The Joy of Power-reading

I've never read or heard of the term power-reading before. I have googled it to no avail. So I guess it's safe to say that I'm the one who coined this word. Linguistic intelligence, com'on.
Di ko naman talaga alam ang legalities ng pag-ko-coin ng word.

Power-reading. I got the idea from it's relative power-tripping which means a self-aggrandizing action undertaken simply for the pleasure of exercising control over other people.

What I mean by power-reading (hyphenated ah), is simply the act of reading way beyond

a. the no. of pages that you read in a day, say double or triple or n times the no. of pages that you usually peruse.

b. the usual no. of words you read per minute. When I'm not power-reading, I utter every word as if the character has possessed me. The emotions. The accent. The oozing passion. But when I power-read, I read with my eyes, sometimes mumbling the words as if I'm cursing someone under my breath. Pero dapat f na f (feel na feel) pa rin ang bawat eksena sa kwento.

You are power-reading if you have experienced any of the following:

a. you skip meal/s once, twice because you're so engrossed with the book/character/plot/idea of reading

b. you deprive yourself of sleep (who cares if the story is worth the nausea the next day, yung tipong 2-3 hours lang ang tulog mo :)

c.related to point B: you sleep with the author beside you. I mean the author of the book you are reading. and you brag about it in your fb status. and you even call it one-night stand with __________. regardless of the gender of the author. Wag nang magdeny.

d. you crave for more of the story/author's other stories once the last chapter is over.


When do people power-read?

a. When they have very limited time for pleasure reading. Restricted by the amount of time spent in the office. Kahit nasa bus/jeep/fx ay nagbabasa. Dim light or broad day light.

b. when they need to return the book to their friend. when the overdue penalty is beyond a hundred bucks.

c when they really, really,really,really,really,really,really,really,really,really,really like the story. At egzoited na for the climax or the resolution.

Who should power-read?

You.

So get up, pick a book, read and live.

Happy power-reading!

P.S. This post is inspired by The Hunger Games trilogy and Bette Bao Lord's In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson. Both are present power-reading subjects.