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From: slack@ittvax.ATC.ITT.UUCP (Tom Slack)
Newsgroups: net.books,net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: Rereading
Message-ID: <450@ittvax.ATC.ITT.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 31-Jul-85 12:29:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: ittvax.450
Posted: Wed Jul 31 12:29:47 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Aug-85 06:09:11 EDT
References: <120@aplvax.UUCP> <1502@utah-gr.UUCP> <348@ucdavis.UUCP>
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Xref: watmath net.books:2091 net.sf-lovers:9192

> > 
> > One day you'll happen to pull a book off the shelf and scan through it
> > for something and maybe you won't really be paying attention and the
> > pages are just flipping past but a word or a sentence will flash in
> > your eye and you'll stop and stare and exclaim, 'What!?  I don't
> > remember anything like that!' And then you'll be hooked on rereading...
> > 
> 
> Doesn't "scan" mean to read very closely or intently?  Should "skim"
> have been used here?  Sorry, old pet peeve...
> -- 
> 					--rick heli
> 					(... ucbvax!ucdavis!groucho!ccrrick)

No scan implies neither close attention nor inattention.
Rather it refers to the sequential nature of a method.
Thus to scan a horizon is to look intently at each thing
in particular on the horizon in sequence lest you miss something.
To scan a book implies that you are not
necessarily reading it but only sequentially perusing it.
A connotation is that you are looking for something.

Skimming a book by the way means that you are skipping things.
It has the connotation that you are picking
up enough information that you will either:
    a) Not need to read a book.
    b) Be able to read it with more comprehension when you do.
It could be used in the above entry instead of scan, but probably
should not because the person is looking for something, and
will stop if he finds it.

It is true however that another usage of the word scan is to look
intently on a small area:  He scanned her face for a glimmer
of intelligence, but found none.

Scanning a book in this way would imply that one is looking only
at one page or at the cover.  In view of the other definitions of
scan, this would be a poor word choice for that meaning.

Tom Slack

The above is my own uncollaborated opinion.