spacing out while reading a book??

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Holy s**t! I do that as well! I wonder if this is common? Thing is, I love reading, but I often find myself spacing out a lot. I also read at a relatively fast pace and I still space out at times when I'm reading a book (not so much articles online, for some reason).

I also sometimes find it hard to visualise what is being described. For instance, I'm currently trying to read "Do Andoriads Dream of electric Sheep" and in one of the chapters, the character does something but I have no clue why they are hearing voices and why cans are being thrown at them and if they are still at home or at their job, etc. I'm going to have to read that chapter again. I have so many books that I haven't completed because of this, ughh. It's just so much easier to focus of non-fiction, to be honest.

Oh I don't space out. I'm very careful to take in every single author's thought. If I think I missed something I go back and re-read the chapter.

Inability to concentrate is my problem.

Read one paragraph, play with the phone, stare in the distance while debating the philosophical implication of the previous chapter, play more with the phone, read next paragraph, realize I missed a subtext, re-read half of the previous parahraph, play with the phone, look away and think about what it all means, read, play, wonder off, read,....

I think spacing out happens to everyone once in a while.

I used to space out while reading a book, now I just space out while holding a book open and staring at it (while occasionally flipping the page). I don't know what's wrong with me. I never thought it'd be possible for me to outgrow reading, but I guess it is.

I don't space out but very slow reader so can somewhat understand the characters.

Me too especially when the line under it would make sense combined with the line above it.

I found lockdown helped cos I was 100% focused on the book.

I wonder if it's part of taking time to process life etc with the book? And all the sensory stuff that goes on in life? Taking a breather etc?

I find one thing that's helping me is not having any pressure on myself to finish at a set time. Not helpful if you have a deadline though!

"So for example, there are certain sentences that make sense combined.
And indeed - the book which I am reading at the moment is read more slowly."

I would be as equally likely to read this as "so for example, the book..." than "So for example, there are certain..."

This was me when I was in elementary school. I was a very slow reader. It took me awhile before I--first--consciously realized how much I spaced out, imagining myself in the story or imagining variations or what-ifs with the non-fiction or fiction content.

Later in life (high school, college, and beyond), it slowly became apparent through conversations with friends that this imagining of the book itself gave me a gift of memory: I'd never had to re-read a book(*). It wasn't exactly a photographic memory, but it was a plot, partial detail, and distant "VCR" in my head: all because I had "lived" in the book off and off all while reading it. My mind had been playing with the content and "living" in it--if even "stuck" on one page sometimes...

Now, though, I do wish I could re-capture some of the slow pace of life that led to having the time to read, sit, and imagine my way through books... (I let myself get caught up with too much of the easy entertainment of the modern world--or the worries and concerns....)

(*)The Harry Potter books were the first that I remember re-reading.