As a kid/teen, I read a lot - and I mean a *lot*; for example I got through nearly 1 book from the Sword of Truth series *per day*. I built a contraption to let me read while showering; I read in the car, by the moonlight, I snuck books under the glass dining table at dinner. 1/
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I had at least 2 books on my person at all times just in case I finished one and needed another. I lined my bed with books and slept on top of them.
At this level of excessive, near-constant reading I remember having a different experience of reading than I can achieve now. 2/
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I wouldn't read words, I'd read phrases as solid chunks, and often treat full paragraphs similarly to the way I read sentences now; some part of my brain skimmed *in addition* to reading; it sort of told my eyes where to jump to catch the important words so I could come out 3/
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of the paragraph with good comprehension. And my comprehension was good - reading tests clocked me at around 800 wpm with decent retention.
What interests me about this is that I think I was doing some sort of data compression? Like, I read fewer total words than were there. 4/
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I don't know how my brain managed to figure out which words to read and which ones not to at that significant a scale.
I can't do this anymore; my reading speed has dropped a few hundred wpm. There's still some chunking, but it doesn't feel the same.
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Aaaaaa I had the single-sitting sword of truth book thing when the new ones came out in my teens too. Tried to re-read them recently and couldn't, just felt like badly reheated libertarian guff.
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When i was in the Marines on the carrier the dragonlance and other tsr books were comming out. 400 page books on average would read them on our 4 hour rotation. Then found Anne Rice chronicles devoured them. So many good stories by great writers
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This reminds me of speed reading. What I learned from it has really helped. Like when you say you were chunking words together that's basically what I do. Big thing is not to voice out the full words in your head. I bet you read tougher books now so that might be why less wpm.