Totally normal. Every language you learn after around your first five years will take your brain longer to process, even though the difference will get smaller over time.

Obviously if the book uses complex words and you are not reading on your native language you will read slower than if it's a simpler book on the language you was born into. It kind of baffles me that you wonder if it's normal or not...

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I read books at different speeds all the time.

I read Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh in a couple hours yesterday. But, I could only make it through around 30ish pages of War and Peace before my brain was tired.

I also read nonfiction a lot more slowly than regular fiction- though some literary fiction can be just as slow to read.

A lot of it is vocabulary familiarity or situational familiarity. If the characters are in a situation I've been in before or am familiar with, the reading is faster than if it's a completely foreign situation. It takes longer to conjure the image in my head if it's not a familiar image.

I try not to pay attention to page numbers while I'm reading because it takes me out of the book- but, yeah, sometimes I finish an hour of reading and I've knocked out 100 pages, sometimes just 20 pages if it's something really challenging.

All that is reading in my only language. I would imagine there'd be even more variation reading in a second language.

It’s normal.

My reading rate fluctuates between books. If there are a lot of unfamiliar words, scenes, names, or details, my reading slows so my brain can make sense of them. I can read a mystery set in a familiar city in recent years very quickly. It took me forever to get through the first book from the Wheel of Time series.

It's normal for me

I’m super rusty now, but even when I was still actively studying French at the college level, it took me sometimes up to twice as long to read something in French as it would have taken me to read something in my native English. It’s normal and expected that you won’t read as fast in a second language as you will in your native language.

Depending on your level and how much you are used to it, it is perfectly normal to read at a slower speed in your non-native languages.

I am reading at reduced speed when reading in english (about half).

thats kind of the point of it, he beats you over the head constantly with the idea that everything is random and meaningless.

i was a kid when i got into it, and there werent that many things with that type of humor. Monty Python in reruns on PBS and that was it. I dont know if id like it if i got into it now, that type of absurdist humor is in almost everything, now.

Since you mentioned Pratchett. I’ve always been intrigued by Discworld, but I find long series’ to be so daunting, I usually never start them at all.

I’ve heard Discworld isn’t quite as linear though? I’m particularly interested in Night Watch, since I’m a time travel nerd.

Glad I wasn't the only one! lol

I adored the book, so I’m curious about your interpretation! Could you message it to me when you can?

Tbh, I was a little confused by that too. I may want to read it again sometime.

One of my favorite books. My twin brother and I were strongly influenced by this book, it led to us both being environmental activists for many years. I always felt, however, that Le Guin sort of "copped out" regarding the conflict between the Kesh and the Condor People: personally, I thought the Condors would conquer the Kesh, as they had other peoples in that far-future setting. I never really accepted Le Guin's pat assurance -- via Pandora -- that, eventually, the Condors would implode, due to their own toxic culture. Thirteen-year-old me always wanted to add, "... But only after they've destroyed the Kesh!" I think it was because I felt like a Kesh in a world dominated by a culture like the Condor People, and I desperately wanted to know how the Kesh managed to survive.

Nice to see discussion of Le Guin with (at this point) 80 or so comments.

hmmm, interesting take. Any chance you can explain the ending to me? I genuinely don't get it....

>!The ending just seems to be that Molly and Moll laid atop each other and...melded? It was all super unclear. !<

You're just salty cause you didn't get Inception

ah, the old "I like a thing, therefore it requires extra smartness" argument - very persuasive.

HGG was his one-hit wonder, really - definitely don't try the Dirk Gentley detective books, ugh

I have read a lot of sci-fi. I've been trying to get through the first part of this book for MONTHS. I just can't. I haven't found any redeeming qualities in this book at all, which is a huge disappointment. For all the love that series has gotten, it seems very undeserved.

Almost 40. So i liked the jokes better in the movie... mostly. I do have to say i like Marvin the robot from the book better but i totally read his lines in allen Rickman voice. I liked the relationship dynamic of Trisha and Arthur in the movie so much better. The fancy dress party was shown then called back to when they were in space dieing rather then fist introduced then. It just made it land better for me. Trisha isn't completely written off like she is in the books. I felt everyone except zaphod was smarter in the movie.

One thing i do like, is now i have explanation for all the "fan service" the movie did that i never understood before. The crabs, the horse chair, the 2 heads.

I love the introduction of needing corrdinats to make it to magratha.

Oh man i don't think i can do that lol

Quite a few people have said that. Ill have to check it out.

Sorry english is my 2nd language. My first is telepathy, but that doesn't work online. Lol