can you read this?

I'm sure this makes the e-mail rounds on a regular basis, but Steven sent it to me because I'm always interested in things about reading.

Believe, it or not, you can read it.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd
waht I was rdgnieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan
mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy,
it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the
ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is
taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae.
The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it
wo uthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid
deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as
a wlohe. Amzanig huh?

This fits perfectly with the explanation I give when people ask how I can "read so fast." Not only do I not look at the actual letters of the words but I don't think I even read all the words. I'm pretty sure I just kind of look at sentences and paragraphs as a whole and my mind picks out the parts it needs to understand them. This doesn't work all the time though. It works best with things that have familiar subject matters or are on an "easier" reading level. If it's dense and complicated it takes me much longer to read.

Since I can't really turn it off it's horrible when I try to edit things I've written. I already know what I've written so it takes a lot of concentration to actually read it. While reading a book about writing a "Dear Birthmother" letter I came across a suggestion to edit things for spelling by starting at the end and reading the words one at a time until you get to the beginning. I've found this also helps make me actually read words on a page.

I love learning about and thinking about brain stuff.