EL> I was just rereading "Fathers and Sons" Ivan Turgenev and noticed I was 
EL> really reading slowly mainly because of the nomenclature and the Russian
EL> style. Today I read a medical report on one of the children - so we are 
EL> prepared if he has any problems in the playground. I must have read it
EL> four times before I comprehended what it was about.  
You were undoubtably hitting words which were unfamiliar (by
sight), and phrases which were out of the ordinary as well.
This forces you to go word-by-word through the text.  The
concepts conveyed are also out of the ordinary, so you had
to spend more time and energy to "get" the meaning and/or
implications.  What you were running up against is probably 
close to what learning or unaccomplished readers have to do
in ALL reading....
 SK> But, last night, as I was nearing the end of the book, I do find
 SK> myself skipping ahead, sometimes skipping over almost entire
EL> Reading for a different purpose.
But that may not be the only reason it was possible; for
one thing, the character development is done, so you don't
have to understand the character and his/her motivations.
There also tends not to be so much discriptive material
(setting the scene) as in the early stages of a book.
It's not unlike what happens in school at times - You start
off imparting information and skills which is time-consuming
and requires intense concentration, and you move later to
USING those skills and that information to DO things (which
tends to be a little more fun and quicker)....
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