Tag Archives: fun

My Shameful Secret

If you read the title of this post, you are probably dying to know what my shameful secret is. Have I committed some crime? Did I rob a bank? Am I a double-agent? Do I moonlight as a real housewife on a reality show? The what-ifs could go on and on.

But here it is. My shameful secret…Kerri Carpenter

Are you ready?

Are you sure?

I’m a slow reader!!!

*Hangs head*

A really, really slow reader. I pick up a book. I begin reading. Flowers begin to bloom. Babies are born. The Earth completes countless rotations. And I’m flipping to page 20. Page 20 out of 220.

It’s shameful for me because I’m a freaking writer. And because I read every single night and have been reading every single night since I was a child. I even read when I’ve had a couple glasses of wine and am somewhat tipsy. That might actually help with my speed, come to think of it…

For years, it’s killed my soul every time I hear someone say they just LOVED a book and finished it in one night. One night? I’m lucky if I can finish one chapter in a night.

Maybe part of this has to do with the fact that I’m reading/simultaneously studying the way the author puts the words together. I like seeing what conflict she picks or where she sets her story. Sometimes I read a paragraph and it makes my own writer-brain run off to the creativity forest and immediately start coming up with my own plot lines and ideas.

But now, it’s time to finally come clean. I’ve kept this shameful secret to myself for years. Finally, I’m ready to step out of the shadows and acknowledge my imperfections.

Hello, my name is Kerri, and I’m a slow reader.

Tell me in the comments: Fast reader or slow? I promise to read every answer. Which, of course, will take me three days.