Just wondering how common this experience is:
You’re reading at a fairly fast clip, paragraphs just whizzing by, then you start to “hear” the words being spoken aloud in your head.
Now that you’re aware of the sounds of the words, the process of reading bogs down. Gets downright sluggish.
And the more you try to make the mental pronunciation knock it off, the harder it is to return to your zen-like, non-mentally-verbalized reading pace…
Anyone?
Hmmmmmm…I always “hear” the words when I read.
What ** Myrnalene ** said.
i always “hear the words” too, but what i wonder is the voice in my head reading the words sound the way my speaking voice sounds to other people or is it an entirely different voice?
It’s not a problem unless others can hear the words when you read.
I hear 'em. Same voice I think with.
Years ago I read (and heard) that there is some low level activity in the musculature used for speaking when people read.
Malice, to answer the question and to tell you you aren’t completely alone, I have the same deal. My normal reading doesn’t have a voice accompany it. When I do for some reason start hearing the voice reading, it’s much slower.
My normal thought doesn’t have a voice either, except when I’m trying to figure out what to say.
i’m with the nerd. i read very quickly when i let my eyeballs be the voice, but when i start saying the words out loud inside my head, i read at about half the pace.
Amateurs. . .I hear voices in my head all the time. But, so I can relate to the thread subject, I hear one when I read too.
i hear many voices when i read. girl voices for girls boy voices for boys. different tones for different people. narr. voice for the bits that are not dialog. it doesn’t slow down my reading speed. i just talk strangely for a bit after reading a british book.
I’m hearing voices in my head right now as I read the thread… (Myrnalene seems to have a motherlyish “yes-but-only-ONE-more-cookie” voice… odd… :D)
I don’t just hear all of the characters as different voices, I generally see the whole movie (if the author is any good.) Similarly, when watching “Hidden Tiger, Crouching Dragon” with sub-titles, after a few minutes, I stopped ‘reading’ the subtitles, and started ‘hearing’ them in the actors’ voice.
To the OP, if I stop to think about what I am reading, I typically lose the internal theatre troup.
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Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits.Yep, I often hear voices in my head when I read, particularly when I’m reading fiction (which I actually don’t do that much of).
I’m currently reading Simon Schama’s History of Britian, and I hear his very distinct voice when I’m immersed in the book. It amuses me greatly.
What I “hear” when I read tends to be a mix of Brit-Aussie-Kiwi accent. It isn’t my own voice – maybe, it’s a throwback to all those hours as a kiddie listening to storytime at school and at home.
Except for Cougarfang’s posts – I dunno what I hear then – but it’s fun! 
I usually hear celebrity voices when I hear voices when I read (which isn’t always)
Sometimes I will actively change who my narrator is, and the rest of that book will be in that person’s voice.
(mmmm… Patrick Stewart! Read that line again!)
When I read a good story I get so immersed in it that the whole thing is happening in my head. I hear the characters speak as well as see them interact. When I see the words it’s usualy because I don’t like the story or something in the writing style jarred me back to reading words. I get very anoyed at those times.
I was jarred out of a story once for a funny reason.
I read mostly sf and fantasy but not tie-in books.(star wars, trek etc…) My mother found in a garage sale a complete set of OS trek books and bought them for me. Since I had them I decided WTF I may as well read them. Half way through the third book I stopped reading because I had suddenly realized that I was clearly hearing Scotty speak in his voice. I was an eerie feeling.
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I’m with Rhubarb on the movie thing, for fiction anyway. For other stuff, manuals, SDMB, whatever, it’s usually sort of a neutral voice kind of like my own.
as an inverse, i sometimes see words when i hear peoples’ voices, or hear people speaking on TV.
I read very slowly, almost learning disabled slowly, and I ALWAYS hear my voice in my head when I read. I can’t even imagine reading without a voice to go with it.
For me, it’s absolutely essential - unimaginable, really, not to hear a voice. The weird thing is that it’s impossible to describe. I guess it’s a male voice, but it’s not really mine, and it’s certainly not that of a celebrity. I remember noticing it when I was pretty young, perhaps third grade.
I recall reading (NYT Science page?) that CAT scans of most people reveal stimulation in the auditory regions of the brain when they read. IIRC, this response is absent in people with certain forms of learning disorders. (I’d be curious to see results for the posters who report only hearing a voice when they read slowly!)
Saepiroth, I too sometimes see text when I hear someone speaking. It’s a little jarring, so I usually force myself out of it.