fiction it is anything goes really because you need to think.
I would not panic and think there are physiological causes… Mind you, if you are wearing contacts because you have myopia nearsightness, they will not correct for far sightedness and that might be causing indeed trouble reading - check if you read the same way with contacts as with eyeglasses (even if both are prescribed for myopia, glasses will not correct the same way and it is easier to read if you are showing signs of being far sighted now with glasses than with contacts)