Reading is not a time-consuming process.
Oh yes it is. Stop/read/go stop/read/go...Definitely slows you down because you're constantly reorganizing at each step. When I start out I know the whole of everything I have to do--even when following a recipe. I also ignore a lot of steps because I find them unneccessary. I rarely measure. Just the time it takes to get out little spoons or measuring cups adds to your prep time, so I rarely do it unless needed for equivalency--you know, one cup water to one cup flour kind of thing. I was reading a Milk Street recipe the other day that called for a T butter as a finishing step. I laughed out loud when I read the instruction to cut that measly little tablespoon into quarters before adding them to the skillet.
Completely unneccessary. But I don't do a lot of things in parallel. I'm probably being very nitpicky about completing every step just exactly to my liking.
That definitely takes more time.