meditation on meditation

How do you read?

Do you 'speak' the words in your mind, or do you simply 'see' the words?

I find, that when I read, I 'speak' the words in mind. I know that my mind understands the words without my consciousness having to cast it's full attention on them, as often a word will come to mind that I didn't read, but simply saw. But when my attention is directed toward 'reading,' my mind must repeat what I see, as if I to convince myself of seeing. This seems to reinforce my notion of the mind requiring proof, that it must convince itself of things learned in order to know them. The conscious mind doesn't seem to trust the unconscious.

But what I'm interested in here, is this:

in meditation, I often count my breaths. I notice that the counting, the repeating of words, the sequence of numbers, is linked to the breath itself. When I exhale, my inner 'speech' pauses, or hesitates, as if the lack of breath will somehow prevent the thinking of words. There is no need to pass air over my voice box in order to think, but speech is a product of breath and as such, I think perhaps my mind is simply used to the need for air for the production of sounds.
This generally interrupts my concentration as I find my thought becoming dependent on my breathing. Yes, I am counting my breaths, but the making of the 'sound' in my mind will link with inhaling, and will begin and only end with exhalation. If I attempt to stop the speech mid way in the inhalation, I will feel a physical response, as if my tongue were trying to form a sound, or my breath preparing for the next word.

This is just loose discussion, but I will in the future, attempt to explain what I'm getting at with more purpose.

(Oh, I got a new cable for my camera.) Here's a drawing from my sketchbook to elucidate this idea: