Slowing Down: The Joy in Every Page

We live in a hurry. So many books, so little time—or so we think. But Susie Mesure’s piece shows another way: reading with calm, staying with the words, letting a book settle in. It’s not about speed. It’s about savoring.

Here are the ideas from that article, with thoughts on how to try them.

What “reading slowly” looks like

• Yiyun Li, writer and teacher, sets a pace: about ten pages a day of any book, and she reads several books at once, spending maybe half an hour with each.
• For Li, this approach means spending up to two or three weeks with a novel. Staying in the book’s world longer gives it more weight, more room to live inside your mind.
• Elizabeth Strout, another author, says she reads more slowly than before—partly to hear how sentences sound, not just to finish.

Why going slow enriches reading

• You catch more: little details, quiet lines, the way words are chosen. Things that rush misses.
• You live in the story more fully. When reading slowly, the book becomes a small world, something like a place you can visit more often.
• You allow emotion to grow. The feelings in stories—loss, happiness, regret—don’t rush past. They linger and matter more.
• You break away from comparison. It’s not about how many books you finish per year. It’s about how you feel with each book.

Ways to practice slow reading yourself

• Pick one book to linger with: aim for 10 pages a day or some small target you feel okay with.
• Read more than one book at once: switch between them so the stories don’t blur, and you feel variety without pressure.
• Reread sentences you love or that pull you in: slow down there, chew over what sounds right or strange.
• Let your mood guide you: sometimes a short passage in the morning, a few pages before sleep, whatever feels good.
• Notice how you feel after reading: curious, calm, moved? That feeling is part of the reward.

Challenges & what to expect

• Sometimes slower reading feels frustrating—you might want to know what happens next. That urge is normal.
• When dividing attention between books, plots may blur. It’s okay to pause, backtrack, or even drop a book that isn’t giving you joy.
• If most of your reading life has been fast, slowing down takes practice. Be patient with yourself.