Well, given that the quote comes from a book written by the person who created the Myers Briggs, I'd think the actual quote has validity. That's not to say though, that what I said is true. Apparently, I've misinterpreted the quote. The idea of Sensing isn't from Isabel, or Katharine, though. It's from Jung. I understand you getting frustrated with the misinformation. I'd like to say that the word exhausting isn't a good measurement. However, from the quote, I just took from it that the act of reading, the "translation of symbols," is a simpler task for Intuitives.
Would you care to elaborate on the quote?
I could read fluently by age 4, and my SJ sister was reading fluently by age 3 and a half, so I don't think Sensing means you have trouble reading. Translation of symbols (as far as the mechanics of reading is concerned) never bothered anyone in my family, regardless of type preferences.
I can't believe Isabel Myers actually thought that. She MUST have meant something else by it. As it currently reads, it makes no sense. Even if I decided based on that alone that I must be an N (and then I'd have to believe that everyone in my family and all my friends ALSO prefer N), it's still crazy to assume that the hundreds of people who come into my library every day and check out fiction and tell us they enjoy it all prefer Intuition.
So I take it it had something to do with translating symbols
IN literature, although I know plenty of people who prefer Sensing who enjoy symbolism, as long as it's not too vague. I can't honestly say I "get" some of your more esoteric poetry --T.S. Eliot's
Four Quartets comes to mind-- (my NF mother loves those poems) so I don't read that for pleasure, but ther'es an awful lot of quality literature that isn't that hard to read and is enjoyable. I still think that many SPs and SJs enjoy reading classics as well as modern stuff, and poetry, and nonfiction. So I can happily read Jane Austen, Steinbeck, Hemingway, etc. for fun, whereas my INFJ mother would rather read either nonfiction related to spiritual living and/or novels with a lot of spiritual depth to them. She's partial to Russian literature -- Dostoyevsky especially.
The only noticable N-S difference I've noticed is that often the people who prefer Intuition that I know will tend to read fiction for depth and meaning so much that it's
as though it's nonfiction, and they tend to spend more time discussing the themes and symbolism and meaning than the plot and characters. For example, the main part of
The Brothers Karamazov that interests my INFJ mother is the Grand Inquisitor chapter. She actually doesn't care for much of the book -- that chapter is the reason the book interests her. My SJ sister and I have both read the book too, and can happily discuss plot, characters, their actions and motives, etc. for quite a while, while my mother would rather talk about themes of redemption, discourses on the nature of good and evil, etc.