Reading Slowly in a Fast Century
A defense of the difficult book
Ingrid Solberg, Meera Krishnan
Jun 8, 2026 · 2 min read
Abstract
Reading speed has become an unexamined virtue, with apps promising books consumed in fifteen minutes. This essay argues that difficulty in serious writing is not friction to be optimized away but the mechanism by which reading changes the reader, and offers a practical case for restoring slow reading as a deliberate practice.
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